Feature Class to Feature Class in Python Script Extremely Slow

[RobertBrennan]

Since ArcGIS 10 won�??t let me run the �??cov2sde -o append�?? command on a 64-bit box, I thought an acceptable workaround would be 1. �??Feature Class to Feature Class�?? and then, 2. �??Append�??

So I wrote simple Python script to loop through 254 coverages. But whereas the �??cov2sde �??o append�?? command completely processed all polygons and arcs �?? 508 iterations - in approximately 45 �?? 50 minutes, the �??Feature Class to Feature Class�?? portion of my Python script took 14.5 hours! (I haven�??t even tried �??Append�?? yet.)

Has anyone else experienced these unacceptably slow processing times? Is the culprit ArcGIS 10 and/or the service packs? (For better or worse I have SP2 on the 64-bit box.)

Possibly related info:
In July 2010, responding to a user about slow execution of the �??CopyFeatures�?? tool in a Python script, ESRI stated, �??it's very difficult to say why your Python script takes so long.�?� On August 11, 2011, the user stated, �??This appears to be fixed for me at SP2.�?�(�??Feature Class to Feature Class�?? was mentioned as a workaround, but I don�??t believe the user saw any improvement.) �?�
http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/9344-CopyFeatures-tool-runs-10-times-slower-in-a-Python-script-than...

On July 12, 2011, a user reported a bug in ArcGIS 10 SP2 [Exporting a Feature class associated with a network dataset to a shapefile using FC2FC extremely slow] �?�
http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/31510-Feature-Class-to-Feature-Class-tool-extremely-slow-Arc10-SP2

And, most recently, �??Feature Class to Feature Class�?? with a joined field is just plain slow in ArcGIS 10 regardless if the box has a service pack or not �?�
http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/37542-Fc-to-FC-with-joined-field-slow

Thanks for any input,

RDB

[JacobCoble]

I had a somewhat similar problem. I have Python scripts that make this huge feature class of parcels (the parcel feature class has almost 100 fields in its table, if you can believe it). One of the final things my Python script was supposed to do was export this huge parcel feature class as a shapefile. I could manually export it in a few minutes using a geoprocessing tool. I could export it in a few minutes running a model. However, when I tried to export the parcels as a shapefile in the Python script, it just hung up and never exported. I accounted for things like indexes, but Python just choked (no pun intended).

What I had to do was make a VB.NET/ArcObjects console application that would take the feature class and export it as a shapefile. The console application .exe file runs as a "script" and all it does is make the shapefile. This application is based on the "CopyFeatures" example from the ArcGIS developer kit. So there are things in Python that run slowly if at all but will run well as ArcObjects C# or VB.NET.