Add a Parquet file to a map or scene

Each Apache Parquet file that you access from a local folder or a cloud storage connection is treated as its own layer or table, and ArcGIS Pro creates a local cache for each file. The map or scene accesses the data in the local cache.

Learn more about the cache that is created for a Parquet file

When you add the Parquet file to a map or scene, ArcGIS Pro reads the metadata of the file to determine how to display the data as follows:

• If the file contains spatial data as defined in the GeoParquet format, the cache is a feature class and added to the map or scene as a feature layer.

  Note:

  ArcGIS Pro displays one entity type per feature layer. For example, a single layer on the map will display all point features; it will not display points and polygons in the same layer.

• If the geometry value for the Parquet file is set to a specific entity type, such as point, ArcGIS Pro displays only the point features in the file; features that are not points are not included in the cache and are not accessible. If no geometry value is set for the file, ArcGIS Pro uses the entity type of the first feature in the file. Only features of that entity type are included in the cache and, therefore, displayed on the map or scene.
• If the Parquet file does not contain spatial data in a supported GeoParquet format, the cache is created as a table and added to the map or scene as a stand-alone table.

To add a Parquet file to a map or scene, complete the following steps:

1. In the Catalog pane, connect to the folder or the cloud storage connection that accesses the bucket where the Parquet file is stored.

   See the FAQ for supported cloud storage locations.

2. Open the folder or cloud storage connection from the previous step and add the Parquet file to a map or scene using the instructions in Add layers to a map or scene.

   Note:

   The first time that you add a Parquet file to a map or scene may take a while, because ArcGIS Pro reads the entire file and creates the local cache.

   To avoid this lag time, you can run the CreateParquetCache ArcPy function to create the cache before adding the file to a map for the first time.

The layer is now in the map or scene, and you can work with it in the same way as any other read-only feature layer or stand-alone table.