There are a wide range of factors that can lead to slow performance while interacting with models within ArcGIS Pro. This page highlights key practices that can help keep your model and performance as fast and smooth as possible.
Use the latest version
InfoWater Pro and ArcGIS Pro are continually improving over time with important performance enhancements:
- Improved rendering of initial status and check valve direction on the map – InfoWater Pro 2024.2 switched these displays to be based on fixed map layers to remove the need for refreshing rendered layers from the database. Previously these options could slow down interacting with the map for larger models.
- Faster editing of domains and facility management - Starting in InfoWater Pro 2023.2, we enhanced the performance of editing the domain or active facilities. In some cases for large models, these edits now take 10% of the time it used to.
- Faster scenario switching - InfoWater Pro 2023.3 made improvements to switching scenarios which can now take 30% of the time it used to, depending on the model and scenario parameters.
- Alternate Indexing - InfoWater Pro 2024 introduced a new alternate indexing option in the Preferences menu that ensures attribute indexing on joined layers maintains fast performance throughout work sessions.
- New ArcGIS Pro version support - New versions of ArcGIS Pro like 3.0 and 3.1 introduce performance improvements. Be sure to check InfoWater Pro's compatibility chart and take advantage of these latest versions.
Work from a model stored locally
In many cases, modelers want to keep their model stored and backed up on a shared server. This is great for data security and collaboration; however, it can be problematic to work directly in a model that is stored outside of your computer. Even though InfoWater Pro generally works from a temporary copy, it still relies on data transfer with the saved location for several processes. As a result, doing the modeling work from a locally saved copy is the safest and fastest approach.
Our recommendation for teams that keep the model backed up to a server is to use the InfoWater Sync tool for exchanging files to and from your local machine. This tool is found under the ArcGIS Pro "Project" menu in the upper left. The tool lets you check the version timestamp of each copy to ensure which one is the latest version. During the file transfer, it will only copy the files that have been updated since the last save, so generally this is much faster than manually copying models back and forth from a file server.
Lastly, it's important to also note that the map interaction performance can also be impacted by displaying GIS layers from remote servers. A workaround is to save a local copy of the background layer data, or ensure it's turned off when not being used.
Use adequate hardware
It likely goes without saying that you should be sure to check the System requirements page here if you're experiencing slow performance. Many of these requirements are adopted from the system requirements of ArcGIS Pro, which you will notice expects significantly higher specifications than the predecessor ArcMap, especially in terms of RAM which is used for caching map information to deliver smooth performance.
Be selective in your Map Displays
While detail-rich map displays can be beautiful to work with and provide meaningful context to the insights your model is giving, unnecessary visual detail can be very costly to performance. Fortunately, ArcGIS Pro offers a number of tools to give you the displays you need when you need them, and hide them in other cases.
- Turn off layers from the Contents window when you do not need them. You can also create some map bookmarks in the frequently visited locations such as pump station.
- Turn on Visibility Range for layers with high detail layers so they only appear at scales when you need them. This can be helpful for layers like flow direction arrows which are great when you're zoomed in, but they only get in the way when viewing the whole system. For example, in the image below, select the layer, click "Feature Layer" in the ribbon, then set the "Out Beyond" field to a value like 1:24,000 above "Visibility Range".
- You can also filter out the visible objects based on zoom level using Display Filters in the Symbology settings with setting active filter "by scale." For example, you may want to filter out pipes with a diameter less than 8-inch any time that you zoom out beyond a certain level. Or perhaps you want to filter out junctions that do not have demand when you zoom out to a medium level, while you hide the full layer when you zoom out to the full system extent.
- Be careful of layers that are rendered on the fly. InfoWater Pro gives the option to display initial status of pumps and valves on the map, as well as check valves from the Preferences > Display Options window. When this option is on, the status is rendered on top of the map each time based on the model data. In some models with many rendered objects, this can introduce a time delay.
- Ensure all layers use the same spatial projection. When the projections are different, this adds additional conversion work for ArcGIS Pro.
If you would like to learn more details about maximizing performance from an ArcGIS Pro perspective, ESRI provides extensive guidance. For example, this blog post summarizes a number of topics with additional links: Troubleshooting performance issues in ArcGIS Pro.
Use Simulation Task Manager for long simulations
![](https://help.autodesk.com/cloudhelp/ENU/INFWP-UserGuide/images/GUID-008E8E23-69F7-4CDF-981F-6CF64D099E4D.png)
Do not leave unnecessary table joins active
InfoWater Pro uses table joins to display model data and results on the map. This happens automatically when using the Map Display tool. As attribute tables are joined to the map layers, InfoWater Pro creates attribute indexes which keep the performance highly efficient.
In some cases, you may want to join several tables together to export data, perform geo-processing, or customize some data-rich maps. There is a simple command to "Join all Layer Tables" in the Command Center under Utilities. This will join three distinct tables onto each of the six model map layers, which can slow the map performance significantly more than just a single join done by the Map Display feature. Consider joining layers when needed but remove joins during day-to-day modeling. If you want to keep a multi-attribute map active but it's hindering performance, consider exporting the joined layer as a background reference layer in your map.
Troubleshooting map performance
If you are experiencing slowness after reading the above recommendations, consider the following:
- General Troubleshooting - Over time with many human-software interactions, errors can be introduced into the model database which cause unexpected problems. Our support team has found that a periodic "Model Rebuild" can help alleviate a range of strange behaviors. Check out this article to learn how to rebuild your model. This takes about 10 minutes depending on the model size.
- Map refresh takes a long time - "Every time I zoom or pan around the map, the software pauses for a few seconds before I can select anything."
- Upgrade to at least 2024 and turn on "Alternate Indexing" from the Preferences window, then Reset your map display.
- If you are in a version prior to 2024.2 and using display options in Preferences to show Initial Status or check valves, this can hinder performance depending on the size and number of objects requiring rendering.
- Scenario Switching takes a long time - "Switching scenarios takes longer than it did in InfoWater with ArcMap."
- Upgrade to at least 2023.3 or greater.
- If your scenario uses a Query Set to define the active facility, this can take a bit more time for large models while switching scenarios than if you use Intelli-Selection. Even with Query Sets, InfoWater Pro 2023.3+ is faster than InfoWater.
- Slow refresh after completing simulations - "InfoWater Pro pauses for several seconds after each Run completes."
- Check whether you are exporting simulation results to external applications in the Preferences Operation Settings tab. You should use this setting only when needed, as it will add additional processing time at the end of each simulation.
- Check your Output Relates and make sure only the desired Relates are active for "Automatic Update."
- If you only need graphs updated rather than the full map, consider turning off the "Refresh Output" option in the Model Explorer. This can be helpful during calibration or troubleshooting.
- Keep your model saved locally. Simulation results are written to the .OUT folder where the model is saved. If this is located on a network drive with slow transfer speeds, this will drastically hurt performance.
- Check your Time Settings to make sure that your Report Timestep and Duration are reasonable. Often you do not need a smaller Report Timestep than 30-60 minutes, especially for longer simulations. If you have a 5 minute Report Timestep, it will take significantly longer to write all of the results.