Manage Tile Cache (Data Management)

Summary

Creates a tile cache or updates tiles in an existing tile cache. You can use this tool to create tiles, replace missing tiles, overwrite outdated tiles, and delete tiles.

Usage

  • When creating a tile cache using this tool, if no Area of Interest parameter value is specified, the cache will be created with the full extent of the source raster or mosaic dataset or the current extent of the map file.

  • The extent of the generated cache may be larger than the Area of Interest parameter value. In this case, the tool divides the data into large areas, known as supertiles, before cutting it into tiles of the size specified. When the Input Data Source parameter value uses antialiasing, the supertile is 2,048 by 2,048 pixels; otherwise, it is 4,096 by 4,096. When the specified Area of Interest feature intersects the boundary of a supertile, that entire supertile will be created. This means that you may need to zoom in before caching by a feature class can have an effect in saving time or disk space. If you have multiple areas of interest and they cover most of the Input Data Source parameter value, you may not get much benefit from caching by a feature class, because most of the features will intersect a supertile.

  • To create cache in a custom tiling scheme, ensure that you have a tiling scheme defined for the source dataset before using this tool. You can use the Generate Tile Cache Tiling Scheme tool to create the tiling scheme.

  • To create a cache in an ArcGIS Online tiling scheme, specify ArcGIS Online scheme for the Input Tiling Scheme parameter.

  • This tool may take a long time to run for caches that cover a large geographic extent or very large scales. If the tool is canceled, tile creation is stopped, but the existing tiles are not deleted. This means that you can cancel the tool at any time, and if you rerun it later on the same cache and specify Recreate empty tiles for the Manage Mode parameter, it will continue from where it left off.

  • This tool supports the Parallel Processing environment setting.

  • When the Ready to serve format parameter is checked, the cache content is generated using the open tile package specification. The cache format is Compact V2, but the cache schema is stored in JSON instead of XML. To learn more about the ready to learn format, see Publish a tile layer from a cache dataset.

Parameters

LabelExplanationData Type
Cache Location

The folder in which the cache dataset will be created, the raster layer, or the path to an existing tile cache.

Folder; Raster Layer
Manage Mode

Specifies the mode that will be used to manage the cache.

  • Recreate all tilesExisting tiles will be replaced and new tiles will be added if the extent has changed or if layers have been added to a multilayer cache.
  • Recreate empty tilesOnly tiles that are empty will be created. Existing tiles will be left unchanged.
  • Delete tilesTiles will be deleted from the cache. The cache folder structure will not be deleted.
String
Cache Name
(Optional)

The name of the cache dataset that will be created in the cache location.

String
Input Data Source
(Optional)

A raster dataset, mosaic dataset, or map file.

This parameter is not required when the Manage Mode parameter is set to Delete tiles.

A map file (.mapx) cannot contain a map service or image service.

Mosaic Layer; Raster Layer; Map
Input Tiling Scheme
(Optional)

Specifies the tiling scheme that will be used.

  • ArcGIS Online schemeThe default ArcGIS Online tiling scheme will be used.
  • Import schemeAn existing tiling scheme will be imported and used.
  • Elevation tiling schemeThe elevation services tiling scheme will be used.
  • WGS84 Version 2 tiling schemeThe WGS84 version 2 tiling scheme will be used.
  • WGS84 Version 2 elevation tiling scheme The WGS84 version 2 tiling scheme will be used to build a tile cache for elevation data.
String
Import Tiling Scheme
(Optional)

The path to an existing scheme file (.xml) or to a tiling scheme imported from an existing image service or map service.

Image Service; Map Server; File
Scales [Pixel Size] (Estimated Disk Space)
(Optional)

The scale levels at which tiles will be created or deleted, depending on the value of the Manage Mode parameter. The pixel size is based on the spatial reference of the tiling scheme.

  • By default, only the values for Minimum Cached Scale and Maximum Cached Scale will be used.
  • Altering the value of either the Minimum Cached Scale or the Maximum Cached Scale parameter will check on or off the appropriate scale values.
  • Scales that are checked on and are not within the range of the Minimum Cached Scale or Maximum Cached Scale parameter values will be ignored when generating the cache.
Double
Area of Interest
(Optional)

An area of interest that will be used to constrain where tiles will be created or deleted.

