Understanding Innovations and Capabilities in ArcGIS Pro Webinar Q&A

We’re addressing your inquiries from our 'Embracing ArcGIS Pro: Understanding Innovations and Capabilities in ArcGIS Pro' webinar. This blog will explore ArcGIS Pro's functionality, tackling common challenges and providing practical solutions to enhance your GIS experience. Stay tuned for insights that will help you maximize ArcGIS Pro's potential and streamline your workflows. 

Last month, Mark and I demonstrated the features and functionalities of ArcGIS Pro in our webinar, “Embracing ArcGIS Pro: Understanding Innovations and Capabilities in ArcGIS Pro”. We introduced the new user interface, tasks, data engineering and 3D features. These are all new features in ArcGIS Pro that encourage our users to move to ArcGIS Pro. If you missed the webinar or need a refresher, the recording is available for you to access! 

ArcGIS Desktop, including ArcMap, entered mature support on March 1st, 2024, which means Esri no longer provides patches or bug fixes for ArcGIS Desktop and extensions. We will cease technical support for ArcGIS Desktop starting March 2026.  Check this page to see detailed information on product retirement.  

ArcMap's retirement timeline

The transition from ArcGIS Desktop to ArcGIS Pro is the trend and we acknowledge the inconvenience for our clients to transition to new software. Thus, we hosted a webinar and decided to write a blog for users who are new to ArcGIS Pro, addressing some of their inquiries. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Can tasks be exported and shared with other users to import into their own projects? 

Yes, you can share a task item! A task item can be exported to a .esriTasks file, shared online and shared using a project package. A .esriTasks file can be imported and opened in different projects, which allows different users to use it. To do that, you will navigate to the Catalog pane first, right-click the task item in the Tasks folder, point to Export To File, and click Save As. The task item is saved as a .esriTasks file. To share a task online, please refer to specific steps in the documentation.  

I used to view ENVI image processing results to ArcMap, not sure if this functionality is available in ArcGIS Pro. 

ArcGIS Pro supports multiple raster file formats. ENVI creates flat-binary raster files with the file extension .hdr, a format that ArcGIS Pro supports. Please refer to the documentation for a complete list of supported raster file formats. Some formats can only be read in ArcGIS Pro, while others can be both read and written. The header file generated by ENVI can be both written to and read by ArcGIS Pro. Therefore, you should still be able to view images created in ENVI within ArcGIS Pro.

We have a lot of ArcMap mxds from old project work. Is there a way to convert them into aprx files?  

We recognize that migrating ArcMap work to ArcGIS Pro is a crucial task for many users. You can learn how to import an ArcMap document step by step in this tutorial. Essentially, users will need to open an ArcGIS Pro project and import the ArcMap map package from the Catalog pane. Currently, there isn't a specific tool to migrate multiple .mxd files to .aprx files simultaneously, but you can automate this workflow using a Python script. 

For users of ArcGIS Enterprise seeking guidance on migrating map services from ArcMap runtime to ArcGIS Pro runtime, please refer to this tutorial. 

Can multiple users access and work within a project at the same time? 

ArcGIS Pro is a desktop software that does not support simultaneous collaboration by multiple users on the same project. If you require multiple users to work concurrently on a project, I suggest considering our ArcGIS Online platform. ArcGIS Online provides a cloud-based environment where multiple users can access and collaborate on the same work. However, it's important to note that simultaneous editing on ArcGIS Online is discouraged, as it could potentially result in data loss. 

Is there a way to have different layouts with different data turned on? For example, I have found that when I have different layouts, if I turn off data on a map, it removes it from the layout. 

In ArcGIS Pro, users can create various layouts, each potentially featuring different data layers when multiple maps are involved. Within each layout, users define parameters such as the geographic extent, visible layers, cartographic elements, and additional specifics. Each layout corresponds to a single map within an ArcGIS Pro project. However, if users generate multiple layouts for the same map but at varying scales, the data displayed in those layouts will disappear once the map's data layers are turned off. To avoid this issue and preserve data across all layouts, users can duplicate the map and create multiple layouts that reference these separate map instances. 

When I create a table, how do I export it in Excel? Also, how do I view the data and adjust it before I export it? 

In ArcGIS Pro, there exists a geoprocessing tool known as "Table to Excel." This tool facilitates the conversion of tables into Microsoft Excel files. Users can access the table by either opening it directly from the Catalog pane or the Contents pane. Furthermore, editing the table is easily achievable by enabling editing mode from the ribbon. Once editing mode is activated, users can simply double-click on the data values to make changes. It is important to remember to save the table after making modifications, as changes will not be saved automatically.