Add layers to scenes

Add layers to new or existing scenes to help better tell a story. You can browse Scene Viewer resource options such as My content, My organization, and Living Atlas to add content and enhance a scene. You can also add a layer by providing a URL.

Note:

See Choose a global or local scene for layer requirements.

To add layers to a scene, complete the following steps:

1. Verify that you are signed in to the portal and open Scene Viewer.
2. On the Designer toolbar, click Add Layers .
3. Add the layers you want to the scene.
4. Click Save to save the layers that you added to the scene.

Layers that Scene Viewer supports

Scene Viewer supports the following layer types:

• 3D tiles layer
• Catalog layer
• CSV layer
• Elevation layer
• Feature layer
• GeoJSON layer
• Imagery layer *
• Map image layer
• Media layer
• OGC Web Feature Service (WFS)
• OGC Web Map Service (WMS)
• OGC Web Map Tile Service (WMTS)
• Oriented imagery layer **
• Scene layer
  • 3D object
  • Building
  • Integrated mesh
  • Point
  • Point cloud
  • Voxel
• Tile layer
• Vector tile layer

* Scene Viewer doesn't support all the image rendering properties set in Map Viewer.

** Scene Viewer doesn't support all the capabilities of this layer.

See Scene Viewer layer support for information about ArcGIS Enterprise and ArcGIS Online layer availability in Scene Viewer.

Search for layers

To search for layers to add to a scene, complete the following steps:

1. Click Add Layers on the Designer toolbar.
2. Click Browse layers to search for layers from the following options:

   • My content—Includes layers you own.
   • My favorites—Includes layers you've marked as favorites.
   • My groups—Includes layers from groups to which you belong.
   • My organization—Includes layers from your organization.
   • Living Atlas—This option returns selected layers from ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World, including traffic, demographics, and land-cover layers. This option is only available if you are signed in to a portal that is configured to use ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World content.
   • ArcGIS Online—Includes public layers from ArcGIS Online.

3. Do any of the following to find the layers you want:
   • Type search terms in the search box. You can also use advanced search to help narrow the search results.
   • Click Filter to sort the layer results, change the sort direction, and narrow the search results.

     The filter options available depend on where you are searching for layers, and whether and how you are signed in.

     For example, if you are searching for layers in an organization and content categories have been set up, you can use the Categories filter to narrow the results. You can also filter ArcGIS Living Atlas layer results using the ArcGIS standard category set. Use the Status filter to only return layers that have been designated by the administrator as authoritative.

     Note:

     To limit search results based on the current map extent, turn on the Only show content within map area toggle button. For example, if the map is zoomed to Nevada, USA, the search results are ordered and based on the map extent. Changing the map extent to Pennsylvania typically returns different results (depending on your keywords). All layers that overlap the current map extent (and match your keywords) are returned.

   • Click the title of an item to see its details. In the item details pane, expand Overview, Description, and Details to see more information about the item. If the item contains multiple layers, expand Layers to see more information about each layer. Click Add to add the layer to the scene. Click View item to open the item page to see more information about the layer.
4. Click Add in the search results to add a layer to a scene.
5. Repeat the previous step for each layer you want to add.

   Tip:

   You can add any of the layer results to your favorites by clicking Add to favorites in the layer details pane. You can view your complete list of favorites by choosing My favorites when searching for layers in Scene Viewer or from the My favorites tab on the content page.

6. Click Remove to remove a layer from a scene.
7. On the Designer toolbar, click Save to save the layers that were added to the scene.
8. Add more layers to the scene or click Done.

Layer types

After you click Add Layers on the Designer toolbar, you can add the following layer types:

Layer type	Description
ArcGIS web service	A web service that can be added by providing a URL of the layer.
GeoJSON	Open standard geospatial data interchange format that represents simple geographic features and their nonspatial attributes.
CSV	Web-based text file (.csv) that typically includes location information.
Line of sight	Used to perform 3D visibility analysis from an observer to multiple target points.
Viewshed	Used to perform 3D visibility analysis from an observer to an area in a scene.
Dimensions	Used to annotate multiple dimensions with labels that display either the horizontal, vertical, or diagonal distance between the points.