What's new in ArcGIS Pro 2.8

See what's new and improved in ArcGIS Pro 2.8.

Video overview

This video compilation was created by ArcGIS Pro development teams to highlight new functionality specific to this release.

Highlights

The highlights section includes featured functionality updates at this release.

Performance and productivity

The ArcGIS Pro 2.8 release focuses on performance and productivity improvements in addition to new capabilities. These improvements are noted throughout this topic. A short list of operations where you may see better performance includes the following:

• Opening and saving projects
• Opening maps with collapsed layers
• Loading and drawing 3D objects
• Label placement and label halo drawing
• Opening tables
• Execution of numerous geoprocessing tools and raster functions
• Loading geoprocessing tool input data
• Loading and working with ModelBuilder models
• Rendering of feature layers that use data from enterprise geodatabases or feature services
• Drawing of vector tile maps

A brief sample of productivity enhancements includes the following:

• You can search for user interface commands and execute them directly from search results.
• New keyboard shortcuts are available for ModelBuilder and other application areas.
• You can copy geoprocessing commands as Python snippets without running the tool.
• Banner messages appear on geoprocessing tools when alternative tools may give faster or better results.
• The Geoprocessing History messages window has been redesigned for greater clarity.
• You can capture images of maps and layouts to the clipboard for use in other applications.
• You can duplicate label classes with a context menu command.
• You can duplicate selected layout elements by pressing the Ctrl key and dragging.
• You can control how new rows are added to tables.
• You can customize new symbols quickly using the <all other values> symbol as a template.

Data engineering

Data engineering helps you explore, visualize, clean, and prepare your data. The process of data engineering is a critical first step in many spatial analysis and mapping workflows. The new Data Engineering view and ribbon help you better understand your data and prepare it for GIS workflows.

In the Data Engineering view, you can do the following:

• Open a Data Engineering view for one or more layers.
• Explore fields by viewing a list of fields by type, and quickly mapping and charting the data to understand patterns.
• View statistics to gain a better understanding of the data values and distribution.
• Prepare your data by applying geoprocessing tools to clean, construct, integrate, and format the data.

The Data Engineering view and Construct tools category are shown.

Use an existing tile cache to share web layers and services

A new layer drawing option to use an existing cache is available when you share map image layers, web imagery layers, map services, and image services. This option applies the settings of the existing cache, such as the tiling scheme and levels of detail, to the web layer or service you are sharing. The existing cache must not be associated with any content currently in your portal or on your server.

Using an existing cache is helpful when you have copied caches from one machine to another or when you are moving from ArcGIS 10.x services to ArcGIS Pro-based services to take advantage of new server capabilities.

Command search

Command search helps you find commands and tools by name or keyword. When you find the command you want, you can execute it directly from the search result.

In this example, clicking the search result for bar chart opens the Chart Properties pane.

Commands are enabled in the search results if they can be immediately executed in the current software state. For example, the Bar Chart command is enabled when a map layer is selected in the Contents pane.

When you click in the command search box or press the keyboard shortcut Alt+Q, a list of recently used and suggested commands appears. The list of recent commands is updated as you execute new commands from the command search drop-down list.

You can also open help topics related to your search. Topics open in the online or offline help system according to your help source setting; however, the offline help system must be installed on your computer.

Export layouts as accessible PDF files

You can now export layouts as accessible .pdf files. These files can include descriptive alt text for map frames, chart frames, and pictures that can be read by screen readers to enhance comprehension of your layout.

Alt text is a description of a visual element that can be read by screen readers.

When you compose your layout, you can specify alt text in the Element pane for an element, such as a map frame. When you export the layout as a PDF file, check the box to include accessibility tags in the Export Layout pane. Screen readers will be able to read the alt text in the exported file.

Selection symbol for polygon features

A new selection option allows you to use a fill color or hatch pattern for selected polygon features on your map. The default outline symbol can make it hard to interpret the selection set when unselected features are surrounded by selected ones or when you are zoomed in to large map scales. A solid fill or hatch pattern makes the selection set easy to see.

The default selection symbol in the top map makes it appear that all California counties are selected. The hatched fill pattern in the bottom map reveals that Kern County and Orange County are not selected.

You can choose any available fill color from the drop-down color palette or mix a custom color, with or without transparency. Hatch lines are drawn with the same selection color that is used for the polygon outlines. Learn more about the many ArcGIS Pro options you can set.

Get started

General

• Command search helps you find tools and commands to complete a task from the ArcGIS Pro application window. See Command search in the Highlights section.
• The last command you click on a context menu is selected by default the next time you open the menu. This saves time when your workflows involve repetitive tasks. You can change this setting in the user interface options.
• A new quick-start tutorial, Share a web tool, shows you how to share a geoprocessing tool to an ArcGIS Enterprise portal.
• Scripted installations of ArcGIS Pro require the new parameter ACCEPTEULA=yes to confirm acceptance of the end user license agreement.

Analysis and geoprocessing

General

• New approaches and numerous fixes for improved geoprocessing performance were added, including but not limited to the following:
  • Workspace, layer, and dataset properties are cached when first used by geoprocessing tools. The cached items are faster to operate against for subsequent runs using the same input.
  • When tools that create or update a feature layer or other layer are run in Python, their output is an arcpy.mp layer object. This output object has been streamlined to be created much faster by these geoprocessing tools, including Make Feature Layer, Select Layer By Attribute, and Select Layer By Location.
  • Performance has been improved for tools that use large lists of files, folders, and datasets as input.
  • Several tools were rewritten or enhanced to improve performance, including Multipart To Singlepart, Summarize Within, Summarize Nearby, and Append (when using feature services as input).
• A new banner message appears at the top of some geoprocessing tools to indicate that a new or alternative tool provides improved performance or superior results. The banner message links to the new tool. Read the tool reference page to understand the nature of the improvements.
• Every geoprocessing tool's Run menu now has a command to Copy Python Command . This copies to the clipboard the necessary Python command to execute the tool using the parameters and environments you specified. The tool does not need to be run first to copy the command.

