Unless I missed it, there's several Administration features in current ArcCatalog that are not available in Pro, specially the ones for geodatabases, e.g., Manage and Administer which is slightly different for each type of data objects.
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Thanks for the comments. If you have specific functions you'd like to see in future releases of ArcGIS Pro, please post your thoughts in the ArcGIS Pro product category on the ArcGIS Ideas site. You can also contact tech support or your local distributor, if outside the US, to log an enhancement request and see if there are any workflows available now to solve your issue.
There is also this general FAQ from the help system that mentions future releases: Frequently asked questions—ArcGIS Pro
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I can't see ArcGIS Pro replacing ArcCatalog ever so long as you need to save a project when first opening Pro. Who wants to do that just to run some GP tools and manage data??
The CURRENT info from ESRI appears to be that ArcGIS Pro WILL replace ArcMap/ArcCatalog and we should all start migrating. Am I correct in this understanding?
This is a big problem for many of us who heavily use features of ArcMap/ArcCatalog that Pro simply doesn't have, such as ArcCatalog-style data management and many others.
See this thread for more details:
https://community.esri.com/ideas/1216
Go to pages 3-5 in the thread for the recent conversations.
There's also a very good suggestion here:
Create an ArcGIS Pro feature "road map"
What information do you have for us on this?
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David-you do bring up a good question that I get in my ArcGIS Pro classes and Technical Workshops all the time. Is ArcMap/ArcCatalog going away? And is ArcGIS Pro the replacement for ArcMap? The short answer is no. ArcMap/ArcCatalog will be with us for quite some time to come. There will be an ArcMap 10.5. There will be an ArcMap 10.6 (or will it be 11.0?) The ArcGIS for Desktop deprecation schedule shows ArcMap 10.4.1 retired Feb 1, 2022. With ArcMap 10.5 and later, those dates will be added as the software is released.
Now with that said, Esri is investing/developing heavily into the ArcGIS Pro application. The next release of Pro 1.4 will bring near ArcMap equivalency to the Pro application. ArcMap is still in the development cycle for bug fixes, some updates, some new functionality. But Pro is where the development is focused.
ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap can run side by side on the same machine. To my knowledge, there is no plan for a Pro "ArcCatalog" as Pro is the fusion of ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcScene, ArcGlobe, and City Engine Runtime.
Esri understands that many of our customers cannot upgrade quickly to new technologies and value the ArcMap platform for many workflows. As such there are no plans to discontinue ArcMap anytime soon. ArcMap will be with us for years to come.
Keep in mind, I'm an Esri instructor and am not privy to the inner details of development or corporate decision making. This is based on my conversations with Esri Staff, some of whom are on the Pro Team.
Hope this helps clarify.Thank you Robert. I acknowledge that you're not on the development team and so won't be able to answer my comment below. But if you could simply relay the following:
I haven't seen anything like the easy data management functionality of ArcCatalog in ArcGIS Pro. And the last thing I want to do is create a whole Pro project folder when all I want to do is look at some data that someone just sent me in an e-mail. If the end-game really is the extinction of ArcMap 10-15 years from now, then Pro will have to have a replacement for ArcCatalog. I'd like for someone at ESRI to admit to that and put it on the development schedule.
Correct. I would not be able to comment on the 2nd paragraph but I do know Esri Pro Staff are actively watching Pro discussions on GeoNet so there's a possibility they could respond. If there is functionality missing in Pro such as the Catalog/ArcCatalog applications and its workflow in Pro, one suggestion is to add to the ArcGIS Ideas website for Pro. Again, the Pro developers are actively watching/addressing these ideas as well.
Done! Here's the Idea. It's already got a few UP-votes.
Add Stand Alone Data Catalog Like ArcCatalog to ArcGIS Pro
https://community.esri.com/ideas/12671-add-stand-alone-data-catalog-to-arcgis-pro-like-arccatalog
Renato Salvaleon, please check out my ArcCatalog suggestion above and give it an up-vote, if you like it.
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I voted this up and added the following comment....duplicated/reposting here for maybe more exposure....turned into a semi-editorial from me...
I spend most of my time in ArcCatalog developing tools that aren't tied to a project, user, or machine. My preferred end product are python add-ins toolbars/buttons, which to my knowledge are not, and will/can not be supported in Pro due to ribbon UI (although the toolbox can be accessed and used).
My use case is being able to manipulate/analysis/geoprocess data, including maps via arcpy.mapping. I know that toolboxes can still be accessed, and "tasks" are the new workflow model, but an easy interface with the ability to develop/manage data and maps programmatically is why I like and use ArcCatalog. I don't have to create a project for this, just open it up and develop, view and/or manage all my data and tools. I know ArcCatalog will be around for quite a while and so this development/management workflow will continue for my use.
On the up side for Pro, I know it does have some nice features, and running my tools written thru ArcCatalog run much faster, as long as I make them compatible with python 3.x, when necessary. Pro is solving many of the issues that many users have been asking for, for years (multi-layout, real 64-bit, etc), so that is a plus. Also, I know that trying to build some of these requests into the Desktop platform wasn't possible, practical, or cost effective -- and having them try would have caused more of an uproar from all of us, as new issues, time delays, and rising costs would most likely have happened. So, the approach of starting clean, from the ground up, and adding features in as it grows is probably a good approach, and less disruptive to those of us that are long time users of Desktop (as much as I and many others don't want to admit sometimes). It is after all still in the 1.x version (anyone else ever remember a 1.x version of any software being a completely polished product? MS Windows 1.x,). Sorry about the editorial, but I have hope for the product and ideas like this getting serious consideration and hopefully implementation.
