ArcGIS Pro

Geoprocessing UIUX Enhancements that will boost your productivity in ArcGIS Pro 3.2

Approximate Reading Time: 5 minutes

The ArcGIS Pro 3.2 release includes several enhancements to geoprocessing tool controls to improve their usability and make room for more capabilities that will boost your productivity:

Selection and Filter Tip

The ArcGIS Pro 3.0 release introduced the Geoprocessing Selection and Filter Tip that displays under layer and table view input parameters. This message informs you when an input has an active selection or filter (definition query, time filter, and range filter) and how many records will be processed when you run a tool.

You can use these options to work with a subset of the records within a dataset. But what if your analysis requires you to analyze the whole dataset as well as subsets of your data?

Introducing the Toggle

Instead of removing your selection or filter, only to re-add it in a later step, in ArcGIS Pro 3.2, the tip includes a toggle-on toggle.  This enhancement will increase your productivity by allowing you to process your data in multiple ways directly from the tool dialog without changing the state of your layer or table.

 

Selection and Filter Tip
The message indicating a highlighted selection turned off( left) and on (right)

You can turn the toggle off to process all input records (ignoring the selection or filter) or on to process a subset of your records. Turning off a selection or filter from the tool dialog will not remove it from your layer. Instead, it will only affect how many records will be processed when you run the tool.

Note: If a layer has a selection and filter, only the selection is described in the tip and used by the tool. Turning off the selection will result in all records being processed.

Support for highlighted records

In ArcGIS Pro 3.2, Geoprocessing tools support highlighted records in a selection, so you can identify and process further subsets of an already defined selection set. You can highlight records in a table view by first creating a selection in the table view or map, then in the attributes table, click Show Selected Records Show selected records and click-and-drag your pointer over the rows you want to highlight.

Note: If you toggle off the highlighted records, the tool will run using all the records in a layer, not the selected records.

Watch this short clip to learn more about the updated Selection and Filter Tip in Pro 3.2:

 

Extent Control

In ArcGIS Pro 3.2, the geoprocessing extent controls have a new look, more options, and other additional features.

The redesign makes the different ways you can set the extent readily accessible in an icon bar at the top of the control.

Note: Hover over each icon to view information about it.

The extent control as a tool parameter in ArcGIS Pro 3.1 (left) and 3.2 (right)
The extent control as a tool parameter in ArcGIS Pro 3.1 (left) and 3.2 (right)

Like in earlier version of ArcGIS Pro, you will find 4 different extent options in tool parameters: Map Current Display Extent, layer Extent of a Layer, folder Browse, and Reset Reset Extent. The extent control in Envrionment Settings has 2 additional options that will determine the extent at tool run-time: intersect Intersection of Inputs and icon Union of Inputs.

The layer Extent of a Layer drop-down includes all map layers, and a new, Extent of data in all layers option. You can use this option to get the combined extent from all active map layers, excluding the basemap. Use this option to remove some of the guesswork if you want to get an extent that represents multiple layers in your area of interest.

The extent control now displays the Extent Coordinate System under the extent, so you will always know what coordinate system the extent values are drawn from. Extent coordinates can look very different depending on the coordinate system being used. The extent control generally uses the same coordinate system as the active map, except when you folder Browse to an extent. If you folder Browse to the extent of an existing dataset, the control will display the X and Y Extent in that dataset’s coordinate system.

Check out this video to see the new geoprocessing extent control in action:

 

Field Map

The geoprocessing field map parameter is found in multiple tools and is used to transfer or match attributes from one dataset to another. You can also use it to edit a field’s properties and perform basic calculations or other actions on fields before you run a tool.

In ArcGIS Pro 3.2 the field map’s interface was redesigned to improve the control’s accessibility and increase its capabilities.

Note: The FieldMap and FieldMappings objects in Python did not change.

The field map in ArcGIS Pro 3.1 and earlier (left) vs 3.2 (right)
The field map in ArcGIS Pro 3.1 and earlier (left) vs 3.2 (right)

The updated field map control lists the field names with an icon that represents each field type (text, integer, double, float, etc.). You can also choose to list by field aliases, export Export the field map to save it as a string file, or  load Load an existing field map you’ve already saved.

One of the most notable differences from earlier versions of the field map is that field mapping or matching tasks now occur in a separate, Field Properties window. You can access the Field Properties window by clicking the edit Edit button at the top of the control or to the right of a selected (or hovered) field.

Field Properties
Use the Field Properties window to perform field matching and mapping in Pro 3.2

In the Field Properties window, you can view or edit a field’s properties, source fields, and any associated actions (i.e., merge rules) in one place. The new interface displays each source field as a tag that you can add, remove, or reorder. The Merge Rules are now referred to as Actions, which you can use to determine how one or multiple source fields will be transferred to the output or updated field.

Continue reading to learn more about the field map parameter in ArcGIS Pro 3.2.

Summary

We redesigned these controls to make them easier to use and provide more options. We hope you upgrade to ArcGIS Pro 3.2 so you can take advantage of these updates!

About the author

Margaret is a Product Engineer on the Geoprocessing team. Her passion for GIS began with her interest in human-environmental relationships, and her graduate studies utilized spatial analysis to study the growing impact of flood-induced cascading disasters caused by sea level rise. Margaret leverages her foundation in research methodologies and spatial analysis techniques in her role at Esri, where she creates written content and demonstrations on technical concepts and functions in ArcGIS Pro. She also contributes to refining and redesigning geoprocessing tools and functions with additional capabilities and improved usability. In her personal life, Margaret is a loving cat parent to three cats, and enjoys swimming and snowboarding.

Connect:
Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Next Article

Deprecation Notice for ArcGIS Community Analyst: Transition to ArcGIS Business Analyst Web App

Read this article