  

  Use Copy Python Command to learn Python syntax and script and automate your workflows.

• The Geoprocessing History messages window has been redesigned with Parameters, Environments, and Messages tabs to improve access to content. Use the Copy all details to clipboard button to copy all content from all tabs to the clipboard. The Messages tab includes a counter for the number of messages, and filters to enable or disable the display of informative, warning, and error messages.
• Geoprocessing tool reference topics have been enhanced with tabs to display parameter information tailored to Dialog or Python usage.

Charts

• The ArcPy charts API has been redesigned, and you can now access specific chart classes through the arcpy.charts module.
• Histograms are now filtered by selection by default when they are generated from an attribute table with selected records. This allows you to calculate statistics on selection sets quickly.
• Scatter plot matrix layout configuration options have been improved, and a new sort feature has been added so that fields can be ordered by how strong their relationship is to a target field.
• Temporal guides are now available for bar charts.
• Moving average values are now included when you export temporal bar charts with moving average overlays.

Data Engineering

• The new Data Engineering view provides new ways to explore, visualize, and process your data in preparation for mapping and analysis. See Data engineering in the Highlights section.

Geoprocessing services

• Web tools and geoprocessing services can be saved as service definition files (.sd) to be shared or published at a later time. Use the Save As SD command in the Share As Web Tool pane or Share As Geoprocessing Service pane.

  

Link analysis

• Entity types can now be built from multiple fields in the input layer. This is useful if the data source contains fields of both source and target of the same entity type.
• You can filter entities in a link chart by the number of connected links. You can limit entities drawn by a minimum number of connections.
• You can create relationships from a foreign source feature that is not part of an entity. For example, you can create entities from bank accounts, and use a separate transactions table to connect the account entities.
• You can cancel long draw times on complex link charts by clicking the Refresh button.

ModelBuilder

• The system path to a model can now be read when you hover over the model view tab. This is useful when you edit models from multiple workspaces.

  

• New keyboard shortcuts have been added for model functions. ModelBuilder keyboard shortcuts are also displayed as ScreenTips when you hover over ribbon buttons and context menu commands.
• Two new filters have been added to the filter list. Parameters with filters selects model parameters with filters. Symbology selects variables with defined symbology.
• Buttons on the ModelBuilder ribbon tab have been reorganized. The Save button and Export button are collapsed into split buttons.
• The Save button on the ModelBuilder ribbon tab now is enabled only if there are pending edits in the model.
• Performance improvements have been made to loading models on editing, opening tool dialog boxes in the model, and Undo and Redo functionality.

Raster functions

See Raster functions in the Image Analyst extension section for new and enhanced raster functions available with an Image Analyst license.

See Raster functions in the Spatial Analyst extension section for new and enhanced raster functions available with a Spatial Analyst license.

Spatial statistics

HTML formatted messages

• Various tools now use HTML formatting for their geoprocessing messages.

  

See Spatial Statistics toolbox for new and enhanced geoprocessing tools.

3D Analyst extension

See 3D Analyst toolbox for new and enhanced geoprocessing tools.

Business Analyst extension

• Add Business Analyst Web App Sites—This new workflow allows you to access your organization's content created in the Business Analyst Web App and add it to your project.
• The Data Browser now includes a Favorites category to store frequently used variables. Navigation search and response time has also been improved.

See Business Analyst toolbox for new and enhanced geoprocessing tools.

Territory Design

• A new interactive Assign pane shows forecasted values for assigning and unassigning territory features, as well as improved filtering and selection options for manual territory editing.

See Territory Design toolbox for new and enhanced geoprocessing tools.

Image Analyst extension

Motion imagery

• FMV supports a deep learning–based object tracking capability and provides automated and computer-assisted tools to identify and track objects in video imagery. The tools are accessed from the new Object Tracking for Video pane, which enables object detection, extraction, and matching.

• You can now select three annotation tools from the Display Annotations drop-down list: Annotate Point, Annotate Polyline, and Annotate Polygon. These tools allow you to digitize features on the map within the video footprint and display them on the video. You can also digitize features on the video and display them on the map. If you have several videos, the tool can detect each video's footprint and add the features to each video.

• The MPEG-Dash (.mpd) video format is supported.

Raster functions

New functions:

• Predict Using Regression—Computes a predicted raster based on raster data inputs and a regression model. The regression model is the output from the Train Random Trees Regression Model tool.

Stereo Mapping

Two active stereographic 3D viewing kits are available, based on the NVIDIA Quadro GPU graphic card:

• 3DTV active stereoscopic viewing kit
• Volfoni active stereoscopic viewing kit

See Image Analyst toolbox for new and enhanced geoprocessing tools.

Network Analyst extension

• The Explore Network tool can be used to identify network elements in the map display and inspect their attributes and connectivity.
• Each network analysis layer imports its data using the Add Locations window. The window is similar to the Add Locations geoprocessing tool but when run from a solver-specific ribbon, it opens as a pop-up window.

See Network Analyst toolset in the Ready To Use toolbox for new enhancements. See Network Analyst module for Python enhancements.

