Compiled by Kevin Godsey

Adjustments to ArcCatalog Settings

Change your home folder in ArcMap/Catalog view. (Not Arc Catalog).

Redirect your home folder through the Catalog Window Options in ArcMap. Click the button on the top right corner of the Catalog Window and then click the ‘Home Folder’ tab. Set the location for your Home Folder by typing C:\workspace. If the folder does not exist ArcMap will ask if you want to create it, click Yes.

Copy the Default.gdb to the C:\workspace folder in file explorer.

Copy the default database in your documents folder and paste it twice into the C:\workspace and rename the two databases as ‘Default’ and ‘scratch’.

Redirect the workspace in Geoprocessing >> Environments (see below).

Local Cache: Also move the Local Caches folder to the C:\workspace folder.

Redirect the cache path to that folder in the ArcMap options (see below).

Like the Home Folder path – If you have MXDs from before updating the Catalog Home Folder Path Setting, you may need to double-check the Map Document Properties of your MXD to make sure their Default database is pointed at the new Default you have configured. Otherwise, the MXD will keep going out to the network for some (many/all) things.

For any given MXD, when open, it is found under File  Map Document Properties  Default Geodatabase

After changing it, you need to save/close/re-open the MXD for it to actually take effect.

Changes to Window

Remove all extraneous programs from the main menu screen. All the large boxes on the right hand side should be removed. Right click and select unpin from start. Repeat until all the boxes are removed. These programs take up memory and increase start up time. This will not delete the program and they will still be available in the menu on the left. If you want quick access, then put a short cut icon on the task bar at the bottom of the screen. Another place you can remove programs from startup is in the task manager window on the Startup tab. Right click on the program and click disable; again, this only disables the program from starting at start up.

Reboot your machine. Not restarting each day can cause applications and processes to pile up in the Task Manager and, because of this, you can expect slow performance. It is best to start with a clean slate and reboot the machine. If you are in ArcMap all day long it is best to restart the computer at lunch to clean out the memory.

Restart your computer at the start of each day for peak performance; restarting a PC is a good way to clear out its memory and ensure that any errant processes and services that started running get shut down.

Restarting closes all the software running on your PC—not only the programs you see running on the task bar, but also dozens of services that might have been started by various programs and never stopped. Restarting can fix mysterious performance problems when the exact cause is hard to pinpoint.

If you keep so many programs, e mail messages, and websites open that you think restarting is a hassle, that's probably a sign you should restart your PC. The more things you have open and the longer you keep them running, the greater the chances your PC will bog down and eventually run low on memory.

Most of these changes frees up extra memory

Changes to Window

Set Performance options: In settings type Performance in search window and click on Adjust the appearance and performance of windows.

“Adjust for best performance” or check mark ‘Custom’ and click on smooth edge of screen fonts. This will make the fonts on the screen more legible.

This may not help significantly on newer machines with 16 Gigabytes or more of RAM.

Turnoff transparency in setting>Personalization>color

Turn off tips and tricks in settings>notifications & actions.

Clear out all unneeded files on the C drive to make space available or programs to run. Move all unneeded files from the C: drive to an external drive. Also use disk cleanup to remove all unneeded files. In file explorer window, right click on C drive and click on the disk Cleanup button or the right.

Clean out the recycle bin regularly. This will free up more memory.

Clean out the C:\Temp folders of unneeded files.

Do not check for GIS connection on your task bar: If you do not use services and your internet is slow, you can right click on the globe icon in the task window and check mark the never check ARCGIS on line. This may not make a significant difference on faster machines and fast internet connections.

Use internal extradrive or flash drive in USB3 port for ReadyBoost.

It may not help with new machines with lots of RAM.

If you have a SSD card it may not be an option.

Right click on external drive in file explorer and open properties box. If it can use readyboost the option will be in the window. Screen shot on left shows usable drive and screen shot on the right shows where a drive can not be used. ReadyBoost allows the system to make use of one of these speedy storage devices as a cache, improving overall performance of the system. The flash storage device that you choose to use for ReadyBoost should meet the following specifications set by Microsoft:

Capacity of at least 256 MB, with at least 64 kilobytes (KB) of free space

At least a 2.5 MB/sec throughput for 4-KB random reads

At least a 1.75 MB/sec throughput for 1MB random writes

Here's another nice feature: If Windows doesn't think ReadyBoost will provide a performance gain, it will tell you and won't let you enable it. (Right screen shot below). Additional information available in the Appendix.  

Adjustments to ArcMap Options Click Customize > ArcMap Options. In the ‘General’ tab Remove check mark for “Make newly added layers visible by default”

This will load faster because it is not trying to draw the maps.

Uncheck go to last location when Add Data dialog first used.

This increases the open data window because it is not trying to find some place specific, especially if the last place was on a map service.

In the ‘Data View’ tab Check mark “Enable hardware acceleration for supported layers on the DataView tab.

In the ‘Display Cache’ tab Clear the Display Cache.

The display cache facilitates panning and zooming in the existing map but if the cache is retained instead of being cleared from one map to the next there is a big performance hit.


Use parallel process function in geoprocessing environments for geoprocessing tasks.

You can set the processing by number of cores 1-4 or percentages. 50 percent will pass the process over half the cores while 100 percent will pass the process across all cores in your machine. A computer with Intel CORE i7 has four cores. This may not work for all process, but I have seen an increase for many tools.


Adjustments in Advanced ArcMap Settings: These need to be changed by your administrator.

Start ‘AdvancedArcMapSettings.exe’ in the Utilities folder of Desktop10.X as indicated below.

Raster settings Do not change if you have limited RAM memory. If you use large raster set this may help. If not it can overwelm you RAM and slow the system down. In the ‘Raster’ tab, set the ‘maximum number of attribute table entries’ to 100,000,000. (Note: Administrator must do the following changes). This only helps if you have enough RAM to handle the large data files. 

JET engine settings In the ‘Editor’ tab set the ‘JET engine max # of records to calculate’ to 9,000,000.  Data Frame Refresh Rate In the ‘Data Frame’ tab set ‘Data Frame Refresh Rate’ to 1 mil-secs, so that ArcMap with draw smoother.  More ArcMap Catalog settings

Build Pyramids for grids when working with raster maps.

Right click on grid in Catalog

Click on Build Pyramids

Unless you know better use default settings.

Perform a spatial Index on all Feature Layers Right click on the feature layer then the “Add” button, and “Create” a new spatial index. This will noticeable speed up querying and rendering of the geodatabase. Delete all unneeded spatial indexes.

More adjustments to the Geoprocessing Environments Settings

Clear out the geoprocessing history by going to Arc Catalog>Geoprocessing > Geoprocessing Options and under ‘Results Management’, change the setting to 'Keep results younger than 1 Day' or never at the bottom of the screen.

If many geoprocessing operations are run from ArcMap, validating the history of these operations for a period of two weeks has a serious impact on the performance.

The geoprocessing history is useful if the same processes are executed often but having saved history from many geoprocessing operations can negatively impact performance in Arc Catalog and ArcMap. The geoprocessing history should be reviewed, and processes that will not be repeated should be Removed. Turn off build pyramids in raster storage if using a big model with intermediate raster products.

This will make the model process faster by reducing steps to calculate.

You will need to build a pyramid in Arc Catalog later for faster drawing.

More Geoprocessing Option

Enable “Background Processing” on this same geoprocessing Options screen. Check mark box "Enable"

On the raster tab click on “File formats” Check the “Search only files that match…” radio button Then uncheck all raster formats that you do not use. This will improve loading time because it is not searching for every kind of file. If you do not know which files you use, you can at least delete the ones that you know you do not use.

Data frame properties settings Setting the auto cache will speed up vector data editing in a map scale extent.

Right click on editor frame and click on Data frame Properties.

Check mark Automatically build cache and set minimum. Set editing extent to 5000, Example shown below.

  

Close all extra applications in task manager: it will free up RAM.

Remove all icon from the desktop. These take up memory and increase startup time. Move them to another location. If you really need a quick file then move the file and create a shortcut to the file and put the short cut on the desktop, it takes a lot less memory. Use the auto sort to arrange the icons. Sorted icons takes up less memory then scattered icons.

Redirect the TEMP and TMP variable to C:\Temp for your account. In settings>accounts search for environment and click on Edit environment variables for your account. Right screen shot show the changes.

Make sure external drives are connected to the USB3 port or the thunderbolt port.

Store data layers on theses drive for faster access.


Use Insomnia on large projects so the computer does not fall asleep.

Click Start

Type insomnia in the search window.

Start program as seen to the right.

Do not minimize the window, it must be open to work.

Put all data on a local drive with the fewest folders and files.

ArcMap is programmed to check the validity of all folder connections in the paths in the specific connection.

Convert shapefiles to file-based geodatabase - they will render faster.

Try to keep all projections for each layer the same - on the fly - projections take time.

Whenever possible, set the projection of the ArcMap data frame to the coordinate system of the largest raster data in the map.

When raster imagery is being projected on the fly, it contributes to slower performance. Vector data projects on the fly much more quickly than raster data.

Run large process in catalog or at least with the display turned off.

Make joined field permanent and remove the join, joined fields slows down performance.

Create a new field and use the calculator to move the data from the joined field to the permanent field. Then remove the join.

use the geoprocessing tool that permanently adds the join field to the target table, so you don’t have to do the extra field create and calculation steps. This works well with feature classes, but the tool can be quite slow with shapefiles.

Close the ArcMap tool box before saving the project. ArcMap will start faster.

Save special tools only to the projects that use them. ArcMap is slow to open if you save all the tools to the default settings so that they all load every time.

If ArcMap is taking a long time to load, try renaming the Normal template. Rename your Normal templates. The normal template is the template that is automatically loaded from your user profile every time you launch ArcGIS for Desktop. It contains the UI customizations you have made, including toolbars, buttons, window placements, and more. These templates can become corrupt, so by renaming them, you will prompt the software to generate a new, default normal template. Here is how to rename your normal template in version 10:

Close Arc Catalog and ArcMap.

Navigate to root %userprofile%\AppData*\Roaming\ESRI\Desktop10.5\ArcMap (*if hidden go to the Tools folder options view).

Open the Templates folder.

There will be a ‘Normal.mxt’ file. Right-click on that file and rename it to something besides Normal. Then re-start ArcMap.

Arc Catalog and Arc Toolbox also have normal templates. If need be, navigate to their respective folders and rename their normal templates as well.

If this does not help startup then you can restore the old ‘Normal.mxt’.

You can also make a default backup, so you can always save most of your settings.

Limit custom toolboxes to be associated with specific MXDs that need them if/when you can.

Minimize the number of network connections to the server that are saved in an ArcMap document. A huge performance hit occurs if an MXD contains many network connections. Also reduce the number of folders that have to be opened on your computer in catalog.

Navigate to ArcMap > Windows > Image Analysis Window right-click on the raster and choose “Accelerate”. Give ArcMap a few moments to pre-cache the raster and enjoy the smooth and seamless navigation (hold the “Q” button on the keyboard to pan around the dataset continuously).

This does not work well with a networked raster.

This process uses the graphics card for rendering instead of RAM.

This may not help with compacted imagery like Mr. Sid.

Enable Feature Cache from the Table of Contents > Properties.

Set a scale range for large vector layers. Large vector layers are notorious for slow rendering and appear to ‘crawl’ across the screen as they are drawn. This setting can be accessed within the layer properties (see at right). An ‘Out beyond’ setting of greater than 1:250,000 is not recommended. For displaying soil data at scales beyond 1:250,000, the gSSURGO is recommended instead.

Set scales for labels and annotation to speed up drawing.

Analyze your map Analyzing your map helps you to improve the drawing performance of your ArcMap documents by generating a list of potential display performance issues—much like a spell checker in a word processing program. Each problem description guides you to suggested updates that you can make to your map layer to address the issue and improve map drawing performance.

• Click on File >> Analyze Map (screen shot to the right).
• An inset window will open at the bottom of your screen.
• Errors and warnings give reasons why the map is having poor performance (Example below).

There are three types of messages in the Prepare window:

Error

Warning

Message

You can right-click each message to get a quick suggestion on how you can address that specific issue. This will also give you access to a help topic with more information, such as additional repair options. The item in bold in each list will provide the default approach for addressing each issue.

• As you evaluate the results in the Prepare window you have the option to address or ignore messages and warnings. If you choose to ignore, you can mark as an exception by right-clicking the message or warning and choosing Mark As Exception.
• Click File > Analyze Map on the main menu.
• The Prepare window with its list of Errors, Warnings, and Messages will be displayed.

Convert floating point to integer in raster maps for faster processing.

General rules:
• Integer sums and products take the same time, divisions and modulo are three times slower.
• Floating-point products are twice slower than sums, and divisions even slower.
• Smaller is faster
• 64 bits integer precision is slow.
• Float 32 bits is faster than 64 bits on sums, but not different on products and divisions.
• 80- and 128-bits precisions should only be used when absolutely necessary, they are very slow.

Do not use Personal Geodatabases (PGDB) (.mdb) format, use file geodatabase (GDB). Display, selection, and geoprocessing issues exist when using .mdb files These issues seem to be related to performance (e.g., on machines with both spinning disks and SSDs: about 60 seconds to open a 100 record, 500kb shapefile, another 60 seconds to export (locally)) which then may or may not contribute to the overall flaky behavior that we get in the desktop (i.e., random features just not appearing in the map). Figure to the right show time to display different file types; shape files are the slowest and file geodatabases is the quickest.

 

Many of these practices can be looked up in ESRI help if you do not know how to do it. They are listed in order from simple to more complex. You may never encounter many of these using basic GIS. Some of them may not significantly help rendering with faster SSD cards and larger RAM sized computers.

• Less is more. Turn off all unnecessary layers
o Start simple.
o Use field visibility.
• Use scale dependencies:
o Display appropriate data for the given scale.
o Display the same number of features at all scales.
• Select the appropriate point representation:
o Use single-layer simple or character markers.
o Use Enhanced Metafiles instead of bitmaps.
o Use integer fields for symbol values.
o Avoid halos, complex shapes, and masking.
• Select the appropriate lines and polygons:
o Use the ESRI Optimized style.
o Avoid cartographic lines and polygon outlines.
• Use appropriate text and labeling:
o Use annotation instead of labels.
o Use indexed fields.
o Use label and feature conflict weights sparingly.
o Avoid special effects (fill patterns, halos, callouts, and back grounds).
o Avoid very large text size (60+ pts).
o Avoid Maplex for dynamic labeling (avoid over-use).
• Image parameters:
o Limit the maximum image size per request.
o Limit the maximum number of Rasters per mosaic.
o Select the optimum resampling method.
 Display discrete data with (Nearest Neighbor or Majority)
 Display continuous data with (Bilinear Interpolation or Cubic Convolution)
o Use the optimum compression method.
o Set the optimum compression quality.
o Set the optimum mosaic method.
• Catalog parameters:
o Limit the maximum number of records returned per request (mosaic dataset only).
o Select the appropriate metadata level.
 Basic, full, or none
• Set the appropriate allowed fields (mosaic dataset only).
• Download parameters:
o Select appropriate output and virtual directories.
o Identify supported image return type.

1. You can now rename and change the field’s types in the file geodatabase after the field has been created.



• Open the feature class properties in a file geodatabase, navigate to fields and you’ll find out that you can now rename them or select a different data type. Warning you can lose some data when changing data types.

2. Export data table to Excel You no longer must export the tabular data to dBase tables in ArcMap and then open them in EXCEL to save as CSV or XLS documents. Use the tool to convert the data straight to XLS!



3. Creating PDF with location data embedded.

Next time, before exporting your map to PDF, try the following:
• In ArcMap navigate to File > Export Map
• Set the output format to PDF; switch to the ‘Advanced tab’ and make sure that the following options are selected:
• Export PDF layers and Feature Attributes
• ‘Export Map Geo-reference’ Information is checked.

Export your map to PDF and open it in your default PDF reader (often Adobe Reader).

• In Adobe Reader navigate to Edit > Analysis Tools and enable one of the following tools:
o The Geospatial Location tool will be displaying the coordinates as Latitudes and Longitudes as you move the cursor in the data frame

The Object Data Tool will show you the GIS attributes that have been embedded in the PDF document. Just double-click on the feature of interest and the attributes will show in the window on the left.

Additional Resources: ArcMap Tips and Tricks: The 7 Golden Rules