So, for the near, and still semi-distant future, I will continue to rely more heavily on Desktop, while playing with Pro when I have time. With each release more functionality is coming out, so I'll hold judgement on 1.4+, but the "simplicity" of quickly opening a Catalog session, doing whatever, and closing down, at least so far, is not there. Also, our shop will be a mixed bag of users and what they use for a long time to come....so will always need to have the data review and management features of Catalog.
I would definitely give that idea thread a look as there is some great information being shared by @ Kory Kramer
about catalog and how it pertains to Pro.
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" To my knowledge, there is no plan for a Pro "ArcCatalog" as Pro is the fusion of ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcScene, ArcGlobe, and City Engine Runtime."
That's a head-scratcher. What's the business logic for not including a critical component of data management?
The workflow is that ArcGIS Pro's Project Pane will be used to manage one's geographic data. With that said, keep in mind that ArcGIS Pro is not a complete product yet. ArcGIS Pro 1.4 is scheduled to be released later this year and with that - the goal is ArcMap equivalency with regard to functionality. For long time GIS users, when ArcMap 8.0 was released, it did not have the equivalency of ArcView 3.x - it took time. It wasn't until 8.3 that I transitioned my company's workflows to ArcMap (wasn't working for Esri then).
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I manage many terabytes of data, two dozen SDE instances, 8 GIS servers, and the average time I get to spend on any one "project" is 7 minutes in support of a very large campus. Being limited to a "project view" snapshot of some of that data is not very productive. I just had a very interesting conversation with one my staff, whom I asked to try Pro out this week. I don't believe he knows Geonet exists...his feedback on the usability and functionality of Pro was like re-reading the numerous Geonet posts on the topic. 30,000 foot-view....my interpretation of Pro is that most of the core features in desktop will not be in Pro unless end users exhaust significant time in asking for them and "voting" on ideas. There is so much lacking in Pro right now that I'm kind of skeptical that anything released later this year (2 months left) will even come close to anything resembling Arc Map functionality.
Robert. Asking users to use ArcGIS Pro's project pane to manage all of their data is like asking Windows users to use MS Word's Browsing window to manage their files. A browse window is no replacement for a full-featured data management app like ArcCatalog. Just not going to happen.
Who's idea WAS this?!
that's funny
I see you contributed an ArcGIS Idea recently for a full-featured data management app for Pro - thx! By doing this, it does get viewed by the Pro Dev Team where software decisions are made...
Robert, how does ESRI evaluate the numbers of votes on our ideas? Is it just raw numbers or does ESRI do any user demographics on them?
My idea below is now up to 77 up-votes and 730 points, total. That's more than some and less than others, but definitely getting some support. However, it's still not yet "Under consideration". Clearly, ESRI is not considering this an issue. Why?
Please read the use-cases that people have been writing in the link below:
Add Stand Alone Data Catalog Like ArcCatalog to ArcGIS Pro
https://community.esri.com/ideas/12671-add-stand-alone-data-catalog-to-arcgis-pro-like-arccatalog
I'd be willing to bet that those votes represent a select and indispensable set of users: geospatial DBA's and those who do that job when there's no one with that title in their organization. Most GIS folks probably use ArcCatalog from time to time and what Pro offers them for this may be just fine for them. GDBA's, on the other hand use ArcCatalog intensively and may need a mapping app like ArcMap or Pro rarely, if ever. Yet, no one would deny the critical nature of the GDBA's work.
Now, GDBA's are a tiny fraction of the GIS user community; let's say 5%, at most. So, if they are the ones giving these up-votes, it's MUCH more significant that it has achieved a total of 730 points. If the GDBA population is only 1/20 of the total population, that means that the total significance of this vote could be as much as 20-times more than 730, perhaps the equivalent of 14,000 points. That would make it one of your most requested Ideas of all time and of critical importance to the geospatial DBA community.
By comparison, auto mechanics are only a small percentage of the tool-buying community. Yet, their services are critically important to the rest of us, and the tools they use, though used only by the mechanics and purchased in small numbers, are equally critical.
Like the tools used by auto mechanics, ArcCatalog, though used intensively by a small percentage of the GIS community, is critically important for the critical work that they do and to the entire GIS community which depends on the GDBA's.
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I would like to add my voice to those here. I really need the database management tools that ArcCatalog provides. I am trying to learn as much about ArcGIS Pro as I can so our organization can switch but am finding it lacking some of the key components necessary to do my work. I spend a lot of time in catalog managing our databases and database connections. I have 9 database servers and at least 4 databases in each server with some database servers having 12 databases. I am supposed to make at least 36 connections in Pro, sort through all of those all of the time and manage them in a tiny window? Not only that, so far I have not been able to find yet adequate tools to manage those databases in Pro. I need to be able to manage replicas. So far I have not found anywhere to do that. I really need the functionality from ArcCatalog in Pro if we are going to migrate completely over. I will vote up any reference to add this I can find. I am going to scour ideas to see if I can find any I can vote up. Thank you for listening.
Shawn
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Shawn, if you haven't found it already, here is the link to the ideas page. Add your comments to that page too
Thanks Rebecca. I visited that page and it has some wonderful comments.
Robert LeClair wrote:
To my knowledge, there is no plan for a Pro "ArcCatalog" as Pro is the fusion of ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcScene, ArcGlobe, and City Engine Runtime.
I realize that was not your decision to make Robert and that you likely had nothing to do with it at all, but in the 12 years I've been using Esri software, I don't think I even heard anyone, ever, ask for ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcScene, ArcGlobe and City Engine Runtime to be fused into a single product.
