Please note: An updated version of this story map can be found here:
Vector Tile Layers are used to create multi-scale maps that are efficient, high-resolution and customizable.
Since they became available the Living Atlas Content Team has built vector tile versions of most of Esri's traditional basemaps, (and added a few new ones). And we have the opportunity to play with them too! We continue to create custom basemaps that exploit various graphic effects.
You can change our maps as well, and the Vector Tile Style Editor is making this work increasingly easy. But there are still some limitations, and you may prefer to build your own basemap. For that, you need to go back to first principles ...
A published Vector Tile Map works best as a foundation. You can’t link to data from a Vector Tile Layer, so you should set it below (or possibly above) any interactive information that you’re building. Let’s call it a ‘basemap’ (which is what we build for ArcGIS Online), but it doesn’t have to be just that.
The simplest way of exploiting them is to work online with copies of our basemaps. You can change colors, lines, patterns, point symbols, and to some extent fonts. The fonts available have to be defined in the published Vector Tile Package, so we have added a few extra to our master tile set. This graphic shows the faces that we have made available to you if you want to customize one of our maps:
For more information on working with our Vector Basemaps check out 'Basemap Basics' .
The focus here is on taking the customization to another level, and that requires you to build your own map from original data.
Find a data source. Remember that you are building a map that will support your subject, so you are most likely looking for different levels of relevant geographic information.
The map will be established in ArcGIS Pro, exported to a vector tile package, then published as a vector tile layer.
This is a screen capture from the ArcGIS Pro map that I used for this exercise. It was created with UK Ordnance Survey Open Data, and it was shown at the 2017 Esri User Conference to demonstrate building vector tile maps in different projections. It uses the OS Modified Transverse Mercator projection.
A vector tile package contains the vector tiles, and various formatting documents. In essence, the package is a zip file, so you can use an 'Extract files' command to 'unzip' it and look at the contents.
Of interest to us is the Resources Folder, which includes:
Fonts – Any font that is built into the ArcGIS Pro map.
Sprites – Raster images created for special effects, such as textured patterns and point symbols.
Styles – A root.json file that establishes the symbolization of the rest of the map.
A graphics/drawing program. This doesn’t need to be anything fancy. If you use Creative Suite, Corel or similar you’re in great shape, but there are plenty of simpler apps available that will do the job. Anything that will give you a png or jpg file will work.
An editing App. The ArcGIS Vector Tile Style Editor is an intuitive app that leads you through most of the changes you can make to the style. As of 2021, it includes a JSON code editor. 'Basemap Basics' and the linked story maps go into using this in detail.
Most of all, you need
Even if you are building a map to support an earnest, worthwhile and impactful point, you can still try to do something a bit different with it, and you may be able to have some fun!
So let's get started ...
Any font that is included in your ArcGIS Pro document will be carried over into the Resources Folder, whether you are using it or not. This means that some discipline is required.
If you are building a one-off map then you can add any licensed or open source font that works for you.
But don’t get carried away - Unless it's to get a specific graphic effect you don't want the map to look like a Victorian circus poster! A rule-of-thumb is to limit yourself to two faces (Arial, Times, etc.), but as many fonts (Bold, Italic, etc.) as necessary.
If you are planning more than one map, try to include the fonts that you’ll need across the whole set, by adding them to non-critical layers...
… but take a good look through your layers before publishing. Make sure you don’t leave any unused fonts behind by mistake. It won’t break the vector tile service if you leave them in, but you want to be as efficient as possible.
Sprites are used to create any point symbol, be it a city dot, the base for a road shield, a pictorial symbol or something else. They are also used for creating patterns – any fill or line that requires more than just a flat color.
This is one of two generated Sprite files (at 96ppi and 192ppi) for our Street Map:
Any marker symbol that you create in your ArcGIS Pro document will be converted to sprites automatically. Custom or pictorial symbols are easy to build with a graphics package.
This is ' A Children's Map', a vector tile map created by my colleague Wesley Jones (Zoom in and see if you can find the Sasquatch!). All of the pictorial symbols were hand drawn, and imported as PNGs
PNG is preferable because you can use the transparent setting (and any other format will be converted to PNG anyway). A non-rectangular JPG symbol will have a white box around it. Regardless, the generated sprite file will translate them to PNG format.
Resolutions can vary, but a good practice is to build the original at 96 ppi and at twice the size of the final symbol. Sprite files are generated at two sizes, 96 ppi and 192 ppi, so this will accommodate both circumstances.