Spatial Analyst extension

Improved geoprocessing tools and raster functions are available with this release.

Suitability Modeler

The Suitability Modeler has enhancements in the user interface and improved performance throughout. There is now support for bar charts in the Unique Categories and Range of Classes transformation methods.

Geoprocessing tools

See Spatial Analyst toolbox for the complete list of geoprocessing tool enhancements.

Raster functions

The following changes have been made to raster functions available with a Spatial Analyst extension license.

• The Distance Accumulation and Distance Allocation functions have improved geodesic accuracy and performance. The ability of the functions to consider units of vertical coordinate system has been enhanced.
• In the Distance (Legacy) category of raster functions, the geodesic accuracy and performance has been improved for Euclidean Allocation, Euclidean Back Direction, Euclidean Direction and Euclidean Distance.
• The Least Cost Path distance function has been moved to the Legacy group. In its place, use the Distance Accumulation function and Optimal Path As Raster function for enhanced functionality and performance.
• The Zonal Statistics function has improved performance when a float value raster is used with Median and Percentile settings of the Statistics Type parameter.

Geoprocessing functions

See the Python Spatial Analyst module for geoprocessing function enhancements.

Geoprocessing tools

3D Analyst toolbox

Point Cloud toolset

Note:

The LAS Dataset toolset has been renamed the Point Cloud toolset and includes additional tools for working with I3S point cloud scene layers.

Classification toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Tools that modify LAS class codes, such as Classify LAS Building, can now update LAS dataset pyramids in place, eliminating the need to rebuild the pyramids from scratch after the edits.
• The Extract LAS tool now supports input of LAS-compatible point cloud scene layers that reference scene layer package files (.slpk).

Classification (Deep Learning) toolset

New tools:

• Prepare Point Cloud Training Data—Generates data to train deep learning models for point cloud classification.
• Train Point Cloud Classification Model—Trains deep learning models for point cloud classification.
• Classify Point Cloud Using Trained Model—Classifies point clouds using deep learning models.

Raster toolset

Reclass toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Reclassify—The Reclassification parameter now allows you to generate a remap table based on the values of the input raster. The Classify option opens a dialog box where you can specify a data classification method and the number of classes.

Visibility toolset

• The Viewshed 2 tool has been renamed Geodesic Viewshed.

Analysis toolbox

Overlay toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Apportion Polygon has been enhanced with new options in the Apportion Method parameter and the newly enabled Estimation Features parameter. Use these parameters together to perform more accurate apportionment and attribute summarization by weighting the areas that receive high proportions of the summary values using point or line estimation features.

Aviation toolbox

Airports toolset

Heliport Obstruction Identification Surfaces toolset

New tools:

• ICAO Annex 14 Heliports—Generates obstruction identification surfaces (OIS) for heliports based on ICAO Annex 14 Volume II specifications.

Obstruction Identification Surfaces toolset

Enhanced tools:

• ICAO Annex 14—A new parameter option has been added that generates surfaces at both ends of a runway.

Charting toolset

Cartography toolset

The new Cartography toolset contains tools that adjust and align features. These tools can be integrated into your aeronautical chart production pipeline.

New tools:

• Add Aviation Line Bypass—Adjusts route polyline features that overlap point features.
• Rotate Aviation Features—Aligns features to a grid or to the page.

Data Management toolset

New tools:

• Generate Airspace Areas—Generates AirspaceArea features from Airspace features.

Enhanced tools:

• Generate Derived Airspace Geometry—A new parameter has been added that exports derived airspace parts to a separate feature class.

Business Analyst toolbox

Analysis toolset

New tools:

• Find Nearby Locations—Contains new and enhanced features of its equivalent Business Analyst Desktop tool, Proximity Analysis (Locator Report).

Cartography toolbox

Annotation toolset

A new environment setting is available:

• Annotation Text String Field Length—Overrides the default field length on annotation feature classes created in a database.

Enhanced tools:

• Convert Labels to Annotation—Supports batch mode and honors the Annotation Text String Field Length environment.
• Tiled Labels to Annotation—Honors the Annotation Text String Field Length environment.
• Contour Annotation—Honors the Annotation Text String Field Length environment.

Conversion toolbox

LAS toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Convert LAS—Has an option assign a spatial reference to inputs that are missing that information.

SAS toolset

Note:

New at ArcGIS Pro 2.8, the SAS-ArcGIS Bridge consists of two new geoprocessing tools for converting between SAS datasets and Esri tables, as well as the SWAT and SASPY Python packages, which allow you to use SAS procedures and custom SAS code in notebooks. Additionally, SAS is now an alliance in the Esri Partner Network.

New tools:

• SAS To Table—Converts a SAS dataset to a table.
• Table To SAS—Converts a table to a SAS dataset.

Data Management toolbox

Features toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Calculate Geometry Attributes—Now supports calculating values into new fields as well as existing fields. To calculate into a new field, specify the name of a field that does not exist in your dataset. The field type is determined by the geoprocessing property being calculated into the field.
• Multipart to Singlepart—The tool has been rewritten for improved performance.
• Minimum Bounding Geometry—The Geometry Type parameter's Convex Hull, Circle and Envelope options are now supported with a Standard or Basic license.

Fields toolset

Enhanced tools:

• The Calculate Field and Calculate Fields tools include a new Enforce Domains parameter that controls whether the calculations can violate existing coded-value or range domains set on the field.

General toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Append—Uses a new feature service API for faster data loading when the target dataset is a feature service.