I can kind of see the logic behind merging Map, Scene and Globe, but Catalog doesn't make a bit of sense to me. All we ever wanted was a 64-bit ArcGIS Desktop.
It is what it is though. Pro isn't going away and 64-bit Desktop isn't coming, so we'll all just have to learn pro. It's no so bad, but it still has a ton of catching up to do.
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Correct. As I mentioned in an earlier response, I'm an Esri Desktop/Geodata instructor and do not work with the Dev/Marketing/Corporate teams so am not privy to any of those discussions on software development/platforms. From presentations at User Conference with members from the Pro Team, ArcGIS Pro is that fusion of 5 products. Before ArcGIS Pro was developed there was discussions and attempts to make ArcMap/ArcCatalog a 64-bit application but after a few months, the team determined it was not possible "upgrading" the code to be compatible on 64-bit hardware. Technically, ArcMap was first developed around 1997 and released in 1999. During the last 19 years, the way software is coded/developed has changed significantly. Thus ArcGIS Pro uses the current model for software development rather than using a 1997 model. ArcGIS Pro is not 100% complete - on that we can all agree. But the ArcGIS Pro Dev Team is working very hard for ArcMap equivalency that we hope to have at 1.4. ArcMap 8.0 was not a complete product when it first came out but it became an amazing Desktop GIS over time. What I see from ArcGIS Pro currently is amazing and will only improve. Hang in there and please contribute thoughts/ideas/workflows to the Pro Dev Team to help make ArcGIS Pro another amazing Desktop GIS.
Thank you, Robert. If these features that we need are coming, that's fine. I can be patient and wait.
I began using ESRI products in the mid '90's with ArcInfo 7 and ArcView 1.0. I've seen the old ArcView and ArcGIS develop from shells into functional GIS products. I would love to see Pro do that, too.
It's when we see statements like "there is no plan for a Pro ArcCatalog", implying an opposition within the ESRI Pro dev team to the idea, that we get concerned.
Is the Ideas site the best way to alert the ArcGIS Pro Dev Team to our needs or is there another place, too?
Certainly David. I'm one of two Desktop Technical Leads for Esri Training Services so it's my responsibility to answer GeoNet questions in my domain of expertise - Desktop and Geodata. ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap/ArcCatalog fit in those categories.
Like you, I started using Esri products in the early 90's - ArcInfo Workstation 5.0, ArcView 1.0, ArcGIS 8.0 and Atlas*GIS. Totally agree that when those products initially came out, they were not complete and were developed over time. Developing new software is a time/cost intensive process and reading reports from the Pro Dev Team, I can tell you that they're working incredibly hard to fix bugs, add new functionality, incorporate ArcMap functionality and develop new functionality that is not possible in ArcMap.
I suspect the Pro Pane (similar to the Catalog Window) is not complete yet either (just my opinion). I'll be curious to see what new functionality 1.4 brings. I did not mean to imply an opposition within the Pro Dev Team to new ideas - that's certainly not the case. I know the Pro Dev Team/Pro Product Managers actively monitors the Ideas page for Pro and contribute responses where they can. Yes, the Ideas page is a great way to contribute/alert the team your needs for a Desktop GIS application. Hope this helps.
Yeah, I get that the current ArcMap/Globe/Scene/Catalog products couldn't be upgraded to 64-bit - either technically impossible or so complicated that creation of a new product was likely easier and would deliver better results. So I do agree that the creation Pro of was necessary in order to bring about 64-bit Desktop GIS. I think the biggest challenge Pro faces and why it has disenfranchised so many users is because it radically changes every, single GIS workflow. Almost nothing remained the same.
Going from ArcGIS for Desktop 9.x to 10.0 for example, Esri made some pretty big changes; feature templates, python addins, catalog, python, search and toolbox windows, etc. Those were all pretty radical advancements at the time. I recall tons of users griping about the change to the editing workflows with the introduction of feature templates. Eventually though, everyone was able to wrap their head around those changes because the rest of the product and workflows pretty much remained the same. It was incremental progress.
Pro however, has flipped everything on its head. The two products might look somewhat similar but in terms of how you get things done, the workflows are so different that it's incredibly hard for seasoned GIS folks to wrap their heads around.
I think Esri would have done better to just start off with 'ArcMap Pro' and 'ArcCatalog Pro', then little by little worked in ArcGlobe and Scene functionality or continued with the paradigm of a suite of applications.
Alas, it is what it is. It's Pro or Bust for Esri and that's fine.
I suppose we'll either all get used to it or slowly start spending more of our GIS budgets with Boundless instead of Esri.Agree John - it is a monumental shift in technology and workflows. Kind of like Workstation to ArcView and ArcView to ArcMap. We're at the same shift point with ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro workflows. 3 major shifts in GIS Technology over 20+ years. And this is only for the Desktop world. I understand that users can be frustrated by this as it changes or breaks existing workflows that have been developed over years. The saving grace is that ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcScene, ArcGlobe and the extensions for those products are not going away anytime soon. So the impetus to have to change to Pro is not there - those applications will continue to be released for years to come.
Robert, it's funny how long these things DO last sometimes. An ESRI Tech Support tech told me in a phone call in about 2004 that ArcScene was being deprecated and I should move to ArcGlobe, and, yet,...ArcScene is still here.
Ha - I know! Even though ArcInfo Workstation "retired" at 10.2 I think, we still have users using it today. I think the Arc<Fill In the Blank> products will be with us for a while.
We have quite a few USGS people still Workstation and 3x. Some kludgy workarounds are required to run with current Windows technology, but amazingly, you still can go back and run ArcEdit and Avenue code!
...Even though ArcInfo Workstation "retired" at 10.2 I think, we still have users using it today. ...
