Configure content

Creating informative visualizations of data in your scenes may be the most important aspect of conveying your message to your audience. In the Designer, there are many layer configuration options, such as styles and properties, available to you to enhance your story.

Change layer style

You can explore layers through smart mapping styles and discover themes and patterns in the data. For example, you can visualize average income levels in communities with continuous colors and sizes.

  1. Verify you are signed in to the portal and open Scene Viewer.
  2. Click Modify scene Modify scene to open the Designer.
  3. Click the layer name or the layer options tool Layer options tool and select Layer Style.
  4. When the layer opens, you can choose a style for the layer.
    Depending on the layer type, a gallery of available styles is displayed.
  5. For feature and scene layers with attribute values, you can also select attributes under Choose main attribute to visualize to see additional available styles.
    • If you choose <none>, styles that allow you to apply single colors to all the features are available.
    • If you choose an attribute, additional styles that allow you to drive colors and sizes by attribute, such as the Counts and Amounts and Type styles are available.
    Note:
    • Not all styles are available for each attribute you choose. In many cases, Scene Viewer selects one of the drawing styles by default based on the nature of the data in the layer, and the style automatically is applied in the scene.
    • The Choose main attribute to visualize option isn't available for point cloud styles.

  6. Click Select to apply the style to the layer in the scene.
  7. Click Options to open the style.

The following data types are available to apply styles:

Change layer properties

Depending on the layer type, you can change layer properties in your scenes such as visibility ranges, filters, pop-ups, and the legend.

Adjust additional layer options

You can review the layer options available by clicking the layer options tool Layer options tool. The options available are based on the layer type and include the following:

Layer Style

Apply smart mapping styles to your layer.

Layer Properties

Change layer properties, such as Transparency, Pop-up, and Legend.

Zoom to

Show the layer to its full extent in the scene.

Move up

Move the layer up one level.

Move down

Move the layer down one level.

Show in Layers

and Hide in Layers

Show or hide the layer in the Layers/Legend tool.

Note:

When you choose Hide in Layers, the layer is hidden in the Layers/Legend tool and is unavailable in Layers.

Rename

Highlight the layer to type a new name.

Remove

Delete the layer.

Add to new group

Add the layer to a new group.

You can also drag the layers to reorder them.

Add a layer to a new group

Use groups in your scene to organize layers that are similar in content or location. Once your layers are grouped, you can change the way they appear in the Layers/Legend tool.

  1. Click the layer options tool Layer options tool in any layer and click Add to new group.

    The layer is added to a new group.

  2. Name the new group.
  3. Drag layers into the new group.

    You can drag layers to remove them from the group or to reorder the layers.

  4. Click the group settings tool Layer settings tool for the group options.

    Change group type

    Allows you to modify the behavior of the group in Layers/Legend.

    • Checkbox Checkbox—Allows individual layers to be turned on and off.
    • Radio Radio—Convert the group into radio buttons and allows only one to be turned on at a time in case there are overlapping layers.
    • Merge Merge—Combine all groups into one.
    • Hide Hide—Hide the group and its layers in Layers/Legend. To unhide, click one of the other options.
    Zoom to

    Zoom to the combined extent of all the layers in the group.

    Move up

    Move the layer up one level.

    Move down

    Move the layer down one level.

    Rename

    Highlight the layer so you can type a new name.

    Remove

    Delete the group and the sublayers.

    Ungroup

    Ungroup the layers.

Configure additional content

You can configure other content in your scenes:

  • Ground—Change how you display and interact with the ground.
  • Slides—Capture the current extent, layer visibilities, and daylight settings.
  • Properties—Modify scene properties such as the scene background and metadata.

Counts and Amounts slider considerations

The style slider contains three components: slider, histogram, and minimum and maximum values. Based on the main attribute chosen, Scene Viewer automatically calculates the data distribution and other statistics. This positions the slider handles, generates a histogram, and determines the maximum and minimum values. Furthermore, the legend reflects the style slider colors and values. The following image shows the three components of the style slider and their relationship with the legend for USA Counties data:

Style slider components

In the image, the UI items are as follows:

Upper handle Upper handle

Counts Counts

Lower handleLower handle

Average Average

Minimum value Minimum value

Upper legend value Upper legend value

Maximum value Maximum value

Lower legend value Lower legend value

Slider

The slider contains upper and lower handles. The handles set the range of values and the color ramp where values outside of the range are given the upper and lower colors. When you adjust the handles, you affect the visualization of the data in the scene and the changes are also reflected in the higher and lower values in the legend.

For point layers, you change the color and size when you move the handles. For all other layer types, you change only the color when you move the handles.

Minimum and maximum values

The minimum and maximum values determine the minimum and maximum bounds of the data distribution. When you change these values, you affect the appearance of the slider and the size of the intervals in the histogram. However, it does not change the data distribution, and the scene visualization and legend also stay the same. Adjusting these values can be useful when data is at one end of the slider and you want smaller increments of change in the symbols when adjusting the handles.

Note:

When you move the handles or adjust the minimum and maximum values, data is not hidden or filtered in any way, but it does change the visualizations. To use filters with your data, see Apply filter to layer.

Histogram

The histogram displays the distribution of data for the main attribute chosen. You can hover over each interval and get a count value of the number of features with that interval value, and you can hover over the average icon Average, which indicates the average value for that attribute. For example, in the image above, there are 52 U.S. counties with a population of 140,000 and the average county population is 100,665.

Note:

If your data does not already have styling associated with it, Scene Viewer automatically analyzes your data and places the upper and lower handles at one standard deviation around the mean.