Layers and Table Views toolset

New tools:

• Make Aggregation Query Layer—Creates a query layer that summarizes, aggregates, and filters DBMS tables dynamically based on time, range, and attribute queries, and joins the output to a feature layer for displaying results on a map.

Package toolset

New tools:

• Upgrade Scene Layer—Upgrades a scene layer package to the current I3S version in SLPK format or output to i3sREST format for use in ArcGIS Enterprise.

Enhanced tools:

• Extract Package—Now supports extracting vector, tile, and scene layer packages to a cloud store using the Target Cloud Connection parameter.

Raster toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Copy Raster—supports NetCDF as both an input and output format. The NetCDF format supports single-band data. For multidimensional and multiband data such as satellite data, the first band will be used. The type of NetCDF format supported for output follows the CF (Climate and Forecast) conventions.

Geocoding toolbox

Enhanced tools:

• Create Locator—Feature ID was added as a new locator role field, which is used to collapse duplicate features in the reference data for each primary locator role. The primary Join ID is no longer used to collapse duplicate geometries.
• Reverse Geocode—The SUBADDRESS feature type was added as a possible match type that is returned when you find the nearest address to a point location.

Image Analyst toolbox

The following tools were moved from the Multidimensional toolset to the Change Detection toolset:

• Analyze Changes Using CCDC
• Analyze Changes Using LandTrendr
• Detect Change Using Change Analysis Raster

Classification and Pattern Recognition toolset

The Segmentation and Classification toolset has been renamed the Classification and Pattern Recognition toolset to better reflect the purpose and utility of the tools.

New tools:

• Train Random Trees Regression Model—Models the relationship between explanatory variables and a target dataset using random trees analysis.
• Predict Using Regression Model—Predicts data values using the output from the Train Random Tree Regression Model tool.

Deep Learning toolset

New tools:

• Detect Change Using Deep Learning—Runs a trained deep learning model to detect change between two rasters.

Enhanced tools:

• Detect Objects Using Deep Learning—Allows the Mask environment to be set.
• Export Training Data For Deep Learning—The following enhancements have been made:
  • Additional Input Raster—New input parameter that allows new image translation workflows to be performed.
  • CycleGAN—New metadata format.
  • Input Feature Class Or Classified Raster Or Table Feature Class—This parameter now accepts a folder as a data type.
• Label Objects for Deep Learning—The following enhancements have been made:
  • Additional Input Raster—New input parameter that allows new image translation workflows to be performed.
  • CycleGAN—New metadata format.
  • Export Tiles—New metadata format.
• Train Deep Learning Model—Nine new model types have been added:
  • BDCN Edge Detector (Pixel classification)
  • HED Edge Detector (Pixel classification)
  • Multi Task Road Extractor (Pixel classification)
  • ConnectNet (Pixel classification)
  • Pix2Pix (Image translation)
  • CycleGAN (Image translation)
  • Super-resolution (Image translation)
  • Change Detector (Pixel Classification)
  • Image Captioner (Image Translation)

Motion Imagery toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Video Multiplexer—You can now encode video moving target indication (VMTI) data in a .csv file into an associated video file.

Multidimensional Analysis toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Aggregate Multidimensional Raster—The following enhancements have been made:
  • The Aggregation Method parameter has a new Percentile option. Two new parameters are available in support of this statistical option: Percentile value and Percentile interpolation type.
  • The new Dimensionless parameter specifies whether the layer will have dimension values.

Statistical toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Zonal Statistics and Zonal Statistics as Table—Improved performance when the Input value raster parameter value is a float and is used with the Median or Percentile setting of the Statistics type parameter.

Indoors toolbox

New tools:

• Create Indoor Dataset—Creates an indoor dataset containing the necessary feature classes to maintain floor plan data using a streamlined schema that conforms to the ArcGIS Indoors Information Model.

Enhanced tools:

• Generate Occupant Features—The Output Occupant Feature Class parameter now includes a SITE_ID field that is used in the Indoor Space Planner app.
• The following tools now support indoor datasets that are created using the Create Indoor Dataset tool, as well as Indoors geodatabases that are created using the Create Indoors Database tool:
  • Configure Indoor Positioning
  • Generate Occupant Features
  • Generate Unit Openings
  • Import BIM To Indoor Dataset
  • Import Floorplans To Indoors Geodatabase

Indoors Network toolset

New tools:

• Create Indoor Network Dataset—Creates an indoor network dataset containing the necessary feature classes to maintain indoor network data using a streamlined schema that conforms to the ArcGIS Indoors Information Model.

Enhanced tools:

• The following tools now support indoor datasets and indoor network datasets that are created using the Create Indoor Dataset and Create Indoor Network Dataset tools, as well as Indoors geodatabases that are created using the Create Indoors Database tool:
  • Classify Indoor Pathways
  • Generate Facility Entryways
  • Generate Floor Transitions
  • Generate Indoor Pathways
  • Thin Indoor Pathways
• Generate Facility Entryways—Two new optional parameters, Level ID Field and Use Type Field, have been added to determine which fields to populate in the Target Entryways feature layer.

Intelligence toolbox

Conversion toolset

New tools:

• Create Location File From Text File—Creates a location file for use in LocateXT from a text file from NGA GEOnet Names Server (GNS) or USGS Geographic Names Information System.

Location Referencing toolbox

Enhanced tools:

• Generate Routes tool—This tool has been reengineered to process more quickly and take less time to run.

