What are my options when handling large images / rasters?

[AnthonyCheesman1]

Hi

I have a number of ArcGIS users that I support. Recently we've updated to 10.2.2, and for whatever reason, this has started to trigger some errors / crashes for our users, when they are viewing large images and complex feature classes concurrently.

We're trying to work our way through the issues, but that is another story altogether. I have a suspicion that it relates to memory usage, as it only seems to be 32 bit machines that we are having issues with - 64 bit users don't seem to be experiencing the same issues.

One of the common themes with the crashes is that the users are viewing a local copy of some of our aerial imagery (35cm pixel, 320 gig file) and I suspect that the continuous rendering of the image as they pan and zoom is causing some of the memory issues.

I am wondering what my options are with the imagery - eg tiling it down to a smaller size, raster catalog etc. Unfortunately I am not familiar with raster / image management processes, so I could bumble my way through it (badly) but some advice from smarter people would be appreciated.

We do also have the imagery available as a WMS / ECWP service, but we have very poor network speed and connectivity at many of our sites, which makes this option unreliable and difficult to use - hence users using local copies of the imagery instead.

Thank you in advance.

[XanderBakker]

I what format are you storing the local copy of the imagery now? When you say local copy, do you mean on a file server or on their local drives?

[AnthonyCheesman1]

Hi Xander, the image is stored on the user's local machine. It is an ECW / ERS format. I do have access to ERDAS Image / ER Mapper to tile the data if necessary.

I suppose what I would like is a 'continuous' image that users can load - ie if we go down the tiled path, having a seamless join between tiles, and that the users don't need to go searching for the correct tile for their area of interest.

[XanderBakker]

Maybe a mosaic dataset would be an option: ArcGIS Help (10.2, 10.2.1, and 10.2.2)

[DanPatterson_Retired]

In addition to Xander's comments, I get the impression that the hardward worked fine with the files that you were using which suggests that the upgrade to 10.2.2 may lie in the way arcmap was configured.  I don't have arcmap on this iThingy, but if memory serves, there is an executable that can be used to configure arcmap from its default values.  Was this tweaking done previously? and if so, perhaps it hasn't been done since the arcmap upgrade

[AnthonyCheesman1]

Hi Dan, I wasn't involved in the software upgrade (the software is packaged for our corporate user environment) so I can't explicitly say if this has occurred. However, as part of the install process, settings such as folder connections, licence server etc etc are carried over, so I am assuming that any non-default settings from the previous 10.1 install will be carried over as part of that.

Having said all of that, the random crashing issue is under investigation currently and may or may not be resolved. Unfortunately this is outside of my sphere of influence. I am more interested in seeing whether I have any 'workaround' options that may reduce load on the system / software and alleviate issues in the meantime.

[JayantaPoddar]

Hi Antony,

Apart from creation of mosaic dataset as mentioned by Xander, I would suggest you to turn off/disable background processing from geo-processing options.

Thanks,

Jay