Microsoft Visual Studio

I am using the 2017 Community edition.

2018-04-15 Updated to 15.6.4 (on Murre) and .Net Framework 4.7.1

Overview

Originally I wanted to try to develop some ArcObjects tools and I want to access those tools from Python.

I have ESRI and Anaconda versions of Python. I originally installed the Anaconda versions to use Spyder, then found I liked the conda package and environment management so I want to continue using Anaconda.

Going forward ESRI has blessed Anaconda by including it in ArcGIS Pro.

I used to be a Windows developer so I was in Visual Studio sessions all day, every day. So far it's working nearly as well with Python as it did with C#. Integration with ESRI/ArcPy has been seamless.

Digression: VS on a Mac

There is a full development environment based on the Mac OS, it is true; but there is no Python support. Not yet anyway.

Installation notes

For downloads and official help go to https://www.visualstudio.com/

Make sure you get the Community Edition, unless you have reasons to want to pay Microsoft.

Workloads

When you install VS, you don't get tons of different languages installed, you have to pick what you want. The packages are called "workloads", see https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/visual-studio-workloads/.

For reasons I mention on the Anaconda page, do NOT install the versions of Python and Anaconda that are available in the Visual Studio installer. Install them separately. Install only the "Python development" workload and turn off Python 3x64; Visual Studio won't have any problem finding and using external ESRI and Anaconda packages that you install separately.

The reason (as mentioned in my Anaconda page) is you won't need administrative permission to install or update Anaconda packages.

If you install the Microsoft Anaconda workload, you will have to run to your administrator every time you need a new Python package.

Set up

Select the Python you want

1. Tools->Python->Python Environment
2. Select the one for ESRI Python 2.7.14 64-bit for modern ArcMap work or 32-bit if you need to use old Personal Geodatabases.
3. Choose "Make this the default for new projects"

You can change the python that a project uses anytime later.

Edit PYT files

By default VS only recognizes .py files as being python source, so the ESRI Python Toolbox files (.pyt) are not recognized. Change this in Visual Studio by going to Tools->Options->Text Editor and under File Extension enter pyt and select Python Editor and click "Add".

You still can't directly execute PYT files in the VS debugger, but at least you can edit them and it will recognize them as python code.

Tabs at 4, really?

Microsoft is still clinging to settings tabs in the text editor at 4. It should be tabs at 8 and insert spaces not "Keep tabs". Set it thus and avoid a world of pain*. "Insert spaces" means it will use spaces instead of mixing tabs and spaces.

Tools -> Options -> Python -> Tabs

SET TABS AT 8!!

• world of pain - you really are curious about this?

Since Python cares (a lot) about indentation, having the indents look consistent is not enough, eventually you will end up with a mixture of spaces and tabs in your .py file, and one line will have for example two tabs (2 X "tabs at 4" = 8) and it lines up with all the others which have 8 spaces. Then it will no longer compile, giving you the error about indentation being wrong even though everything looks just fine. (There will be a yellow line in the editor that you will ignore because everything looks okay.)

So the answer is to set it to "insert spaces", never put tabs anywhere, it's 2018 and saving a few hundred bytes by substituting tabs for spaces is no longer important.

Use Git for version control

Go to "Tools -> Options -> Source Control" and under "Plug-in Selection", switch to Git.

I set it this way, but so far I still use git from the command line.

I tried out the Github extension for VS and it works but I don't really see it as an advantage over using the commands. I use the git bash shell all day on Windows 7. I suppose if you never use bash it might be more difficult.

In Windows 10 there is the WSL "Windows Subsystem for Linux", comes from Microsoft, and gets you a variation on the same things: a bash command shell and git commands.

Enable the experimental support for Intellisense

This is a checkbox under Tools->Options->Python->Experimental

Intellisense is one of the main reasons to use Visual Studio. That's the code completion feature, where for example you type "arcpy.ListDataSets(" and VS pops up what arguments ListDatasets needs.

Developing extensions

I built some ESRI code samples to prove to myself it works but have not really gone further yet.

If you want to try to compile C# ArcObjects code, you will need the "workload" for C# and .Net. You will need to install the ArcObjects SDK from ESRI.

https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/system-requirements/latest/arcobjects-sdk-system-requirements.htm

ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Engine, or ArcGIS Server is required to develop with ArcObjects SDK.

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 or higher; I am using 4.7.1 Note you can download additional .Net Frameworks from inside Visual Studio.

Code samples will be found in C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\DeveloperKit10.6

ArcGIS Add-ins

I am starting a separate page: ArcGIS Add-ins