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Is it possible to directly convert feature layers in ArcGIS to GeoPackage?

In ArcGIS Desktop 10.5's ArcToolbox, under "Conversion Tools/To Geopackage" the only option that appears to me is "Add Raster to GeoPackage". There is no "Add Features" or something alike.

In Support for OGC GeoPackage specification in ArcGIS, a blog post written in 2014, Esri claimed that "At 10.2.1 or with 10.2.2 ArcGIS desktop, you can create an empty GeoPackage and populate the GeoPackage by copying feature data into it". However, I cannot see how. In ArcCatalog, there is no option to create a GeoPackage file.

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You are looking for a GP tool Create SQLite Database available since 10.4 (previously, in 10.3, you had to use an arcpy function CreateSQLiteDatabase().

Choose as spatial_type parameter GEOPACKAGE which will create an OGC GeoPackage dataset. This is essentially an SQLite database with ST_Geometry storage plus some extra OGC features.

You can use this workspace very much like any SQLite geodatabase, that is load/export feature classes and tables and create views. You can read more about support for SQLite in ArcGIS in this help topic SQLite and ArcGIS. To see an example of data load, look at this blog post Load Esri geodatabase tables into SQLite

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    I say this as someone who has advocated for use of SQLite in ArcGIS, but as a caution to those looking to use them - you can't edit features in a SQLite DB in ArcGIS yet. You can store layers there (and use them in geoprocessing), but it doesn't support editing attributes, or making changes to features in an existing feature class. There are lots of good reasons to use them still though!
    – nicksan
    Commented May 5, 2017 at 14:23
  • But you can edit the feature classes using SQL and even apply ST_Geometry spatial functions which is very neat. But for casual ArcGIS users, yes, this is pretty much read-only.
    – Alex Tereshenkov
    Commented May 5, 2017 at 17:12
  • According to comments in this older ESRI blog post, editing is supported via cursors or ArcObjects, just not via GUI tools: blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2014/04/14/…
    – PhilippNagel
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 18:40
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    @AlexTereshenkov could you add more info for the "loading" step ? Creating the gpkg databaseis quite straightforward, but importing a feature class into it is not and the ESRI doc is not very helpful. I've found a script (from you?) that helps, but your answer would be much more helpfull if it was complete. If you don't have time, please let me know and i will try to add a complementary answer.
    – radouxju
    Commented Mar 21, 2019 at 11:19
  • @radouxju, that was a long time ago, feels like this was a previous life :) I've posted a link to a blog post, not sure this would suffice - by all means, if you have something to add, go ahead, I'd be grateful!
    – Alex Tereshenkov
    Commented Mar 22, 2019 at 22:56
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after creating an empty gpkg with "create SQLITE database" tool, you can use the "feature class to feature class" tool directly (or in a script with arcpy)

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I came to this post looking for the same answer, but since I haven't found anything straight forward in Arc I ended up using QGIS. You just add the feature class and save it as a geopackage.

  1. Add the feature class to Q (select Layer -> Add Layer -> Add Vector Layer -> Directory -> OpenFileGDB
  2. Save as geopackage (right-click the feature class you added -> Export -> Save Features As -> Format = geopackage).
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  • The asker is searching for a direct way to convert features to GeoPackage in ArcMap. I think he knews the way how to do it in QGIS.
    – Vaiaro
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 10:20

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