Configuration toolset

LRS Event toolset

New tools:

• Configure External Event With LRS—Allows you to connect to and register external event data with your LRS, even if the data is stored and maintained outside of the geodatabase. This tool allows you to set up a read-only connection to external event data, which you can then use to keep the route and measure information of the external event in sync with the LRS using the Relocate Event tool.

Maritime toolbox

S-57 toolset

Management toolset

New tools:

• Copy S-57 Features—Copies the contents of one maritime schema to another.

Enhanced tools:

• Export Geodatabase To S-57—The SCAMIN Configuration File parameter has been added.

Multidimension toolbox

NetCDF toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Make NetCDF Feature Layer, Make NetCDF Raster Layer, and Make NetCDF Table View—Can now input NetCDF format files that have the .nc4 extension.

Raster Analysis toolbox

Use Proximity toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Distance Accumulation, Distance Allocation, and Optimal Region Connections tools—Improvements in geodesic accuracy and performance. The ability of the tools to consider units of vertical coordinate system has been enhanced.

Use Proximity (Legacy) toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Calculate Distance—The geodesic accuracy and performance have been improved.

Summarize Data toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Summarize Raster Within and Zonal Statistics As Table—Improved performance when the Input value raster parameter value is a float and is used with the Median or Percentile setting of the Statistics type parameter.

Ready To Use toolbox

Elevation toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Profile, Summarize Elevation, and Viewshed—Updated with 10-meter resolution data for Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia.
• Profile—A new 500-meter resolution has been added to the supported DEM resolutions based on the worldwide GEBCO data.

Network Analyst toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Find Closest Facilities and Find Routes—Two output parameters output_direction_points and output_direction_lines have been added.
• All tools have an Ignore Invalid Locations parameter that specifies whether invalid input locations are ignored when the analysis runs.

Spatial Analyst toolbox

Distance toolset

New conceptual help topics for Distance analysis are available.

Enhanced tools:

• Distance Accumulation, Distance Allocation, and Optimal Region Connections—Improvements in geodesic accuracy and performance have been made. The ability of the tools to consider units of vertical coordinate system has been enhanced.
• Distance (Legacy) toolset—The geodesic accuracy and performance have been improved for Euclidean Allocation, Euclidean Back Direction, Euclidean Direction, and Euclidean Distance.

Multidimensional Analysis toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Aggregate Multidimensional Raster—The following enhancements have been made:
  • The Aggregation Method parameter has a new Percentile option. Two new parameters are available in support of this statistical option: Percentile value and Percentile interpolation type.
  • The new Dimensionless parameter specifies whether the layer will have dimension values.

Raster Creation toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Create Constant Raster, Create Normal Raster, and Create Random Raster—In Python, the type of the output extent parameter was updated to be a composite of Envelope and Extent.

Reclass toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Reclassify—The Reclassification parameter now allows you to generate a remap table based on the values of the input raster. The Classify option opens a dialog box where you can specify a data classification method and the number of classes.

Segmentation and Classification toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Export Training Data For Deep Learning—The following enhancements have been made:
  • Additional Input Raster—New input parameter that allows new image translation workflows to be performed.
  • CycleGAN—New metadata format.
  • Input Feature Class Or Classified Raster Or Table Feature Class—This parameter now accepts a folder as a data type.

Surface toolset

The Viewshed 2 tool has been renamed Geodesic Viewshed.

Zonal toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Zonal Statistics and Zonal Statistics as Table—Performance improvement when the Input value raster parameter value is a float and is used with the Median or Percentile setting of the Statistics type parameter.

Spatial Statistics toolbox

Mapping Clusters toolset

Enhanced tools:

• Density Based Clustering—The new Time Field and Search Time Interval parameters identify clusters of points in space and time.

Utilities toolset

New tools:

• Time Series Smoothing—Smooths the values of one or more time series. You can use moving averages (backward, forward, or centered) as well as an adaptive method based on linear regression.

  

Territory Design toolbox

Territory Solution toolset

New tool:

• Copy Territory Solution—Creates a copy of a territory solution while preserving the initial territory solution.

Topographic Production toolbox

Cartography toolset

Cartographic Refinement toolset

Enhanced tools:

Make Masks From Rules now includes the option to ignore color in a rule and to copy target or source attributes to the final output.

Data Management toolset

Geodatabase toolset

Enhanced tools:

Extract Data By Feature now has an optional SQL query filter that can be applied to all feature classes.

Data management and workflows

Big data connections

• A new, single, guided experience allows you to connect to your datasets and flexibly set properties such as time and geometry. The New Big Data Connection dialog box simplifies and expedites data preparation by removing time-consuming workflows such as calculating geometry, formatting fields, and combining datasets.

BIM

Industry Foundation Classes (IFC)

• BIM data support has been expanded to include Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) files as BIM file workspaces.

Data Reviewer

• The tutorials now consist of exercises that show you how to author attribute rules (validation and constraint), and how to review and correct error results in the Error Inspector pane. Reviewer rules in a map and batch jobs are still supported; however, it is recommended that you edit your workflows to use attribute rules.
  • Implement automated quality control
  • Enhance quality assurance during editing
  • Evaluate features with attribute rules

Geocoding

• You can save an offline service definition file for a locator to share to an ArcGIS Enterprise portal at a later time.
• You can save an offline service definition file for a geocode service to publish to a stand-alone deployment of ArcGIS Server at a later time.
• You can share locators to ArcGIS Enterprise on Kubernetes.
• Locators created with the Create Address Locator tool are now excluded when creating mobile map and mobile scene packages.
• The Reverse Geocode tool accepts Subaddress as a feature type in reverse geocoding when you work with StreetMap Premium and custom Point Address role locators that support subaddresses.