You're not alone.
There was a GIS specialist job that was advertised here for a state agency recently and some of the core criteria were experience in managing spatial data/processing in ArcInfo Workstation and the ability to develop AML code. This agency is not even at ArcGIS-level yet, let alone Pro.
Is there anyway to avoid having to connect to data sources every time you open a new project? It's ludicrous to think I have to do this every time I open a "mapdoc" or Project.
It's important to note, that even with a project template, you cannot connect to the root of a drive letter, whether it's a network share, hard drive, or portable storage media. Not sure what the reasoning behind that restriction is.
@Robert
A Project Template will not only package whatever layers you have in your table of contents, but it will also package the data source as well (instead of just a layer that links to the source data).
For instance, I have a custom basemap that I created with the Business Analyst USA national data, that I use as my basemap. If I have that basemap included in my Project when I export the Project Template, it attempts to bundle my entire basemap dataset into the project template! Changing the different settings in the Project Template pane does not make any difference. It will always bundle whatever data you had loaded into the Project Template, instead of linking it (like it should)... This shouldnt be happening (is it a bug?). Ideally, the project template should only bundle the layer that links to the source data - not bundle the entire source dataset as part of the template!
Whereas in ArcMap, I can create a .mxd (as my template file) with the custom basemap already loaded, and can reuse that file over and over - the basemap data stays LINKED (obviously). Now, in Pro, you cant do this with Project Templates (which is really too bad and reduces the functionality we had in ArcMap). As a work around, I dont include my basemap in my Project Template, and instead have to manually load and configure my custom basemap every time I start a new project... Cumbersome to say the least.
Also there is a bug with the Project Template that causes your Project Folder connections to have wrong paths after saving out a Project Template and re-loading it into a new Project. You have to manually fix these every time you start a New Project using that Project Template.
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Tyler - the Project Template bug you mention is NIM101431. I haven't been able to find much about it to determine if it was resolved at Pro 1.4.
Thanks, I will watch for this fix in upcoming releases. I only downloaded Pro 1.4 a few days ago and havent played around with the Project Templates since 1.3
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NIM101431 is marked as fixed -- I think in Pro 1.1 or 1.2.
I know for certain that its fixed in 1.3 and 1.4.
If you're still seeing the issue, then either its a different issue, or we didn't fix the particular case/workflow you're experiencing.
If you give it another try, and it looks to be a problem still, could you either provide your steps here or submit a tech support request?
Thanks Kevin, is there a way I can see the bug report for NIM101431. I searched on ESRI support but it came up with nothing.
I would like to see the bug report, so I can understand if it pertains specifically to the Project Folder path issue, or the Project Template data packaging issue. This would be very helpful to see.
Our organization has a maintenance contract if that makes a difference. Thanks again.
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I know there is some public facing bug site, but I dont know where it is.
Here is some copy/pasted info from the bug:
NIM101431 - New projects created from a project template have an extra folder connection that was the original project's home folder that shouldn't be present.
The steps inside (that dont make much sense to me, I work in this area of the software, but I didnt log the issue) are as follows:
1. Create a new project from one of the system project templates, e.g. Global Scene
2. In the new project that is created, there are two folder connections:
- the new project's home folder
- "Global Scene": in the popup the location evaluates to "..\..\..\ProjectTemplateProjects\Global Scene"
According to this (horribly outdated) Esri blog, you're doing it right. I tried various searches of both Support and Geonet and couldn't find a comprehensive list of bugs and what their status is. It's like Esri has wiped them out and doesn't want them searchable. I find it amazing that the first thing Esri does is issue you a Nimbus bug ID, the second thing they do is make it all but impossible to track it online or discuss it.
/adjusts tinfoil fedora.
If you visit http://resources.arcgis.com/known-issues you can see what they're working on now, but it's just a subset, and although NIMs are in there, they are not immediately shown or searchable as they're inside folded elements, not in page text.
Amusingly, clicking on 'Previous Known Issues' results in
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /content/previous-known-issues/10.0 on this server.
ArcWS/4.0.20 Server at resources.arcgis.com Port 80
I also found this nice listing for 10SP4, but can't find any way to navigate out or up to other lists
http://gisupdates.esri.com/IssuesAddressedLists/ArcGIS10sp4-issues.htm#desktop-sp4
According to some other posters http://support.esri.com/en/bugs/nimbus/ used to track bugs but is now 404.
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That has been a source of frustration for me. I like my drives clean and to have to map to every folder I want to connect to has been a little cumbersome. I would like to connect to the base folder.
So now every Project I create copies all the connections to the folder... Makes a mess of the folder, why not have a centralized location and have the map reference that?
Yes. Like ArcCatalog. Have you voted this idea up, yet?
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I think Pro will get there in time.
ArcMap as a 32-bit piece of software simply wont be sustainable in the long term. Its obvious, as GIS continues to work with larger and larger datasets, that a 64-bit platform is long overdue, and will be essential in the future.
I like Pro, but its currently missing alot of functionality from ArcMap that is really needed to fully switch over (and is very buggy still). Is Pro ready as it stands today? No. Will it be in the next year or two? Perhaps. The official narrative from ESRI is that its not a replacement for ArcMap, and nor should it be in its current form. But I think that the writing is on the wall, and to think that ArcMap will continue in perpetuity as a 32-bit application, I really cant see that happening. Its clear to me that Pro will be the successor to ArcMap, but wont (and shouldnt) fully take over the reins until ESRI can get all the functionality of ArcMap (and Catalog) built into Pro. That will clearly take some time and patience for those of us ready to make the switch to Pro right now, but until then, ESRI will support both, and we will have to use both. I think its important as GIS users, to not get too 'married' to one version of software, and to be open to change with the caveat being that newer version of software must carry over functionality from prior software and not overly burden the user.
