Cached Parquet data

The data from an Apache Parquet file that you access from a local folder or cloud storage connection is cached locally when you do any of the following:

These local caches are created per user per machine. The caches improve performance when you query the data or pan or zoom around the map or scene when the data is present. It also provides for the unique identifier field that ArcGIS requires, and it allows ArcGIS Pro to aggregate features into bins for improved display of numerous features.

The greater the amount of data that exists in the Parquet file, the longer it will take to generate the cache. To avoid having to wait for ArcGIS Pro to generate the cache when you perform one of the tasks listed above, you can create the cache first by running the CreateParquetCache ArcPy function in a Python window.

When the last modified date of the source Parquet file changes, ArcGIS Pro re-creates the local cache.

ArcGIS Pro deletes smaller caches (1 GB or smaller) automatically if they have not been accessed in the last 30 days. In this case, access is recorded for the actions listed above, as well as the following:

  • Open a map or scene in which the data is saved.
  • Open the Fields view of the map layer by clicking Data Design > Fields on the layer’s context menu in the Contents pane.
  • Open the Properties dialog box for the map layer by clicking Properties on the layer’s context menu in the Contents pane.

Caches that are larger than 1 GB are retained due to the time it takes to build caches.

Tip:

More information about caches is available in FAQs about using a Parquet file in ArcGIS Pro.

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