Are there any alternatives to the post installer for installing the VertiGIS Studio Printing Engine?

Yes. Typically the tools are published using the VertiGIS Studio Printing Engine post installer, which you can run after installing the .msi file from our downloads page. However, in the event that the post installer cannot complete successfully, it is possible to manually publish the necessary SD file or to perform the post installation process using Command Prompt.

Manually Publishing the SD File

1. Locate the SD file.

a) As of version 5.29 of VertiGIS Studio Printing, the necessary SD file comes pre-packaged with the VertiGIS Studio Printing Engine installation and does not need to be generated from scratch, as was the case in previous versions. To get the SD file, simply run the .msi installer from our downloads page. Once this is done, the SD file should be available in the installation directory, with the default location being C:\Program Files\VertiGIS\VertiGIS Studio Printing Engine\dist\bin\resources\app\sd\federated.

b) If you are using an older version, it will be necessary to run the VertiGIS Studio Printing Engine post installer and successfully complete the SD file generation step (~50% to 70% of the way through the process) to get the SD file. The path to the SD file should be available in the post installer logs, which you can see by expanding the details section in the post installer or by saving the logs and opening them in a text editor.

2. Once you've located the SD file, sign into ArcGIS Server Manager. Under Services > Manage Services, click the Publish Service button in the upper right corner. 

3. In the pop-up that appears, click the Choose File button. Browse to the SD file you located earlier, and select it.

4. Optionally, set the folder to "VertiGIS_Utilities" or a name of your choice and change the name of the geoprocessing service if you don't like the default. Make sure "Start service immediately" and "Share service on my portal" are enabled, then click Next.

5. Click Next again.

6. Set your desired sharing settings on the Printing Engine geoprocessing service and click Publish.

Important: if the manual SD file publishing process is successful, two further steps are necessary to get the Printing Engine to work with Printing Designer and with VertiGIS Studio Web apps:

1. Add "VertiGIS Printing Engine Tools" to the existing typeKeywords parameter of the related geoprocessing tools Portal item. Since the typeKeywords parameter is not exposed on the item description page, this need to be done using VertiGIS Studio Item Manager or ArcGIS Assistant: https://assistant.esri-ps.com/signin

2. Add "Designer Pro" to the tags of the related geoprocessing tools Portal item.

Please see https://support.vertigis.com/hc/en-us/articles/18559433083410-Unable-to-Toggle-ArcGIS-Pro-Layout-Mode-in-Print-Designer-After-Installing-VertiGIS-Studio-Print-Engine for a detailed walkthrough of setting the Type Keyword and tag.

Publish the Engine Using Command Prompt

1. Run Command Prompt as an administrator.

2. Change directories to the location of the Python environment for ArcGIS Pro or ArcGIS Server. For example, for ArcGIS Pro, enter:

cd C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Pro\bin\Python\envs\arcgispro-py3

...and for ArcGIS Server, enter:

cd C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Server\framework\runtime\ArcGIS\bin\Python\envs\arcgispro-py3

3. Run one of the following commands, choosing the appropriate one based on the type of authentication you use to sign into Portal. Make sure to replace the specified values with those for your own environment.

a) Installation on ArcGIS Server Site with ArcGIS Built-In user authentication:

python.exe "C:\Program Files\VertiGIS\VertiGIS Studio Printing Engine\dist\bin\resources\app\engine\install.py" portal --portal_url https://subdomain.domain/portal --server_site_url https://subdomain.domain/server --username myuser --password mypassword --service_arcgis_pro_layout_mode true --service_datastore_arcgis "" --service_datastore_arcgis_register false --service_foldername VertiGIS_Utilities --service_name VertiGIS_Printing_Tools --python_toolbox_filename "C:\Program Files\VertiGIS\VertiGIS Studio Printing Engine\dist\bin\resources\app\engine\VertiGISPrintingTools.pyt"