Happy holidays from Esri. ArcGIS Pro 2.7 is here. What can you expect?

First let me state, this article is in no way connected to Esri or a reflection of their actual beliefs, desires, opinions, or wishes. This is solely my personal opinion and reflections. Now that I have hopefully kept the lawyers at bay, let's take a look at this new version of ArcGIS Pro.

This week Esri has released ArcGIS Pro 2.7. This new version includes many improvements and demonstrated Esri's commitment to ensuring ArcGIS Pro is a successful replacement for the old tried and true ArcMap and ArcCatalog applications. So what new capabilities can you expect in this new release? I have had a chance to play with the beta version and I can say Esri does continue to improve ArcGIS Pro in many positive ways. I now use ArcGIS Pro as my primary desktop GIS application. 

Here are some of the key improvements I think most users will benefit from in this new release. 

General Capability

• Connect to GNSS units directly with ArcGIS Pro

• Layer Blending for improved cartographic output
• New 3D Object Feature Class which allows for an improved display including reflections, Shadows, and roughness to provide a more realistic look. These are compatible not only with ArcGIS Pro but also Maya and Blender.
• Several improvements and new functionality added to charts including a new matrix heat chart, the ability to export a chart to a summary table, a moving average overlay can be added to temporal bar charts, and easily create a copy of an existing chart by right-clicking and duplicate

ModelBuilder

• New Layer Iterator has been added to Model Builder to allow you to iterate over the layers contained in your active map.

• Add to Display command has been added to ModelBuilder in ArcGIS Pro now.

• Results from a model are now shown in a ModelBuilder Group Layer

Geoprocessing

• Calculate Field tool has enhanced performance for SQL expressions
• Excel to Table Tool – New parameters for specifying cell range to be exported to a table and for specifying the row that contains the field names.

• Map to KML – converts an entire map to a KML file.
• New movement Analysis tools – Use point data to analyze and display the movement of locations in space and time. Requires point data with time and device data such as cell phone, GNSS Tracker, Tablet, or similar. ArcGIS Pro 2.7 includes four tools that will do this.

- Find Cotravelers – Determines which mobile devices are traveling together based on colocation and time.

- Find Meeting Locations – identifies where several mobile devices have been gathered together for a period of time to indicate a possible meeting

- Compare Areas – determines areas where devices have been operating or moving in known areas at the same time.

- Classify Movements Events – Determines movement specific events in your point data

Database

• Support for mobile Geodatabases based on SQLite. SQLite is an open-source relational database format so no licensing fees. It provides cross-platform support and portability. This is the first step in developing interoperability between ArcGIS Pro, Mobile Apps, and Runtime Engine.
• Check Geometry and Repair Geometry tools now work with Enterprise Geodatabases (SDE)

This is by no means a complete list of the new capabilities contained in this new version of ArcGIS Pro. For a more complete list, you can go to https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/get-started/whats-new-in-arcgis-pro.htm.

As with any new software release, it is strongly recommended that you test the new version in your environment before implementing it in your production workflows. Remember your environment is unique and just because others do not have issues does not mean the same will be true for you. 

Hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season and 2021 brings a reprieve from all the craziness of 2020.