It will take some time, but Im confident by the time ArcMap has seen its last days, that Pro will be everything we need and more. Lets hope so at least
David - I will have to defer to Timothy Hales (timothy_hales@esri.com) as he is the GeoNet administrator and has better knowledge about how Ideas submitted are labeled "Under Consideration" and other values. I'd recommend reaching out to him to see how priorities are placed.
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As I understand it, the management aspect of the Project pane is much curtailed (inability to delete something, for example). I understood this as stemming from a different style application where nearly everything is a tool. So you run a tool to delete something (or to get basic stats on a field-grrr). I agree, it is more of a pain and I miss the old functionality, but it IS consistent with the new philosophy. As I work with Pro, I am developing a new mind set and new workflows, and am reluctantly beginning to see some of the advantages.
For example, I can't count the number of times my students modified a data set coordinate system in ArcCatalog, thinking that they were changing its projection, when in fact they were sabotaging the data. (And I guarantee they had been warned at least 3 times not to.) With this function simply unavailable in the Project pane, the problem goes away, (and I simply have to continue my ever-vigilant campaign to help people understand the difference between the Project and Define Projection tools). Explaining that two tools are different is a bit easier than explaining why it is OK to change the coordinate system in the data frame properties in ArcMap but not OK to change the data set properties in ArcCatalog (using a window that looks identical in both cases).
So sometimes you just have to think differently about what you want to do. For data management, for example, you might create a project named "ManageData" with all your folder links, for those times when you want to pop in and manage some things, instead of having to create a new project each time.
Maribeth Price wrote:
As I work with Pro, I am developing a new mind set and new workflows, and am reluctantly beginning to see some of the advantages.
Yup, that's what happens.
Thanks Maribeth.
If you're dealing with novice students and you want to restrict their ability to do certain activities, then putting them into a straight-jacket or confined environment that obstructs their ability to do certain things might be useful. Like training wheels.
However, when you're talking about experienced, professional Geospatial DBA's and power-user GIS specialists whose primary job is managing and manipulating data as efficiently and quickly as possible, then that straight-jacket slows down the work process and costs money through reduced productivity. That's the capability that hasn't been revealed in Pro, as of yet.
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Jake Skinner and Robert LeClair
I just came across this thread, and noticed that the original question regarding ArcCatalog's future status with ArcGIS Pro has still not been answered, and I have the same question in February, 2017, as I see many other have had. When the first answers were posted in 2015, it was assumed that Pro would simply run alongside Desktop. Now that Esri has announced the total retirement of Desktop 10.5 in December, 2022 (and older versions earlier than that), with, I am assuming, no subsequent version, this would certainly seem to change things - as I now understand it, there will be no more Desktop after 12/1/22 (Esri Support 10.5 ). I would just like to follow up on the concerns of other above. I am trying to learn Pro right now, and I understand the differences and the need for many of them, but I still am unclear of what to do if I simply want to examine data, like I can in ArcCatalog, or open it up and explore it in Desktop without having to create a new project. Apparently, from what I've read above, there is no way to do that. And if ArcCatalog is going to disappear along with Desktop, I am also very concerned. I'm currently working through the "Getting to Know ArcGIS Pro" book's exercises, but everything seems to be project-based, rather than data-based. I'm very uncertain on things that seem basic in Desktop and Catalog, like examining data, copy-pasting a feature class from gdb to gdb, opening, editing, and saving data WITHOUT setting up a project to do it, and so on. The design of Pro doesn't seem to make it easier to manage large amounts of GIS data.
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Good morning John - I wanted to address your concerns about Desktop being retired in 2022. To clarify, ArcGIS Desktop is the overall category name for ArcMap, ArcGIS Pro, ArcCatalog, ArcScene, ArcGlobe, extensions, etc. so Desktop is not being retired. I believe you meant ArcMap in this case. You are correct that ArcMap 10.5 is fully retired December 2022. With that being said, there will be an ArcMap 10.6, 11, 11.1, etc. so the actual ArcMap product will not be retired for many, many years to come. Customers may continue to use current and future releases of ArcMap if they wish. But with that being said, product development, new functionality, etc. is being invested in ArcGIS Pro. Future ArcMap releases will have some new functionality but will be focused on product stability and bug fixes. The plan is for ArcGIS Pro 2.0 to be at functional equivalency as ArcMap with a release timeframe of Q2 2017.
To address the ArcCatalog question, the current release of ArcGIS Pro does require a user to create a project to manage, analyze, etc GIS data. Although not ideal, one can create a data management project only to manage GIS data and used that repeatedly to manage one's data. I do not know if future releases of Pro will improve upon the data management question you ask - this is more applicable to the Pro Dev Team. I hope this answers some of your concerns. Feel free to continue asking additional questions.
Robert, thank you for the helpful reply. You are correct - I should have stated "ArcMap" instead of "Desktop." Given what you stated above, do you think it would it be reasonable to assume that ArcCatalog will also continue on in the same way? It would certainly be nice to have better data management capabilities in Pro, but I can more easily understand a lack of it if ArcCatalog continues on in the same way as you indicate that ArcMap will.
By the way, this level of concern started for me with someone in our GIS community passing along a link from a 3rd party that went out on a limb and predicted that 10.5 would be the end of ArcMap: Migrating from ArcGIS Desktop to ArcGIS Pro – Don’t Wait Too Long |
Again, thanks for clarifying things.
