arcpy is using 32bit Python installation, how about 64bit

[BKuiper]

Hi,

I understand that arcpy is using the 32bit version of Python in 10.1 (Prerelease).

=== Python 2.7 (r27:82525, Jul  4 2010, 09:01:59) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win32.

I have installed ArcGIS Desktop (Prerelease), ArcGIS ArcObjects for .NET (Prerelease) and ArcGIS Runtime (BETA 2 - prelease is not yet available).

Is there any plans to support 64bit Python ? Or is this not possible because arcpy is using ArcObjects for it's functions ? (is it?)

Thanks

[JasonScheirer]

The ArcGIS desktop executables are 32 bit, so they can only consume 32 bit DLLs, Python included. Server 10.1 uses 64 bit Python, but desktop does not.

[JeffBurton]

The ArcGIS desktop executables are 32 bit, so they can only consume 32 bit DLLs, Python included. Server 10.1 uses 64 bit Python, but desktop does not.

Regarding Server 10.1:
I've set up the pre-release for testing on Scientific Linux 6.2.
In trying to set up a virtualenv for python as I'm accustomed to, so far it seems that to use arcpy, I have to use the 'python' script included with server that uses python 2.7 win32 with WINE.

What am I missing?

[JasonScheirer]

You're not missing anything, that's what you get in Linux. The Python entry point to the system is a tweaked Python interpreter using libwine, not the system's /usr/bin/python.

[curtvprice]

You're not missing anything, that's what you get in Linux. The Python entry point to the system is a tweaked Python interpreter using libwine, not the system's /usr/bin/python.

Jason - I realize we need arcpy in win32 so arcpy and ArcMap can communicate. However, can some memory-intensive geoprocessing tools (say, Region Group or Raster To Polygon) take advantage of the 64 bit memory space once launched by arcpy?

[JasonScheirer]

If you run the tool out of process, you can use editbin to enable /LARGEADDRESSAWARE on python.exe so that a script running on the 32 bit python.exe will still get some memory space expansion benefit.

Server on 10.1 is 64 bit, along with its own 64 bit Python install, so that's also an option across the board on Windows and Linux.

There may be other means for running GP tools from desktop in a full 64 bit execution environment not too much later down the road, though I suggest going the server route for the time being.