See Geocoding toolbox for geoprocessing tool enhancements.

Geodatabases and databases

• You can now add replica datasets directly to a map using either Add to current map or Add to new map. These options are found on the Replica Options button on replica cards in the Manage Replicas pane.

  

• While creating a query layer to a database, you can choose a 64-bit integer as the unique identifier for the layer.
• Enterprise geodatabases now have an Administration context menu to provide quick access to common tools and views. To access the context menu, right-click a database connection in the Catalog pane under Databases.

  

Indoors

• You can now create floor-aware maps and scenes in the following ways:

  • You can define a map or scene as floor aware by configuring the map's Indoor Layers properties.
  • You can define additional layers as floor aware by configuring a layer's Floor Field property.
• You can use a new floor filter to visualize and explore floor-aware maps and scenes by interactively filtering data based on site, facility, and floor.
• A new streamlined schema conforms to the ArcGIS Indoors Information Model for maintaining floor plan and network data. The indoor dataset (created using the Create Indoor Dataset tool) and the indoor network dataset (created using the Create Indoor Network Dataset tool) use this schema.

See Indoors toolbox for new and enhanced geoprocessing tools.

Services

OGC Services

• ArcGIS Pro now has client support for OGC API Features services. The OGC API family of standards are the new era of open specification services for serving geospatial data over the web and are built on the legacy of the OGC Web Service standards. You can work with an OGC API Features service by creating an OGC API server connection.

Workflow Manager (Classic)

• The Job LOI Map now highlights and zooms to the location of the chosen job in the Job List.
• You can now create user queries to search for jobs in the Workflow Manager repository and display them in the workflow view.
• You can now view the syntax of public queries and user queries and compare them against the results in the Job List.

Editing

• The Array tool displays a 3D handle you can drag to specify rows, columns, and levels. It is available when you select z-aware features in a 3D scene.
• When you change the display units for the current map, you also change the units in the geometry properties table for Edit Vertices and the Attributes pane. This setting is available at the bottom of a map or scene view.
• In Snapping Settings, you can turn snap tips on or off.
• The Line Intersection tool updates COGO field values when they exist.
• Project options for editing include the ability to set the attributes and geometry change prompts to automatically apply or discard your edits.
• The Traverse tool supports the Crandall and Transit adjustment methods in addition to the Compass adjustment method (default). Residual values are listed for each adjusted traverse dimension under the Closure tab.

Parcel fabric

• You can configure feature templates for the creation of lines using true mean bearing and other geodetic direction types. The provided direction and distance values for the line are stored in COGO fields.
• The records Heads-Up Display (HUD) has additional options for setting active records under the Menu button :
  • The Activate Record of Selected Feature command activates a record by obtaining it from a selection of parcel features.
  • The Recently Used Records command shows a list of recently used records that you can set as active in the map.

Imagery and raster data

General

• The Classify renderer uses six significant digits by default. Use the Increase and Decrease buttons to quickly increase or decrease the number of significant digits or decimals.

Raster charts

The Pixel Time Series Change Explorer allows you to identify changes in a single pixel value over time using the Continuous Change Detection and Classification (CCDC) method or the Landsat-based detection of trends in disturbance and recovery (LandTrendr) method. This allows you to refine model parameters to focus on specific change events before running Analyze Changes Using CCDC or Analyze Changes Using LandTrendr for an entire dataset. For example, you can visualize how a pixel in a forested region has changed over time and responded to environmental impacts, such as fire events or severe drought.

Raster data types

The following raster data types are now supported:

• PlanetScope is a satellite constellation that consists of 130 satellites capturing images of the earth’s land surface daily.
• MOD (.mod) files are generated by block adjustment packages applications such as PAT-B. They contain the interior and exterior orientation parameters required to accurately project the associated images on a map.
• PAR format data is produced by the legacy Digital Video Plotter (DVP) system and saved with an associated .par metadata file. The .par file contains the interior and exterior orientation parameters required to accurately project the associated images on a map.

Mapping and visualization

General

• You can filter the list of layers in the Contents pane to show only those layers with an active definition query.
• When you write queries, you can now access hidden fields, sort the list of fields alphabetically, and choose whether to show the field names or the field aliases.
• You can now take a screen capture the visible extent of a map, scene, or layout and place the image on the system clipboard for use in another application.
• Beginning with ArcGIS Enterprise 10.9, when you publish a bin-enabled feature layer to a feature service, you can consume the service in ArcGIS Pro and change certain layer properties such as the bin's symbology or bin size.
• When you add service layers to a map or scene from a URL, ArcGIS Pro attempts to determine the service type. When you add ArcGIS Server services, vector tile services, or WMS services by URL, you can also specify custom request parameters.
• The performance of opening large maps with many collapsed layers has improved.
• The loading and drawing of 3D features has been improved, and the impact of visual rendering artifacts has been reduced. Therefore, the Optimize partially transparent marker symbols layer property is now turned on by default for point, line, and polygon feature layers. It remains off by default for multipatch and 3D object feature layers.
• The table row selection count has been added to the map view status bar. The new label is visible only when there is a stand-alone table row selection in the map.

3D scenes and scene layers

• 3D object scene layers support advanced physically based rendering (PBR) materials from 3D object feature layers.
• You can permanently clip integrated mesh scene layer packages using the Clip tool.