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John - yes it is reasonable to assume ArcCatalog will be side by side with ArcMap following a similar life process - no major updates, just a update for stability/bug fixes. So I would think one could use ArcCatalog for data management only and do one's analysis in ArcGIS Pro. I know folks on the Pro Team are watching this thread but do not know what the thought process will be for a data management application within Pro that doesn't require creation of a project.
Interesting link - thx. I can see where concerns would be raised based upon this information. Fortunately for customers, it's not correct.
- 2 people found this helpful
Thanks Robert.
It's still mystifying that the ArcGIS Pro team projects to have Pro at "functional equivalency" with ArcMap in Q2 2017 when major issues like this are still present, and the Idea for this on GeoNet is still not yet under consideration.
Here it is: Add Stand Alone Data Catalog Like ArcCatalog to ArcGIS Pro
This idea is now up to 1170 points in the voting, and rising steadily, which puts it in the top 140 most popular ideas out of 11,934 currently on GeoNet. This idea has recently risen to "Reviewed" status. Most of the ideas from this point and upward on the list are either Implemented or Under Consideration.
I understand John. As a Pro/ArcMap Instructor, I do receive many questions from customers about the future of ArcMap vs. ArcGIS Pro. The ArcCatalog question does arise on a frequent basis. I know the Pro Team is actively watching and reviewing ArcGIS Ideas so voting on this idea is a good idea to move it up in importance. Being reviewed is a good sign certainly.
Robert LeClair can you please explain what you mean by "functional equivalency"?
The plan is for ArcGIS Pro 2.0 to be at functional equivalency as ArcMap with a release timeframe of Q2 2017.
I have read elsewhere that geometric networks (or rather Utility networks) won't even make an appearance until ArcGIS Pro 2.1. This would be my #1 requirement for using ArcGIS Pro on a regular basis.
Cheers,
Mike.
Mike - sure. Functional equivalency means that ArcGIS Pro will do the same things as ArcMap currently does - it's not there yet but getting closer with each release. The Pro Dev team is working hard to satisfy customer requirements for using ArcGIS Pro. From my research about geometric networks/utility networks, is appears Pro 2.1 is the goal. As you may know, ArcGIS Pro is on a rapid release cycle meaning there are 2-3 releases a year of Pro with more functionality. I would suspect Pro 2.1 would be fall 2017 but have seen no firm release date.
I really hope with this quick release cycle you know how much pain it causes when existing things are changed. I have already had a raft of internal support incidents where people were using a tutorial built for 1.4 on 1.3 and they got totally lost. Please cut us some slack and use this power for good!
I understand what you're saying Curtis. As an Esri Instructor, I don't have much say in how product development cycles run - we too have a flurry of workflow updates for training materials once a new ArcGIS Pro release is available. If I had to guess, the 2.0/2.1 releases will be major releases and then from there maturity of software, etc. Let me know if you have any questions.
As an instructor I bet this is a huge problem for you as well! When the product team asks you around the virtual water cooler, you can say it came from a customer (me) to give it more weight, haha.
Yes, as Pro matures this problem won't be as bad. Looking forward to the coming performance improvements of hardware (and the software)... so far I can only really use the thing on a just-off-the-rack machine.
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Here's my wishlist for ArcPro. Thanks
- Allow user to open as many ArcPro instances as they want. Constraining it to a single instance won't work. We often have several ArcMap projects open for days-weeks waiting for more information. It would be nice to open and project and finish it but that's not how it works.
- Add ArcCatalog like features
- Add registry keys to where you last got data so you don't have to start off at My Computer again.
- Give us back context menus for things like adding grids to a layout view. Even ESRI instructors struggle to find such tools.
- Allow for adding your own data even if you don't have a local or global map added.
- Please don't try not to manage or institutionalize workflows.
- A standard tool bar that is always up where we can add tools to and has some standard buttons like zoom.
- GIS users store their data nearby so that they can actually process data quickly and efficiently. If a lot of energy is going into making ArcPro server based, that may be the most advantageous route for CIOs but not the best pathway for GIS analysts. We have to remember that IT for CIO\administrators is Word, Excel and email not high-end software packages like Arc.
- 5 people found this helpful
Hi Steve,
I was perusing some of our ArcGIS Pro threads when I ran across your post. Thanks for taking the time to mention your "wish-list"! Like Robert, I'm an Esri instructor and, as such, am generally not privvy to the when/why of decisions made on the development teams. That said, I wanted to address a potential solution to one of your suggestions:
Quote "A standard tool bar that is always up where we can add tools to and has some standard buttons like zoom".
Have you considered customizing the quick-access toolbar to create your own standard toolbar? In ArcGIS Pro you can right-click most any UI element and choose the option to "Add to Quick-Access Toolbar". This allows you to add tools for pan/zoom/identify (just add the Explore tool to the toolbar), etc. in a location that is accessible regardless of the tab in which you're working. See these screenshots for an example.
Image 1. Location of Quick-access toolbar
Image 2. Right-click Explore tool > Add to Quick Access Toolbar
Image 3. Quick-access toolbar now contains Explore tool
Here's a screenshot of the toolbar w/ the add basemap, add data, select by rectangle, Geoprocessing pane (toolbox + GP tool search in one), modelbuilder, convert from 2D to 3D, and share project package functionality added just as an example of a more robust toolbar.
Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Mike
Thanks Mike A dev at the ESRI conference showed me the Quick Access
toolbar at the top. Cool! ArcPro is ready for prime time. I am now
recommending ArcPro to be installed on my users workstations.
I do wish it was a little bigger! old eyes!
You can make it bigger any time you like (Windows 10, but works the same in Windows 7. Even XP had this feature, kind of)
Only scalable applications can use this many legacy ones don't but I assume that Pro can do it.