It can be a feature class, or it can be a feature set that you interactively define.

This parameter is useful if you want to manage tiles for irregularly shaped areas. It's also useful when you want to precache some areas and leave less-visited areas uncached.

Feature Set
Maximum Source Cell Size
(Optional)

The value that defines the visibility of the data source for which the cache will be generated. By default, the value is empty.

If the value is empty, the following apply:

  • For levels of cache that lie within the visibility ranges of the data source, the cache will be generated from the data source.
  • For levels of cache that fall outside the visibility of the data source, the cache will be generated from the previous level of cache.

If the value is greater than zero, the following apply:

  • For levels with cell sizes smaller than or equal to this parameter value, the cache will be generated from the data source.
  • For levels with cell sizes greater than this parameter value, the cache will be generated from the previous level of cache.

The measurement unit of this parameter value should be the same as the measurement unit of the cell size of the source dataset.

Double
Minimum Cached Scale
(Optional)

The minimum scale at which tiles will be created. This value does not need to be the smallest scale in the tiling scheme. The minimum cache scale will determine which scales are used when generating cache.

Double
Maximum Cached Scale
(Optional)

The maximum scale at which tiles will be created. This value does not need to be the largest scale in the tiling scheme. The maximum cache scale will determine which scales are used when generating cache.

Double
Ready to serve format
(Optional)

Specifies whether the cache content will be generated using the open tile package specification and also specifies the file format of the cache schema.

  • Checked—The cache content will be generated using the open tile package specification. A tile package can be packaged to a zip archive as a tile package for offline workflows. The cache format is Compact V2, and the cache schema is stored in JSON format.
  • Unchecked—The cache content will be generated using a schema stored in XML format. This is the default.

Boolean

Derived Output

LabelExplanationData Type
Cache Name

The cache dataset to create in the output cache location.

Raster Dataset

arcpy.management.ManageTileCache(in_cache_location, manage_mode, {in_cache_name}, {in_datasource}, {tiling_scheme}, {import_tiling_scheme}, {scales}, {area_of_interest}, {max_cell_size}, {min_cached_scale}, {max_cached_scale}, {ready_to_serve_format})
NameExplanationData Type
in_cache_location

The folder in which the cache dataset will be created, the raster layer, or the path to an existing tile cache.

Folder; Raster Layer
manage_mode

Specifies the mode that will be used to manage the cache.

  • RECREATE_ALL_TILESExisting tiles will be replaced and new tiles will be added if the extent has changed or if layers have been added to a multilayer cache.
  • RECREATE_EMPTY_TILESOnly tiles that are empty will be created. Existing tiles will be left unchanged.
  • DELETE_TILESTiles will be deleted from the cache. The cache folder structure will not be deleted.
String
in_cache_name
(Optional)

The name of the cache dataset that will be created in the cache location.

String
in_datasource
(Optional)

A raster dataset, mosaic dataset, or map file.

This parameter is not required when the manage_mode parameter is set to DELETE_TILES.

A map file (.mapx) cannot contain a map service or image service.

Mosaic Layer; Raster Layer; Map
tiling_scheme
(Optional)

Specifies the tiling scheme that will be used.

  • ARCGISONLINE_SCHEMEThe default ArcGIS Online tiling scheme will be used.
  • IMPORT_SCHEMEAn existing tiling scheme will be imported and used.
  • ARCGISONLINE_ELEVATION_SCHEMEThe elevation services tiling scheme will be used.
  • WGS84_V2_SCHEMEThe WGS84 version 2 tiling scheme will be used.
  • WGS84_V2_ELEVATION_SCHEME The WGS84 version 2 tiling scheme will be used to build a tile cache for elevation data.
String
import_tiling_scheme
(Optional)

The path to an existing scheme file (.xml) or to a tiling scheme imported from an existing image service or map service.

Image Service; Map Server; File
scales
[scale,...]
(Optional)

The scale levels at which tiles will be created or deleted , depending on the value of the manage_mode parameter. The pixel size is based on the spatial reference of the tiling scheme.

