How To: Calibrate ArcGIS performance: Create editing scripts and capture edit times


Instructions provided describe how to create editing scripts and capture edit times using the PerfQAnalyzer tool. (To test rendering, see the Related Information section for more details.) This is a free, non-supported tool offered to the Esri user community that can be used to assist users in calibrating ArcGIS performance.

The PerfQAnalyzer tool can run as an ArcMap add-in or as a standalone application. A standalone (no map) version can also be used to create and execute editing scripts since a map control is not needed.

Edit times are reported and logged for each layer as well as summarized for all layers within the map document. Types of edits include create, modify, rotate, split, move and delete. This tool is useful for performance investigation and can be used in conjunction with a database trace.

The latest version of PerfQAnalyzer, 10.6 (Build 173), is compatible with the earlier released versions of ArcGIS, 10.2 through 10.5.1.

The tool may be downloaded from the following link:


These instructions are for creating edit scripts from an existing ArcMap Document (.mxd) using the ArcMap add-in tool. If using the standalone (no map) application, the steps are similar. All feature classes to be edited must already be added to the map document. Once the script has been created, the script can be modified to point to a specific edit version.

  1. If using the ArcMap add-in tool:
    1. Add the PerfQAnalyzer toolbar.
    2. Click the Show/Hide Dockable Window control.
  2. In the PerfQAnalyzer window, click the Script tab.
  3. If necessary, under the Script tab, click the Generate sub-tab.
  4. Click the Get Feature Classes button to return a list of feature classes.
The tool generates a feature count for each layer within the current map extent. This is used in calculating the amount of edit features in step 6. If the map is being viewed at full extent, this may take a long time to compute; therefore it is suggested to zoom in to a small map extent prior to clicking the Get Feature Class button.
  1. Click the check boxes for the associated edit task(s) to be scripted for each feature class (i.e., create, delete, move, rotate, split).
  2. Indicate the amount of features to be edited; this is based upon the percentage of the total features that were previously calculated in step 4 (i.e., if the tool calculated 100 features within the map extent, entering 20% of features results in editing 20 features).
  3. Click the Generate Script button. This automatically creates an edit script that is displayed under the Script sub-tab.
  4. Either accept the default path for the script or click the folder button to save the script to a different location.
  5. Review the edit script contents.
If connected to an ArcSDE datasource it is required to modify the username and password. If editing within a versioned environment, optionally modify the VERSION parameter to indicate an edit version.
  1. To save the edits, modify the StopEdit parameter (at the end of the script) by entering StopEdit Save rather than StopEdit Discard. By default, edits are rolled back and not saved.
  2. Click the Save button to save the edits to the script.
  3. Click the Execute Script button at the top of the PerfQAnalyzer window.
Once the script has been created, it can be executed via command prompt within a batch file. For information regarding scripting, refer to the Help tab in the PerfQAnalyzer window.

Related Information