Manage tile layers

Owners of tile layers and organization administrators can manage settings and content for the layers. Management options vary depending on whether the layer contains raster tiles or vector tiles and whether the layer has an associated feature layer.

Tip:

Layers that reference a cache dataset or that you publish from a package never have an associated feature layer.

The layer item is a tile layer or tile layer (hosted). Use the layer icon to identify whether it is a raster tile layer or vector tile layer.

Manage raster tile layer settings

You can manage minimum and maximum scales (visible range or level of detail) and the offline mode on raster tile layers.

When you publish a hosted tile layer from a hosted feature layer or hosted feature layer view, the tile layer inherits the visible range of the source layer. You cannot build tiles for areas that fall outside that inherited visible range.

Visible range and resampling for raster tile layers

As the layer owner or organization administrator, you can define the minimum and maximum scales at which the layer will draw. This is the visible range for the layer. When a user zooms past the minimum or maximum scale, the layer content will not draw.

When you publish a tile layer, you may choose to not generate tile caches for sparsely visited areas or detailed scales to save disk space and reduce the time taken to generate the cache. However, when using the layer, a user can pan or zoom to areas within the visible range for which there are no cached tiles. When they do that, the client where the layer is being used (such as ArcGIS Pro or Map Viewer) will resample to render content in areas within the visible range where there are no cached tiles for the layer.

Resampling uses the existing tile cache to fill in the gaps in the areas where you have not generated tiles at that scale. The resampled content is based on the closest level of detail (tiles) available for the layer. This provides a smoother experience for users, but the output can be blurry, particularly when the level of detail being resampled is far from the source level of detail. For example, if the maximum scale where cached tiles are present in a specific area of the map is 1:5000, and a user zooms to 1:100 in that area, the resampled cache will likely lose clarity and accuracy.

If you find that users are regularly zooming past the minimum or maximum scale value you defined for the tile layer's visible range, increase the visible range and build the tiles at larger scales.

Configure raster tile layer settings

Follow these steps to build tiles and change the visible range of a raster tile layer :

1. Sign in as the owner of the web layer, an administrator, or with an account that has privileges to update all members' items.
2. Open the tile layer's item page.
3. Click the Settings tab.
4. Scroll down to the layer's settings section.
5. Use the Visible Range slider to define the minimum and maximum scales at which the tile layer will be visible and the area in which tile caches can be built.

   Nothing will draw outside the visible range.

6. Click Tile Details to access the current status of existing cached tiles.
7. To build cached tiles for the layer, follow these steps:
   1. Click Build Tiles to build tiles for the layer.
   2. When the dialog box appears, check the boxes next to the levels (scales) at which you want to generate tiles.

      You must choose at least one level.

   3. When you finish choosing levels, click Create Tiles.
8. Click Save when you finish.

Manage vector tile layer settings

Follow these steps to manage the offline mode of a hosted vector tile layer :

1. Sign in as the owner of the web layer, as an administrator, or with an account that has privileges to update all members' items.
2. Open the vector tile layer's item page.
3. Click the Settings tab.
4. Scroll down to the layer settings section.
5. Check Allow this layer to be downloaded and used in an offline map to allow others to include the vector tile layer in offline apps.
6. Click Save.