  

• The Add Modification dialog box includes a new default operation option when importing modifications.
• You can exclude layers draped on an integrated mesh through the Exclude From Integrated Mesh option on the Elevation Surface Appearance tab.
• Layer files are now supported in the Add Elevation Source dialog box for use as an elevation source in a ground or custom surface.
• Point, 3D object, and Building scene layers are now written as version 1.8.
• You can now extract scene layer packages to a folder in a file system or to an object store located in the cloud.
• You can upgrade scene layer packages to the latest I3S version using the Upgrade Scene Layer tool.
• Voxel layers are available at all ArcGIS Pro license levels.

Animation

• Two additional dynamic text overlays, Voxel Filter and Voxel Surface, are available for voxel data.

Annotation and labeling

• Temporarily registered fonts such as Adobe Fonts are now supported in ArcGIS Pro.
• You now have the option to remove or leave leading and trailing stacking separators in the label.
• You can quickly create copies of label classes using the Duplicate command.
• When using Arcade expressions for dimension styles, you can now add a title to the expression.
• Field aliases for new annotation and dimension feature classes are now translated into supported languages.
• Performance enhancements have been made in the following areas:
  • Maplex label placement
  • Street label placement
  • Complex halo drawing

See Cartography toolbox for geoprocessing tool enhancements.

Arcade

• ArcGIS Pro supports Arcade version 1.13. For a summary of new features, see Release Notes for versions later than version 1.12.

Coordinate systems and transformations

• Transformation details such as transformation direction, source and target coordinate systems, methods, parameters, and areas of use are now listed for each transformation used in a map or scene.

Exploratory analysis tools

• You can export the Elevation Profile graph to the following formats: 3D line feature, geodatabase table, and CSV table.
• The Object Detection tool has extended its support to include YOLOv3, SSD, and RetinaNet models.

Layouts

• New keyboard shortcuts have been added for grouping and ungrouping elements in the layout. Use Ctrl+G to group selected elements and Ctrl+Shift+G to ungroup elements in a selected group.
• Duplicate selected elements on the layout view or in the Contents pane by holding the Ctrl key and dragging the selection.

Pop-ups

• Pop-ups for an m-aware feature include six measurement value fields. These are added to the Fields element.
• When you share a layer with a pop-up that contains a custom numeric or date format, warning messages have been added to improve feedback if the numeric or date format is not supported online.

Reports

• Supplemental pages include the following improvements:
  • Save a supplemental page separately to a layout file (.pagx).
  • You can also include page numbers defined in a report on a supplemental page when a report is exported.

Styles

• Three new symbols have been added to the ArcGIS 2D style:

  

Symbology

• When you add symbol classes to a layer with unique values symbology, the new classes are assigned the same symbol as the one assigned to <all other values>, rather than a random symbol. This allows you to create a generic complex symbol and quickly customize it for each new class.
• You can now reorder the symbol class headings in unique values symbology.
• You can now add alternate symbols to scale-based symbol classes in graduated colors symbology.
• The performance of the color picker has improved when loading a large number of colors.

Tables

• Performance improvements have been made for faster loading, cell rendering, and increased stability.
• You can use the Fields view to format the display of date fields in the table.
• A new application setting allows you to hide the Click to add new row option for feature layers.
• You can now insert new rows into stand-alone tables using the table view's toolbar.
• You can now replace a found value with an empty string or null value.

Vector tiles

• When you author a map for vector tile creation, offset symbol effects on stroke symbol layers are honored, but the offset strokes appear simplified (for performance reasons) and are rendered using the Miter method.

Production

Aviation Charting

The following capabilities have been added to ArcGIS Aviation Charting:

• Aviation north arrows—You can create a configurable north arrow for your aeronautical charts. The aviation north arrow contains symbology and labels that are commonly used on aeronautical charts.
• Cruising altitude diagrams—A cruising altitude diagram communicates critical information about cruising altitude levels during flight. The cruising altitude diagram layout element in ArcGIS Pro is highly customizable so you can apply it to multiple charts.
• Create AIS Geodatabase toolset—The ArcGIS Aviation Charting Product Files Package contains a toolset for automating the creation of an Aeronautical Information System (AIS) geodatabase for single and multiuser configurations.
• AIS Data Dictionary—A data dictionary containing information on features from the AIS geodatabase schema has been added.
• You can now create preferences for the new Generate Airspace Areas tool.

See Aviation toolbox for new and enhanced geoprocessing tools.

Defense Mapping

Product files

• MGCP TRD 4.5.1 and TRD 4.6 are now fully supported in tools and product files.
• TDS 7.1 is now fully supported in tools and product files.

Maritime

• The Select Unverified tool searches unverified features in a workspace and adds them to the Contents pane if they aren't already in the map.

• The Verify Selected tool changes the NIS_VERIFIED field value from Not Verified to Verified for the currently selected set of features.

• Track Deletes keeps a record of all deleted features for quality control.
• Attribute rules provide on-the-fly attribute validation based on the S-58 standard.
• The S-58 Error Manager allows you to quickly validate a dataset, or a part of a dataset, using the IHO S-58 validation standard.

Pipeline Referencing

• Support for external event configuration has been added.
  • The Configure External Event With LRS tool allows you to set up a read-only connection to external event data that can’t be modeled within the geodatabase with your LRS.
  • After configuration, external events can be visualized in a map or scene in ArcGIS Pro then selected, identified, or exported as a feature class or table.
  • You can keep your LRS attributes (routes and measures) in sync with your external event source. This sync process is completed with the new Relocate Event tool.
• The Export Network tool has been added. This tool supports synchronizing external systems with LRS Networks to update route, gaps, concurrencies, and measure translations.
• Improved performance in the Generate Routes tool. This tool has been reengineered to process more quickly and take less time to run.