For my map of Great Britain, I've created a series of icons to be used at large scales. I added a shadow to make them stand out more clearly against other features, and a white, partially transparent, 'halo' on the Rail Station dot to break it out from the rail line:
I exported them as PNGs and added them to the map in ArcGIS Pro as picture markers. The 'Reset Size' button will set the symbol to the optimal size for viewing, but you will probably want to make adjustments up or down.
Creating patterns or textures requires a little bit more thought:
This is the 'Colored Pencil' basemap created by my colleague Cindy Prostak. She used a series of textured tiles (sprites) to give the map a 'hand-drawn' finish..
But the structure of this map is misleading. The 'hand-drawn' nature gives the map a casual and informal feel, but a lot of preparation and planning was required to achieve this look successfully.
Zoom in to see how even some of the road lines are textured.
The concept is simple, and if you are a regular user of graphics packages such as Adobe Illustrator you'll be familiar with it – A patterned tile is repeated as many times as is required to fill a polygon (or to run along a line), and is masked by it.
The reality is a bit more complicated. Let’s look at a simple hatched pattern from the Topographic Basemap (Note that the 'line fill' tool in ArcGIS Pro does not translate to vector tiles, and that means that hatched patterns must be prepared graphically).
The tiles repeat the hatch across the whole shape. However the edges of the tile must join perfectly.
In the bottom row I have deliberately cropped the tile to demonstrate what can happen. Even a fractional difference from one side of the tile to the other will create an edge. More complicated patterns need to be built with the same concept in mind.
‘Random’ patterns like the colored pencil tile are sometimes more complicated to build. Any unevenness across the tile may be seen in the final result.
Here, I removed a few pixels from the bottom-left of the water texture. It's hardly noticeable on the tile, but when applied it can be seen clearly as a repeating pattern.
For my map of Great Britain, I've created two tiles.
One applies a fabric effect across the map, with a separate version in blue for water). I set colored fills over the top of both, and applied a high degree of transparency to merge them into the background.
The second adds a cartoon-style pattern to woodland. Notice how the woodland pattern aligns and repeats. I spent some time adjusting it to minimize the repeating effect..
I exported them to PNGs at 96 px.
The tiles are added as a Picture Fills in ArcGIS Pro. Once established they can be reduced or enlarged, but keeping them at the optimal size (use the 'reset Size' option) will make the final effect more predictable.
Smaller tiles may be more efficient, but the likelihood of the pattern repeating itself is greater. Keep the tile size down if you can, and don't go above 512 px.
Don't expect to get your symbols right the first time. I made 3 or 4 attempts at both of these patterns before I was satisfied.
So you’ve created your perfect map. It’s as tight as it needs to be at all scales, and all components, including fonts and sprites, are in place.
There are two ways of publishing the map:
Use 'Share/Web Layer/Vector Tile Layer'.
In one action, this will create a temporary vector tile package on your computer, then move it to your organizational account and publish a map service. My map, which includes data for the whole of Great Britain at multiple scales, took about an hour to run
This is a 3-step process, but it has the advantage of allowing you to check how well your symbols are working before committing the map to your online account.
Use the ‘Create Vector Tile Package’ tool
This will create a vector tile package on your computer. The package can be loaded back into ArcGIS Pro for checking (using 'Add Data'). This is useful if you are working with Sprites – You can check how they translate to the Vector Tiles before you commit to final publication (although ArcGIS Pro doesn't render them in precisely the same way). The package for this map takes about 45 minutes to an hour to run.
Note: A 'Vector Tile Index' added in the 'Index Polygons' field above, is an optional process you can use to improve the efficiency of a Vector Tile Service, and it is recommended. However, because I was building this map in a projection other than Web Mercator, this was not available to me. You can find more about Vector Tile Indexes here.
Once it is ready, use the ‘Share Package’ tool to move it to your organizational account.
Click on the package in your ArcGIS Online Contents folder, and it will give you the option to Publish the service.
Here is the final published map with patterns in place.
This is the sprite document generated to support the new symbols.
It includes my pictorial symbols and tiles, as well as exit number boxes, and roundabouts / interchanges generated from conventional marker symbols.
Note that sprite symbols cannot be edited directly in the json style (other than substituting another symbol already in the sprite document.
The Vector Style Editor does allow you to add or edit them however. More information can be found here.
Andy Skinner, Living Atlas Content team, 2017 (Updated 2021)
The 'Children's Map' and 'Colored Pencil' basemaps are available in the Living Atlas. The 'Great Britain' basemaps were built originally for use in presentations at the 2017 Esri user Conference, with the help of Peter McDaid and Craig Buchanon at Esri UK.
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