A schema defines the physical structure of the geodatabase along with the rules, relationships, and properties of each dataset in the geodatabase. Defining and implementing a practical schema for a geodatabase is an important task that often requires prototyping and testing of a proposed design. Testing will help you develop a robust, working system implementation.
Once you have a workable geodatabase schema, you'll find many reasons for creating a copy of the entire schema or parts of it. For example:
- Users often share their schemas with others.
- Data model templates exist for many GIS application domains. For example, Esri publishes has ArcGIS configurations available for the user community at ArcGIS Solutions.
- Users want to make multiple copies of their geodatabase schemas for use in various departments.
- Users want to compare their schemas with their collaborators.
Therefore, it's a good idea to become familiar with tools that can be used to copy and share geodatabase schemas.
There are a number of alternative mechanisms, which are described in the following topics, that can be used to copy a geodatabase schema.