Map Tile Generation
What Are Map Tiles?
With ArcGIS Online you can generate map tiles to support fast visualization of large datasets in a web map. Tiles are a collection of pre-rendered map images that provide geographic context for operational layers in ArcGIS. With ArcGIS you can create map tiles as an Esri-hosted service and use the service to create web maps that can also be used in web and mobile applications.
How Many Service Credits Are Used When These Map Tiles Are Generated?
The table below shows examples of different geographic areas (small city, large city, county, state, and the continental US) and the estimated number of service credits used when creating a similarly sized set of map tiles for a tile service.
The caching tools in ArcGIS allow you to define an area of interest and configure the amount of tiles and number of levels that are created. The examples below are defined as typical areas most likely to be viewed, at an appropriate scale for the source data.
| Place Name |
Size
(mi2/km2) |
Estimated
Tile Count |
Estimated
Credits |
| City of Redlands, CA |
84/218 |
3,400 |
3 |
| City of San Diego, CA |
430/1,114 |
16,300 |
16 |
| Dallas County, TX |
1,288/3,336 |
3,320 |
3 |
|
State of Colorado
|
172,750/445,478 |
400,100 |
400 |
|
Continental US
|
8,731,000 /22,613,186 |
79,400 |
80 |
The table below shows additional details such as estimated tile count and service credits used if a user wants to add additional levels to the cache. A good rule of thumb is that an additional level of cache requires almost as many tiles as all the levels above it.
| Place Name |
Size
(mi2/km2) |
Data
Scale |
Maximum
Cache Scale |
Estimated
Tile Count |
Estimated
Credits
|
| Redlands, CA |
84/218 |
1:5,000 |
(L17) 1:4,513 |
3,400 |
3 |
| Redlands, CA |
84 /218 |
1:5,000 |
(L19) 1:1,128 |
50,400 |
50 |
| San Diego, CA |
430/1,114 |
1:5,000 |
(L17) 1:4,513 |
16,300 |
16 |
| San Diego, CA |
430/1,114 |
1:5,000 |
(L19) 1:1,128 |
255,000 |
255 |
| Dallas County, TX |
1,288/3,336 |
1:24,000 |
(L15) 1:18,056 |
3,320 |
3 |
| Dallas County, TX |
1,288/3,336 |
1:24,000 |
(L17) 1:4,513 |
49,500 |
50 |
| Colorado |
172,750/445,478 |
1:24,000 |
(L15) 1:18,056 |
400,100 |
400 |
| Colorado |
172,750/445,478 |
1:24,000 |
(L16) 1:9,028 |
1,595,500 |
1,596 |
| Colorado |
172,750/445,478 |
1:24,000 |
(L17) 1:4,513 |
6,374,300 |
6,374 |
| Continental US |
8,731,000/22,613,186 |
1:250,000 |
(L11) 1:288,895 |
79,400 |
79 |
Continental US
|
8,731,000/22,613,186 |
1:250,000 |
(L12) 1:144,448 |
315,900 |
316 |
Continental US
|
8,731,000/22,613,186 |
1:250,000 |
(L13) 1:72,223 |
1,260,874 |
1,261
|
Please note: It may take several iterations of building the map tiles until they are ready for production. The first run of creating map tiles might cover small to medium scales over the full extent of the map. The second run might cover a larger scale for just the areas that are frequently visited. The extra work and planning required to manually run several iterations of the caching tool may conserve time and service credits if you can reduce the number of unneeded tiles being created. Users should always do a test cache of smaller areas first.