File GDB Raster Dataset vs. GRID in ArcHydro

[CamPatterson]

I'm a big fan of raster datasets in a File GDB, and have had no problems so far with them using the basic Arc10.x Hydrology tools. However, I have seen recommendations in tutorials, etc. for ArcHydro that GRIDs are a better raster format to use.

As I upgrade to ArcHydro and it's full geodatabase schema so that I can interface with advanced modeling tools in HEC-RAS & HEC_HMS, is there really any reason for me to go back to using GRIDs?

[DanielSiegel]

Cam,

Rasters in a geodatabase have the advantage of increased compression. However, raster processing is faster when working on GRID and TIFF. For this reason, the Arc Hydro Tools are designed to work with the latter, and switching back to GRID will decrease your processing time.