Batch Geoprocessing Issues

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04-26-2017 09:19 AM
RussellTess
New Contributor II

I've recently upgraded to ArcGIS 10.5 from 10.3.1 and am experiencing some issues associated with running geoprocessing tools as a batch. 

The first issue is that when I run the tools as a batch process they will no longer run in the background, even though background geoprocessing is enabled. I never had this issue in 10.3.

The second issue is that if I have an error with the batch processing, I normally fix the error/issue that was causing the error and reopen the batch processing input window from the results so I don't have to reconfigure the window. However when I open the window in 10.5 only the first row is completely filled out and the rest of the rows output feature class is greyed out, like in the attached image.

The last issue minor issue is that the batch process only outputs/adds into the map the first row/input of the batch process unlike in 10.3.1 when it adds all the outputs to the current map. 

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2 Replies
curtvprice
MVP Esteemed Contributor

Have you installed BG x64 processing in your update? Did you have it before?

The x64 GP does not support .mdb format. Maybe batch is being smart about the inputs and not letting you run in the background because of the .mdb inputs.

I don't know about the other issues you're running into. I have had issues with x64 bg processing not communicating layers back to ArcMap very well, but you said background processing isn't even working.

Batch is useful but it's kind of older (9x) functionality that can be replaced with model iteration, which allows you to batch name the outputs.  (This saves a lot of time if you have a lot of datasets to process!)  If you're not familiar with model iteration, it is worth looking into -- in some ways it is much more powerful than batch processing.

A quick tour of using iterators—Help | ArcGIS Desktop 

curtvprice
MVP Esteemed Contributor

Your "Issue #2" may be related to this bug in 10.4,

BUG-000096241: Running batch processing does not add all the featur.. 

which has been marked as "Not In Current Product Plan".  I would guess that the rationale is the best solution for users is to move to Model Builder‌ instead of batch for these workflows, or use the ArcMap built-in Python window to loop things. Recently I've been discovering how handy the Python window can be for things like this.

If you don't agree with their decision, file an incident with tech support - the squeaky wheel gets the grease!

Here's an example of using the python window to do the Copy Features batch operation in your screenshot:

import os
import arcpy
arcpy.env.workspace = "E:\\AGOOP\\Upload3.mdb"
outwk = "Database Connections\\plsaa435"
for fc in arcpy.ListFeatureClasses("*_AGP"):
    arcpy.CopyFeatures_management(fc, os.path.join(outwk, fc)‍‍‍‍‍‍)‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