Steve:
How has your transition from ArcMap to Pro gone?
Are you an SDE database shop? It seems like the more complex GIS shop you have, the more difficult the transition is as Pro does not yet have ArcMap equivalency especially when it comes to SDE database management.
Michael,
That seems to be what I am seeing. We are fully SQL for all DB’s and SDE. The little work I have tried with our server connections in AGP has been very limited and what I have done has been much more difficult to navigate compared to working in AC. It may very well be the learning curve to move from a full AC app to the AC Pane in AGP but will take some getting used to. Our users do not like that area of AGP. Overall, AGP seems to be on the right track, but there is the learning curve and issues of things no longer available in AGP that were in AM or they are there partially or they are there but the work flow requires more steps?? We are also experiencing extreme slow response when in AGP and connecting to or working with our SQL connections, compared to AM for example. As and FYI, we are a Microsoft 7 Enterprise shop, 64bit, Arc 10.5.1/10.6 and AGP 2.2 running on Dell Workstations that have been upgraded to meet the GIS demands of the data we work with.
Blessings,
George A. Brown II, GISP
GIS Manager
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office
17RMP3734154988 USNG
904.630.2932 P
904.239.1395 C
904.630.4709 F
Hours: M-F 0600-1430 EST
George.Brown@jaxsheriff.org<mailto:George.Brown@jaxsheriff.org>
**IMPORTANT MESSAGE / CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE / FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY**
This message, including any attachments, is intended for the use of the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential information and/or otherwise privileged or restricted material. Any dissemination, distribution or copying of this information is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. If you received this communication in error, please alert the sender and delete the information.
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George:
Thanks for the response. I am curious to see if you are using Attribute Assistant (AA) to update SDE feature classes in ArcMap. If so, do you see this being a problem for your migration to ArcPro as there is important functionality still not available in Attribute Rules (Pro's equivalent tool to ArcMap's AA)?
Michael,
We are not using AA.
Blessings,
George A. Brown II, GISP
GIS Manager
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office
17RMP3734154988 USNG
904.630.2932 P
904.239.1395 C
904.630.4709 F
Hours: M-F 0600-1430 EST
George.Brown@jaxsheriff.org<mailto:George.Brown@jaxsheriff.org>
**IMPORTANT MESSAGE / CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE / FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY**
This message, including any attachments, is intended for the use of the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential information and/or otherwise privileged or restricted material. Any dissemination, distribution or copying of this information is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. If you received this communication in error, please alert the sender and delete the information.
Unless otherwise noted, the material contained in this document is considered active criminal intelligence and as such, is exempt from disclosure via the Florida Public Records Law (F.S.S. 119.07)
The limitations of AR compared to AA is definitely a big issue at my org as that is part of our planned architecture moving forward to update very important enterprise SDE feature classes.
Since this is not an issue at all for your org, what would you say are the biggest issues to moving to Pro?
Would you consider the performance issue of SQL Server SDE in Pro a showstopper at this time?
Right now our biggest issue the learning curve of “where is everything” from our users. They will try it, not like it, and not use it. Icon styles were an issues so we downloaded some new styles from ESRI and that helped. A/C not being there is one of my two biggest complaints. The other is in using the Find tool in AM had a great work flow I used all day, every day after finding the address and then the right click option to add a point and then add a text box to that location. Not an option in AGP from what we are being told (see below from ESRI UC AGP Team this week). Right now, and we are just starting to work with importing our large MXD files into a new blank AGP Project, we are finding this extremely time consuming on the import and the projects are VERY slow to open if they have SDE connections.
Here is the work flow for example in AM:
Right click to add a call out text box, for example. Here are the steps in AM also and snap of what we are looking for in AGP:
Take any AM .mxd
Use the Find Tool to search an address using our own Address Locator, for example our ROADS locator
From Find Window, select the Locations Tab, choose our ROADS locator, plug in the address in the Full Address line, hit Find. Our address appears
From there you right click on the address in the Match_Addr and you have all the options on what to do. Where are these option in AGP??
From ESRI UC Pro Team in response to the above:
“it’s not there. The reason is that the end result is graphic text (mostly) and graphics are not supported in Map Views in AGP. They’ve heard from many customers that they want graphics support so they are strongly leaning in that direction to implement – perhaps 2.3 (scheduled for end of the year)”
Blessings,
George A. Brown II, GISP
GIS Manager
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office
17RMP3734154988 USNG
904.630.2932 P
904.239.1395 C
904.630.4709 F
Hours: M-F 0600-1430 EST
George.Brown@jaxsheriff.org<mailto:George.Brown@jaxsheriff.org>
**IMPORTANT MESSAGE / CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE / FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY**
This message, including any attachments, is intended for the use of the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential information and/or otherwise privileged or restricted material. Any dissemination, distribution or copying of this information is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. If you received this communication in error, please alert the sender and delete the information.
Unless otherwise noted, the material contained in this document is considered active criminal intelligence and as such, is exempt from disclosure via the Florida Public Records Law (F.S.S. 119.07)
Attachments
For your big issue with Pro not supporting graphics in the mapview have you voted up the following idea:
Graphics and free text in ArcGIS-Pro maps!
Voting is how Thomas Colson was able to get ESRI to say you will never be able to publish services directly to ArcGIS Server from Pro to now it being implemented in Pro by mid-2019. Voting on ideas is power. This idea is up to a score of 1480 on 7/12/2018, but it needs to go much higher than that for ESRI to move the idea from Under Consideration to In Product Plan.
