Save a web scene

With ArcGIS Pro, you can save updates to web scenes in an ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise portal. ArcGIS Pro provides advanced authoring capabilities for symbolizing and visualizing 3D geospatial data you can use to modify existing web scenes. Saving a web scene preserves the web scene item ID.

The following conditions must be met when saving a web scene:

• The active scene must be linked to a web scene. When you add a web scene to a project, it is converted to an ArcGIS Pro scene and linked to the web scene. For more information, see Add a web map or web scene.
• The active portal must be the portal where the web scene resides.
• You must be signed in as the owner of the web scene item, an administrator, or a member of the shared update group to which the web scene is shared.
• Your account must have privileges to create content. Additional privileges are required if data layers are to be published as web layers.

Saving a web scene in ArcGIS Pro updates the linked web scene but does not update existing web layers and table items in the portal. For example, saving a scene containing changes to a layer's symbology stores those changes in the web scene only. The appearance or properties of the web layer in other web scenes are not affected because the changes are only applied to the updated web scene. Web layer items in the portal remain unchanged even if they are removed from the scene in ArcGIS Pro. If you add data layers to the scene, saving the scene publishes the new layers to the portal and adds them to the web scene.

Save a web scene in a portal

Before saving a web scene, there are considerations to be aware of. The following workflow saves updates to a web scene in a portal:

1. Add a web scene to a project.
2. Add data layers or make changes to the symbology, pop-ups, or labels of existing web layers in the scene.
3. On the ribbon, on the Share tab, in the Manage group, click Save Web Scene .

   Note:

   The Save Web Scene button is unavailable if the active scene is not linked to a web scene.

   If ArcGIS Pro was not the application used to last modify the web scene, the Save web scene dialog box appears. Do one of the following:
   • Click Save web scene to update the existing web scene.
   • Click Share as new web scene to open the Share As Web Scene pane. You can share a new web scene to examine the features that may be altered or lost before committing the save to the original web scene. See Share a web scene for more information.

   The Save Web Scene pane appears.

The Archive the last updated web scene option creates a copy of the previous version of the web scene. The copied web scene is created as an item with its own ID in the portal. This setting is enabled by default.

The default archive web scene name is <web scene>_<timestamp>. If you are the owner of the original web scene, the archived item is stored in the same folder as the web scene. Otherwise, it is stored in the root folder.

Note:

The Archive the last updated web scene option is not available for ArcGIS Enterprise 10.8 and earlier.

4. Optionally, edit the Summary and Tags fields.

   A summary and tags are required when sharing to an ArcGIS Enterprise 10.9 or earlier portal.

   You can add a maximum of 128 tags.

5. Optionally, under Share with, change the settings:
   • Everyone—Share your content with the public. Anyone can access and see it.
   • My Organization—Share your content with all authenticated users in the organization. This option is available when you are signed in with an organizational account.
   • Groups—Share your content with groups to which you belong and their members.

   Leave all options unchecked to set the sharing level to the owner of the item.

   Note:

   You must be an administrator or the owner of the web scene to change the sharing settings.

6. Optionally, click the Configuration tab at the top of the pane to see the web layers that will be created when you save the scene or to change the web layers' properties.

   See Configure a web scene for more information.

   If you enabled the Allow assignment of unique numeric IDs for sharing web layers option in the Map Properties dialog box, assigned IDs may appear for each sublayer. To change an ID, click the number next to the layer or table. On the Layer Properties or Standalone Table Properties dialog box, on the General tab, type a custom integer ID in the Layer ID or Table ID text box. For more information, see Assign layer IDs.

7. Under Finish Saving, click Analyze to review potential problems.

   Errors and warnings are listed on the Messages tab. Right-click a message to open its help topic or take corrective action in the software. You must resolve errors before you can save the web scene. Resolving warnings is recommended but not required.

   Learn more about analyzing GIS resources

8. After you have resolved errors, and optionally resolved warnings, click Save to update the web scene in the portal.

   If the sharing settings have changed, the Update Sharing dialog box may appear where you can confirm that the layers are visible to your intended viewers.

   1. On the Update Sharing dialog box, click Update to adjust the layer sharing settings to make the layers visible in the web scene.

      A message appears if one or more editable web feature layers cannot be shared with everyone. You must approve public data collection from the layer's item page on the portal. For more information, see Allow or prevent editing on public layers.

   The updates are saved to the existing web scene.

9. Once the save operation has updated the existing web scene, click the Manage web scene link at the bottom of the pane to manage the web scene in the portal.

   If the web scene is composed of new web layers cached automatically on the server, the layers may not be viewable while cache generation is in progress. Click Jobs to view the cache status in the Job Status pane.

Considerations when saving web scenes

Saving web scenes in ArcGIS Pro can improve your scene management workflows. However, limitations exist due to differences in support for certain web scene properties across applications. If you make changes to the web scene using another application and open it in ArcGIS Pro, some properties may appear altered while others may be removed. Any properties that were removed when the web scene was converted to an ArcGIS Pro scene will be lost if the web scene is saved.

Limitation

You may notice that layers with styles authored in other applications such as Scene Viewer appear differently when the web scene is opened in ArcGIS Pro. These differences are present if identical symbology properties in ArcGIS Pro do not exist for styles authored in other applications. Examples of this include 3D path, 3D extrusion, and counts and amounts (2D and 3D). These properties will be altered when the web scene is saved. In cases in which there is no equivalent renderer in ArcGIS Pro, the Scene Viewer styling or property will be lost.

Best practices

The following are best practices to consider before saving a web scene in ArcGIS Pro:

• When you open a web scene in ArcGIS Pro, review it for discrepancies, especially pop-ups, labels, and other properties that were authored in another application.
• If there are multiple users in your ArcGIS organization who can update the web scene, determine whether the web scene was modified since you opened it in ArcGIS Pro to avoid overwriting changes other users may have made. To work with the latest version of a web scene, refresh the scene in your project. See Update a web map or web scene for more information.
• Share the updated scene as a new web scene first and review it for discrepancies. Save it when you are confident in your decision to update the original web scene.