  • By default, only the values for min_cached_scale and max_cached_scale will be used when generating cache.
  • Altering the value of either the min_cached_scale or the max_cached_scale parameter will change which scales will be used when generating cache.
  • Scales that exist but are not within the range of the min_cached_scale or max_cached_scale parameter values will be ignored when generating the cache.
Double
area_of_interest
(Optional)

An area of interest that will be used to constrain where tiles will be created or deleted.

It can be a feature class, or it can be a feature set that you interactively define.

This parameter is useful if you want to manage tiles for irregularly shaped areas. It's also useful when you want to precache some areas and leave less-visited areas uncached.

Feature Set
max_cell_size
(Optional)

The value that defines the visibility of the data source for which the cache will be generated. By default, the value is empty.

If the value is empty, the following apply:

  • For levels of cache that lie within the visibility ranges of the data source, the cache will be generated from the data source.
  • For levels of cache that fall outside the visibility of the data source, the cache will be generated from the previous level of cache.

If the value is greater than zero, the following apply:

  • For levels with cell sizes smaller than or equal to this parameter value, the cache will be generated from the data source.
  • For levels with cell sizes greater than this parameter value, the cache will be generated from the previous level of cache.

The measurement unit of this parameter value should be the same as the measurement unit of the cell size of the source dataset.

Double
min_cached_scale
(Optional)

The minimum scale at which tiles will be created. This value does not need to be the smallest scale in the tiling scheme. The minimum cache scale will determine which scales are used when generating cache.

Double
max_cached_scale
(Optional)

The maximum scale at which tiles will be created. This value does not need to be the largest scale in the tiling scheme. The maximum cache scale will determine which scales are used when generating cache.

Double
ready_to_serve_format
(Optional)

Specifies whether the cache content will be generated using the open tile package specification and also specifies the file format of the cache schema.

  • READY_TO_SERVE_FORMATThe cache content will be generated using the open tile package specification (https://github.com/Esri/tile-package-spec). A tile package can be packaged to a zip archive as a tile package for offline workflows. The cache format is Compact V2, and the cache schema is stored in JSON format.
  • NON_READY_TO_SERVE_FORMATThe cache content will be generated using a schema stored in XML format. This is the default.
Boolean

Derived Output

NameExplanationData Type
out_cache_location

The cache dataset to create in the output cache location.

Raster Dataset

Code sample

ManageTileCache example 1 (Python window)

This is a Python sample for the ManageTileCache function.

import arcpy
            
arcpy.ManageTileCache_management(
      "C:/CacheDatasets/Manage", "RECREATE_ALL_TILES", "Test",
      "C:/Data/Cache.gdb/Md", "IMPORT_SCHEME", "C:/Data/Cache.gdb/Md",
      "#", "#", "#", "40000", "2000", "NON_READY_TO_SERVE_FORMAT")
ManageTileCache example 2 (stand-alone script)

This is a Python script sample for the ManageTileCache function.

#Generate tile cache for 3 out of 5 levels defined in tiling scheme

import arcpy

folder = "C:/Workspace/CacheDatasets/Manage"
mode = "RECREATE_ALL_TILES"
cacheName = "Test"
dataSource = "C:/Workspace/Cache.gdb/md"
method = "IMPORT_SCHEME"
tilingScheme = "C:/Workspace/Schemes/Tilingscheme.xml"
scales = "16000;8000;4000;2000;1000"
areaofinterest = "#"
maxcellsize = "#"
mincachedscale = "8000"
maxcachedscale = "2000"
ready_to_serve_format="NON_READY_TO_SERVE_FORMAT"

arcpy.ManageTileCache_management(
       folder, mode, cacheName, dataSource, method, tilingScheme,
       scales, areaofinterest, maxcellsize, mincachedscale, maxcachedscale, ready_to_serve_format)

Environments

Special cases

Parallel Processing Factor

If the Parallel Processing Factor value is empty (blank), the tool will run with a default value of 50 percent (one-half) of the available cores.

Licensing information

  • Basic: Yes
  • Standard: Yes
  • Advanced: Yes

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