Esri International User Conference | San Diego, CA

Demo Theater |

Tips and Tricks for Troubleshooting ArcGIS Desktop 10Todd Stuber, Chris Fox

July 12, 2011

Some common customer issues

• Working with large data sets

• Joining data

• Selecting features using attribute queries

• Distributing and sharing maps and data

• Making attribute field calculations

Troubleshooting: Working with large data sets

• Two types of large data sets:- Large number of features

- Large number of vertices per feature

• Symptoms:- Slow drawing

- Slow editing

- GP tools fail or take excessively long to complete- Out of memory errors

Troubleshooting: Working with large data sets

• How to determine how many features you have:- Go to last record in Table View

- Get Count GP Tool

• Enhancements at 10 to deal with extremely large number of features:- Spatial Join

- Select By Location

- Base Maps

Troubleshooting: Working with large data sets

• Large number of vertices are often more impactful on performance.

• Avoid reading or creating extremely large single features.- E.g. Dissolve All

- Size of single features DT can handle is based on available memory

• New tools at 10 to deal with large number of vertices:- Dice tool

- Blog Post: Dicing Godzillas

(features with too many vertices)

- Generalize tool

Troubleshooting: Joining data

• One of the most common customer issues is “Help my join didn’t work!”

• At 9.3.1 and earlier, Troubleshooting was dependant on user’s knowledge of data types.

• ArcGIS 10 introduces a new Troubleshooting tool -Join Validation.

Join Validation

Help Topic: Essentials of joining tables

Troubleshooting: Attribute queries

• Use the SQL reference help topic

• Useful functions:- “IN” comparison operator:

"STATE_NAME" IN ('Alabama', 'Alaska', 'California', 'Florida')

- Sub Queries: "GDP2006" > (SELECT MAX("GDP2005") FROM countries)

- Date Queries with Joins

• Demo

Troubleshooting: Attribute queries

• Finding (and deleting) duplicate records- At 9x, required a complex

query

- New GP tools at 10

- Can find duplicate attributes or shapes

• Demo

Troubleshooting: Distributing Maps and Data

• Map Packages (.mpk) new at 10

• Solutions to 9x workflows:- Sharing data and maps

- Clip and ship

- Putting data onto CDs, DVDs

Troubleshooting: Distributing Maps and Data

• Creating and unpacking a map package at 10

• Sharing map packages from ArcGIS.com

• Demo

Troubleshooting: Making field calculations

• Most calcs can be performed with a few common functions

• Use the help!

• The 9x VBA tool has been replaced with Python / VbScript GP tool @ 10- Advantages

- Migration issues

• Results Tab for debugging

• Demo

Summary: Some common customer issues

• Working with large data sets

• Joining data

• Selecting features using attribute queries

• Distributing and sharing maps and data

• Making attribute field calculations

• Introduction to Esri’s On-line Support Resources (10:00-10:45am)

• Community Fusion: An Introduction to Esri Community Initiatives (ArcGIS Ideas, Wiki .gis.com, etc.) (11:00-11:45am)

• Troubleshooting Mobile issues in ArcGIS 10 from support perspective (1:00-1:45pm)

• Troubleshooting Geodatabase issues in ArcGIS 10 from support perspective (2:00-2:45pm)

• Troubleshooting ArcGIS Server issues in ArcGIS 10 from support perspective (3:00-3:45)

Wednesday, July 14

• Troubleshooting ArcGIS Web API’s (JavaScript, Flex, Silverlight) from support perspective (10:00-10:45)

Thursday, July 15

Upcoming Presentations at this Demo Theater

Questions?