Thanks for the vote link. Guess I missed that one. Voted up now and as several mentioned, Map Notes is not the answer.
Blessings,
George A. Brown II, GISP
GIS Manager
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office
17RMP3734154988 USNG
904.630.2932 P
904.239.1395 C
904.630.4709 F
Hours: M-F 0600-1430 EST
George.Brown@jaxsheriff.org<mailto:George.Brown@jaxsheriff.org>
**IMPORTANT MESSAGE / CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE / FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY**
This message, including any attachments, is intended for the use of the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential information and/or otherwise privileged or restricted material. Any dissemination, distribution or copying of this information is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. If you received this communication in error, please alert the sender and delete the information.
Unless otherwise noted, the material contained in this document is considered active criminal intelligence and as such, is exempt from disclosure via the Florida Public Records Law (F.S.S. 119.07)
- 1 person found this helpful
Right now our biggest issue the learning curve of “where is everything” from our users.
There are resources on the Esri Academy (formerly "training" formerly "online campus"):
https://www.esri.com/training/catalog/5b296eb4e620ca23e65420dc/migrate-to-arcgis-pro/and, a useful book was recently released: Switching to ArcGIS Pro
- 2 people found this helpful
Thanks for sharing those resources, Curtis. As ArcGIS Pro is a new piece of software, there is a learning curve. In addition to what you've shared, here is a list of resources that I've compiled (I've shared this before in various places around GeoNet. Hope this is helpful to those interested in ArcGIS Pro.
Overview of ArcGIS Pro Licensing
Named User licensing in ArcGIS Online
ArcGIS Pro Named User licensing
Terminology Guide
http://www.esri.com/library/brochures/pdfs/arcgis-pro-terminology-guide.pdf
Training: Tutorials and Exercises
Learn.arcgis.com Lesson Gallery (filter by Product = ArcGIS Pro)
Migrating from ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro
ArcGIS Pro: Essential Workflows
Going Pro: ArcGIS Pro Essentials for ArcMap Users
ArcGIS Pro: Editing Essentials
ArcGIS Pro: Analysis and Geoprocessing Essentials
Beyond the Quick Start Tutorials:
Authoring and sharing maps: Author and share a map, Author and share a local scene
Map layouts: Work with a table frame, Work with a grid
Python: Create a map book with Python
Geocoding series beginning with: Find addresses
Network Analyst series beginning with: Create routes
Data Reviewer series beginning with: Store validation results in your project
Help
Import a style into the project
Analyze custom geoprocessing tools for ArcGIS Pro
Python migration from 10.x to ArcGIS Pro
Migrating from arcpy.mapping to ArcGIS Pro
Migrating arcpy.na to ArcGIS Pro
ModelBuilder: migration to ArcGIS Pro
Migrate locators to ArcGIS Pro
Migrate raster catalogs to geodatabase mosaic datasets
Migration from ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro for data validation
Tools that are not available in ArcGIS Pro
Videos
Going Pro: ArcGIS Pro Essentials for ArcMap Users
Blogs
ArcGIS Pro Tips: Why Undo is Underrated
ArcGIS Pro Tips: Get Your Maps in Sync
ArcGIS Pro Tips: Scroll Around The World
ArcGIS Pro Tips: Shortcut Savvy Navigation
ArcGIS Pro Tips: Scale-Based Symbol Sizing
ArcGIS Pro Tips: Thinking About Linking – 2D and 3D Views
ArcGIS Pro Tips: 5 Tips For Fixing Broken Data Links
ArcGIS Pro Tips: Save Time With Bookmarks
ArcGIS Pro Tips: Group Templates, Galleries, & Grids Make Editing a Snap
ArcGIS Pro Tips: This Might Just Be Your Favorite Tip Ever
ArcGIS Pro Tips: Customize Without a Line of Code
ArcGIS Pro SDK Development Series, Part 1: Getting Started
ArcGIS Pro SDK Development Series, Part 2: Learning the Pro SDK
BOOKS
GIS Tutorial 1 for ArcGIS Pro: A Platform Workbook
Hey Kory, nice meeting you at the UC! Is this posted as a doc somewhere? I'm having trouble finding it so I can refer to it later. The training folks have posted a few similar docs too. There sure is a lot of stuff out there, which is good!
ArcGIS Pro Training Guide May 2018
I just posted it as a document ArcGIS Pro Learning Resources
Thanks for sharing that training guide - I didn't know about that!
- 2 people found this helpful
Pro really needs the SDE management tools added back. Without them, there is no way for me to switch to Pro since the majority of job is managing SDE. In addition, it would be nice if you could drag and drop from the project pane into GP tools like you can in catalog already. They have an opportunity to make a "Database Management" project template that is more focus on managing data than using it. There are many database level information they could provide a tables or reports. So me all feature class/dataset privileges that user X has. How many edits were preformed today? GDBT toolset state tree is useful at times. A report of each feature class and when it was analyzed last. And so on. Much of this can be gotten from SQL but having it in the same place as my SDE management software would save alot of time.
- 2 people found this helpful
I have been working with one of the ESRI Instructors on several AGP issues and had them check in with the Pro Team at UC this week regarding some of the problems we had with Pro. Here is and update from the AGP team regarding Arc Catalog:
"there is no plan for an AGP equivalent for AC but in 2.3 they are implementing the start of AGP in “Untitled” mode meaning you don’t have to create a *.aprx initially just to start using AGP. So theoretically one could start AGP in Untitled mode, use the Catalog Pane to manage data, and close AGP without saving."
Hi Renato,
The following link may be helpful:
ArcGIS Pro Common Questions
ArcGIS Pro will not be a replacement for ArcGIS for Desktop: