ArcGIS Pro: Tips and Tricks

Thank you for visiting our Virtual Handout! We created this handout as a supplemental resource for our presentation given at the 2022 Esri User Conference. Note, all of the tips and tricks mentioned below were demonstrated in ArcGIS Pro 3.0, so some of them may not be available in earlier releases.

Tips & Tricks for Getting Started

•  Create a project template 
•  Project  and  editing options 
  • Can modify project opening settings, default geodatabases and toolboxes, along with editing options
  • More information for all project and application options can be found in the subtabs of the  "Use project and application options"  documentation
•  Customize the ribbon 
  •  Keyboard accelerators  can be set here as well!
•  Work with the list of recent projects  
  • Use search options on both 'Start' and 'Open' pages
  • Pin frequently used projects at top
  • Sort projects
  • Navigate to project location in File Explorer by right clicking the project name

Tips & Tricks in the  Catalog Pane  and  Catalog View 

• Instead of making the same connections over and over with every new project, utilize the  Favorites  tab found in the Catalog pane. Project favorites are a collection of frequently used folders, databases, toolboxes, servers, custom styles, and other items. An item that you designate as a favorite can be added to any project from the Catalog pane or a Catalog view.
  • Right-click item in Catalog pane > Add to Favorites
• Change  Alias  of folder connections (ex. two folders with same name but different paths)
  • Right-click item in Catalog pane > Alias > Change Alias
• Easily access item file paths
  • Hover over item in Catalog pane to access the hyperlinked path in the Pop-up (To show Pop-ups: open Catalog Hamburger Menu > Show Pop-ups)
  • Right-click item in Catalog pane > Show in File Explorer
  • Right-click item in Catalog pane > Copy Path > open File Explorer and Paste
  • Select item in Catalog pane > Ctrl+Alt+P > open File Explorer and Paste
•  Drag& Drop  items in Catalog pane (instead of using right-click options for Copy & Paste or Add to Project)
  • To Add to Project
  • To Copy items to other locations
  • To Move items from one location to another
• Easily preview details about data layers without adding them to a map
  • Right-click item in Catalog pane > Open Table
  • Right-click item in Catalog pane >  View Metadata  > preview Metadata, Geography, and (Attribute) Table (where available)
  • Hover over item in Catalog pane to view Thumbnail and Tags in the Pop-up (To show detailed Pop-ups: open Catalog Menu > Show Detailed Pop-ups)
• Edit Metadata
  • Select item in Catalog view > choose Edit from the ribbon (Catalog Tab) OR right-click item in Catalog pane > Edit Metadata
  •  Create a Metadata Template  to streamline the process
  •  Create a thumbnail  from Geography preview (instead of taking a screenshot, browsing to it, uploading it etc.)

Tips & Tricks for Configuring  Data Design 

• To get to data design views
  • Right-click item in Catalog pane > Data Design > choose from Domains, Fields, Subtypes, Attribute Rules, Contingent Values
• Field Design View
  • Filter Names and Domains on the ribbon (Fields tab)
  • Right-click a row in the view > Save (instead of going all the way up to the ribbon)
  • Select row(s) > Copy & Paste to another layer’s Field Design View (can select multiple!)
• Domain Design View
  • Filter Text in Domain Design View on the ribbon (Domains tab)
  • Right-click a row in the view > Save (instead of going all the way up to the ribbon)
  • Select row > Copy & Paste to another database’s Domain Design View (cannot select multiple
  • Import new coded value domains using  Table to Domain  geoprocessing tool (instead of entering manually)
  • When importing a domain configure a schema.ini file (using a text editor) in the same file location as the imported table so the tool knows how to read the field types in the table (Hint: this is how you can add a domain with integer codes for a Short or Text type field.)
  • What’s a schema file? Export any table as a .csv from Pro and a schema file will be exported to the same location! Use that as a template :)
•  Configure Views and Panes  for better usability
  • Any open view or pane and be picked up and moved, screen-tip diagrams will appear to help you configure
  • Right-click any open view for the following options:
  • >> Float (to spread out on multiple screens)
  • >> New Horizonal or Vertical Tab Group (for side-by-side comparison)
  • >> Dock (appears if view is floating)

Tips & Tricks in the Map

• Instead of searching in the ribbon for these options, right-click in the map to:
  • Go to Previous or Next Extent
  • Activate Select Features cursor tool
  • Activate Explore cursor tool
  • *also notice these options are dynamic, unavailable options will be greyed out
  • Hold C or compress mouse wheel to temporarily use Explore while another cursor is activated (instead of entirely switching back)
  • Use  Bookmarks  and enhance their usability with Bookmark options (ex. Show Descriptions or Display Bookmark Label)

Tips & Tricks in the Contents Pane

• Utilize the "List by…” options for:
  • Source
  • Visibility
  • Selection
  • Editing
  • Snapping
  • Labeling (this one is key! Makes turning on/off labels for different layers quick and easy)
• To open the Attribute table of a layer
  • select it, then Ctrl+T
  • Ctrl+double-click
  • Right-Click > Attribute Table
• Build Definition Queries
  • Double-click layer to get to Layer Properties > Definition Query
  • Rename queries to easily toggle between them from the Data tab on the ribbon
• Create Selection Queries
  • Right-click > Selection >  Make Layer from Selected Features 
  • Double-click new selection layer > Selection > Clear selected features to access all features in source data
  • Right-click new selection layer > Remove (to discard it)
  • The thing to note with these is that they are just queries on the source, they are not new feature layers

Tips & Tricks in the Attribute Table

• Hamburger Menu > Show Field Aliases > check on/off to toggle between aliases/names
• Hamburger Menu > Show domain and subtype descriptions > check on/off to toggle between descriptions/codes
• Tools available directly in the view:
  • Select by Attributes (Utilize Invert Where Clause checkbox)
  • Switch Selection
  • Show Selected Records (bottom of table) -- In this view, notice the various options for Highlighted features along the top of the table
  • Clear selection button (or click left corner of the table to clear)

Tips & Tricks for Data Engineering

•  Open a Data Engineering view 
  • Can access in a variety of ways: right click a feature class in Contents pane, use the contextual Data tab for feature classes, from the Analysis tab, and others.
•  Explore Fields  
  • Can view list of all fields, with options to search for a field or filter the list
  • Can also update map symbology and create charts based on fields
•  Interact with statistics 
  • Calculate statistics for full dataset or selections of the dataset
  • More information on  types of statistics 
  • The statistics table is  interactive  at both the field and cell level
•  Prepare data 
  • Geoprocessing tools related to data preparation can be accessed directly in the Data Engineering tab

Tips & Tricks for Data Visualization and Symbology

•  Symbolize feature layers  
  •  Aggregate features into clusters 
  • Use  display filters  to limit which features are displayed in the map
  •  Scale-based symbol sizing 
  • Vary symbology by attribute by using  attribute-driven symbology 
  • Use  Apply Symbology from Layer  to make transfering symbology easy
• Arcade
  •  Custom symbol expressions  using Arcade
  •  Custom label expressions  can also be made using Arcade
  • Full Arcade reference can be found in our  ArcGIS Arcade reference for developers 
• Drag and drop layers from map to map, keeping all symbology and settings

Tips & Tricks for Data Editing

•  Start an Edit Session  (enable option in Project settings)
• Open  Attributes pane  from the map (available when Selection cursor is active)
  • Right-click in map > Attributes
  • This pane shows the attributes of selected features and makes it easy to edit them
•  Configure Feature Templates 
  • ex. set to Prompt for Attribute Value(s)
•  Find and replace  attribute values in the table
• Use Definition Queries to QA/QC
  • For the layer that you want to QA/QC, add a second instance of it to the map
  • Add a definition query to the layer to filter for “bad” attribute values of target attributes (ex. nulls)
  • Configure symbology of layer to appear as a highlight around the the features on the other instance of the layer
•  Reset Panes 

Tips & Tricks for Data Analysis

• Utilize  Command Search  to find tools and help
• Geoprocessing Tool options and features to note
  • Enable Undo
  • Run button options (ex. Schedule, Reset Parameters
  • Dynamic messaging to  show the number of records to be processed  for inputs with selections and/or filters
• Create Models
  • Open History pane from ribbon (Analysis tab) > select one or many previously run tools >  Add to Model 
  • Utilize Find/Replace (ModelBuilder tab on ribbon)
• Create Python Scripts
  • Open History pane from ribbon (Analysis tab) > select one or many previously run tools >  Save as Python Script 

Tips & Tricks for Sharing Data

• Use project and document packages to facilitate collaboration between users working in 3.0 and 2.x
  •  Migration from ArcGIS Pro 2.x to 3.0 
  • Use the  Package Project geoprocessing tool  to select the earlier version of Pro the package will be opened in (or choose 'all versions')
  • Share your work in ArcGIS Pro documentation page
• Use  Export Presets  to save map and layout export settings