See Location Referencing toolbox for new and enhanced geoprocessing tools.

Production Mapping

You can enable the Topographic Production Service capability and configure operations or other settings when you share your map as a web layer.

Roads and Highways

• Support for external event configuration has been added.
  • The Configure External Event With LRS tool allows you to set up a read-only connection to external event data that can’t be modeled within the geodatabase with your LRS.
  • After configuration, external events can be visualized in a map or scene in ArcGIS Pro then selected, identified, or exported as a feature class or table.
  • Keep your LRS attributes (routes and measures) in sync with your external event source. This sync process is completed with the new Relocate Event tool.
• The Export Network tool has been added. This tool supports synchronizing external systems with LRS Networks to update route, gaps, concurrencies, and measure translations.
• Improved performance in the Generate Routes tool. This tool has been reengineered to process more quickly and take less time to run.

See Location Referencing toolbox for new and enhanced geoprocessing tools.

Projects

General

• Browse dialog boxes, such as Add Data, Add Folder Connection, and Open Project, list your computer's content using File Explorer categories.

  

• Searches for portal items can be filtered by Notebooks, in addition to other item types.
• The performance of opening projects has improved. Project items that are in use, such as open map and layout views, are loaded immediately. Items not in use, such as closed map and layout views, are not loaded until used.
• The performance of saving projects has improved. Only project items that have changed are saved.
• You can select multiple items in browse dialog boxes when you add or insert items in a project, or when you add items to your favorites collection.
• The Path column in a catalog view now shows path names for most item types. The Size column displays file sizes for supported items.
• You can view and access recently visited locations by clicking the Location bar drop-down arrow in any browse dialog box or catalog view. The project home folder appears at the top. Browse dialog boxes share a common list of locations. Catalog views maintain a separate list.

  

Sign in to your organization

• You can now sign in to a portal using a web browser.

Share your work

• You can now publish vector tile layers with an associated web feature layer for use in editing workflows. This is supported for ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise 10.9 and later.
• Using an existing cache has been added as a layer drawing option when you share map image layers, web imagery layers, map services, and image services. This option associates tiles previously generated on the server with your web layer or service. See Use an existing tile cache to share web layers and services in the Highlights section.
• The Approve for Public Data Collection option allows you to approve public editing when sharing web feature layers that copy all data to ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise 10.9 and later.

Export a map or layout

• You can now export layouts as accessible PDF files that can be read by screen readers. See Export layouts as accessible PDF files in the Highlights section.

Trace networks

• Performance improvements have been made to the network topology and the trace framework in the trace network. These updates include but are not limited to the following:
  • Enhancements to the trace framework so that complex trace operations execute more quickly.
  • Improvements to the build engine to optimize how dirty areas are retrieved and processed during validation, reducing the time required to validate the network topology.

• System-provided network attributes are now listed on the Network Attributes tab of the network properties dialog box for use in queries against the REST endpoint.

Utility networks

• Performance improvements have been made to the network topology, subnetwork management, and tracing framework in the utility network. These updates include but are not limited to the following:
  • Enhancements with subnetwork management so that Update Subnetwork and subnetwork tracing processes execute more quickly.
  • Improvements were made to the build engine to optimize how dirty areas are retrieved and processed during validation, reducing the time required to validate the network topology.

• System-provided network attributes are now listed in the Attributes and Assignments section of the network properties dialog box for usage in queries against the REST endpoint.
• Client-side time-outs for utility network tools and processes that use synchronous processing have been updated to 600 seconds (10 minutes). The exception is the Update Subnetwork geoprocessing tool, which uses a time-out setting of 1,800 seconds (30 minutes).
• Updates have been made to the Add Terminal Configuration geoprocessing tool to allow the definition of multiple terminal pairs within a valid path.

Python

General

• The version of Python in ArcGIS Pro has been upgraded to Python 3.7.10.
• The version of conda in ArcGIS Pro has been upgraded to conda 4.9.2.
• The GeoPandas library can now be added to an ArcGIS Pro compatible conda environment.

ArcGIS Notebooks

• The default position of the first notebook in a project can be customized with the User Interface options.
• The Notebook ribbon tab contains new buttons for exporting a notebook to a Python or .html file.

ArcPy

• The SetLogMetadata and GetLogMetadata functions have been added to control whether dataset metadata is updated with geoprocessing tool information.
• FeatureSet and RecordSet objects can now be created from Esri JSON format.
• Geometry classes (Multipoint, PointGeometry, Polygon, and Polyline) now support named arguments.
• The Array class can accept any iterable object that returns Point objects.

Mapping module

The following changes have been made to the mapping module (arcpy.mp) in this release:

• The LayerTime class has been added to provide information about how time is stored and configured in time-enabled layers.
• The MapTime class has been added to provide access to time management operations when time-enabled layers are displayed in a map frame on a layout.

Network Analyst module

• Solver result objects now have a spatialReference property and an extent method.

Spatial Analyst module

The changes below have been made to the Spatial Analyst module (arcpy.sa) in this release.

Geoprocessing functions

The Aggregate and Slope geoprocessing functions now create a function raster output when executed from ArcPy.

ArcGIS Pro SDK

The ArcGIS Pro SDK for .NET allows you to extend ArcGIS Pro with your own unique tools and workflows using SDK add-ins and configurations. See What's New for Developers at 2.8.

Roadmap

To learn more about near-term, mid-term, and long-term development goals, refer to the latest ArcGIS Pro roadmap.