ArcGIS Pro

In the near future I will have to decide if I want to learn ArcGIS Pro (aka 'AGP') or switch to QGIS. Okay, the reality is that I will have to switch to AGP but that I will also continue working with QGIS.

I have to start looking at AGP seriously so that I can make an informed decision.

I have barely scratched the surface with it because every time I try, I quickly hit a wall and switch back to ArcMap to get work done. I will basically have to stop using ArcMap to move forward.

I hate ribbon interfaces. For this reason I use LibreOffice in preference to Microsoft Office when I can.

Arcade -- A new scripting language; seriously? Na I will stick with Python and keep my portable skill set, thanks anyway!

AGP cannot access files on owncloud, I don't know why. It just can't see them. This is only a problem for me at home. Still wondering why.

Migrating from ArcMap -- I can import MXD files. This seems to be working at 2.2.

Styles and layers

ArcMap MXD to QGIS is awkward because ArcMap won't export symbolizations and the settings would not map well to QGIS anyway. There is a project on github now to deal with this called SLYR.

Trying slyr

How do I create an ESRI .style file, anyway? In ArcMap you do a "save" from the style properties dialog. The .style files are Access databases, complicated and containing BLOBs.

In AGP, you can create .stylx files, which I guessed would be XML format. NOPE, they are SQLite databases. Peek inside one using the .dump command in sqlite3.

AGP layer files (.lyrx) actually are JSON code.

Clone the project

repos
git clone [email protected]:nyalldawson/slyr.git

In a cmd window, create an environment and add the required packages

conda create -n slyr
activate slyr
conda install pyodbc
cd slyr
python bintools/extract_bin.py samplefile.style

My laptop overheats

Q. My poor little Dell laptop now has to run something called ArcGISIndexingServer and the fan is cranking full speed and steam is coming out of the vents. And I am not even running ArcGIS Pro! How do I make it go away?

A. It started when you were running AGP. Remove indexing in the AGP project, delete the index, exit AGP, and then wait a few minutes. FAQ: Why does the ArcGISIndexingServer.exe use a high amount of computer memory? does not actually answer the question, but does tell you how to stop indexing.

I am sure indexing does something useful but I won't know until I get a new computer next year. 8 GB of RAM, SSD, and 8 processor cores are not enough!

I upgraded to 16GB and the computer overall is now running better when I start AGP. Consider 16GB the minimum. Another story, Arcmap has crashed on me probably 6-8 times today. But that's just life with ArcMap. Maybe it has too much memory. :-)