Excessive draw requests

In ArcGIS Pro, the graphics engine limits drawing based on the abilities of your computer. If these limits are exceeded, a scene will not draw completely. You may also notice degraded drawing performance, such as low frame rates or the view not moving smoothly, when the current view is consuming resources close to the limit. When the volume of draw requests grows beyond a certain limit, you will see a warning message that states the following:

Symbology or layer properties for layer NAME are causing an excessive amount of draw requests. Consider lowering the feature count by changing distance visibility limits or changing symbology properties.

You will need to reduce the volume of draw requests to resume normal rendering.

Reduce the number or complexity of displayed features

Try the following to reduce the number or complexity of displayed features:

  • If your content can be draped on the surface rather than drawn at absolute heights, consider moving layers from the 3D Layers group to the 2D layers group. This will reduce the number of 3D geometries that are drawing in your scene, thus reducing the load on the system.
  • Reduce the distance visibility limit for one or more layers in your scene. You can do this on the General tab of the Layer Properties dialog box. Change the Out Beyond parameter to a shorter distance.
  • If your layer contains symbols such as simple icons that do not take advantage of alpha transparency, try checking the Optimize partially transparent symbols option. This option is on the Display tab of the Layer Properties dialog box.
  • If you have a single feature with more than 250,000 vertices, consider using geoprocessing tools to split the feature into smaller features. For example, follow this workflow:
    1. Use the Dice tool to subdivide very large features into smaller features based on a specified vertex limit. Start with a vertex limit of 1000 as a guideline. This step alone might be enough to improve drawing and allow you to return to your workflow.
    2. To further improve performance, consider reducing the complexity of the diced features. To do this, run the Create Cartographic Partitions tool to partition the data for processing. Start with a feature count of 1000 as a guideline. Then, run the Simplify Line tool on the diced features, referencing the partitions created in the previous step in the tool's Cartographic Partitions environment setting.
  • If using a layer with marker symbols and the Display 3D features in real-world units option is enabled, turn off the Billboard option in the Symbology pane.
  • If Display 3D features in real-world units is unchecked on a layer using marker symbols, follow the property recommendations below. They increase the efficiency and drawing performance of the layer.
    • Set symbol layer offset in X, Y, and Z axes to zero.
    • Ensure anchor point values are relative rather than absolute.
    • Set XY rotation to zero.
    • Enable billboarding.
    • Set depth to zero.
    • Remove tint or override from picture markers.
    • Disable vertical orientation.

Related topics