idea Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles in ArcGIS Online Ideas

Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

ChrisBardash — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 17:12:21 GMT

Currently vbnewline or other similar label formatting options (Javascript or Python) for breaking labels over multiple lines is not supported in ArcGIS Online when creating vector tiles. This functionality is very basic cartography and has been supported for many years in the desktop world. At the very least, these sorts of shortfalls should have validation rules that let the user know this is not an option before publishing.

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

DavidColey — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 21:00:43 GMT

Yes I am just getting into vector tiles and spent a couple days designing my street reference map for image overlays. Running into big problems with street centered labels not drawing at all at medium scales like 144K, 72K, 36K. Could use some help!

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

Pauldos_Santos — Fri, 05 May 2017 09:03:32 GMT

Hi David

Have you had any success/feedback since posting? I am experiencing the same issue and it's hugely limiting.

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

KateLeroux1 — Fri, 05 May 2017 16:20:06 GMT

There's a property in the style JSON called text-max-width that sets the number of characters allowed before line wrapping. Try setting that to a small number like 2 or 3 and your labels should wrap at spaces (most of the time).

@David Coley: check the text-optional setting, and/or the text-ignore-placement setting (both allow collisions).

I've spent the last few months getting a vector tile basemap in shape, and what comes out of Pro is not ready for primetime. You really need to tinker with the JSON to get it looking right.

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

DavidColey — Fri, 05 May 2017 16:52:30 GMT

Thanks Kate for the json settings direction, I was beginning to suspect as much. Yes clearly what comes out of Pro is not what you get. We're also not using Portal at the moment and that's probably limiting as well (i.e AGOL is our portal until we go to 10.5).

In the meantime, I'm getting large areas that will not render on clients at all when panning / zooming and I'm guessing that's the labelling conflicts.

pdossantos no I haven't. I'll look into working on my styles' json and see what I can do

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

KateLeroux1 — Fri, 05 May 2017 17:04:39 GMT

David Coley‌ one other thing to look at is the text size. I noticed that the text sizes in my vector tile layer ended up 1/3 larger than they were set in Pro (e.g., text that is 9 in Pro is 12 in the JSON). This larger size causes a lot more collisions, as you might expect. Once I set them back to the size I wanted (in the JSON), many more labels were displayed.

I'm using a custom tiling scheme, so if you're not seeing this issue, let me know. I'm curious whether it might have something to do with my tiling scheme.

FWIW, I'm also using AGOL not Portal.

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

DavidColey — Fri, 05 May 2017 18:37:18 GMT

Hey thanks again Kate, I can see exactly what you mention excepting the 'text-ignore-placement setting. I only have a 'text-optional' boolean setting. But it turns out that I can't do anything with the style file. For whatever reason, I don't have the option to download regardless if I share as weblayer or push up as a tile package. Strange - could be that our concurrent licencing option we set for Pro instead of the named user might be the culprit.

But at least I found out why tiles aren't rendering: Fiddler indicates 404 not found from tiles.arcgis.com so it looks like I'm in for a tech support session. I was really hoping to avoid that.

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

KateLeroux1 — Fri, 05 May 2017 18:50:21 GMT

Odd that you can't view or download the style file. Have you made a copy of the layer first? (see here)

You can add any properties detailed in the Mapbox style spec to your style JSON, even if they aren't there to begin with. I have that document in front of me and refer to it constantly.

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

DavidColey — Fri, 05 May 2017 19:19:13 GMT

Oh thanks I was going crazy. Why does esri make you make a copy of your own hosted layer? Anyway yeah that was it, I can get at the style now. And thanks for the mapbox clue, I wasn't sure how to employ. Sadly I'm still getting alot of 404 tile not found errors on my tiles in the webmap, I'll have to see what support can do. Thanks again for your help.

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

Pauldos_Santos — Mon, 08 May 2017 13:36:01 GMT

My use case is slightly different in that I need to modify the vtpk without publishing. It is being used as a basemap in Navigator for ArcGIS.

Unfortunately, if I open the vtpk with WinRar or 7zip and edit the file, when I reload the vtpk into ArcGIS Pro it now appears broken.

I have tried using the Extract Package tool - however, there is no 'repackage' tool... So I can't end up with a working vtpk with changes implemented.

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

BradJones2 — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 17:33:21 GMT

I'm building a new GIS server on 10.5 & I have been pounding my head against the wall trying to get a basemap cache to work. After failing to get my a standard non-vector tile cache to work with pro (none of the road labels, among others, appear in the tiles) I went to vector tiles. I get all the labels, but not the configured styles. The worst part is some/most of the roads labels are repeating (i.e., labeling every feature). Also some layers that I've set to only label inside polygons aren't working. I changed from maplex to the standard label engine and no change.

This is very unfortunate, because Vector tiles seem so awesome. I'm near 100% sold if the labeling can be worked out...and we could configure our own tiling scheme like in ArcMap.

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

BradJones2 — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 17:42:34 GMT

..and some features in the address point layer just aren't being labeled when they all should be. Ugh...

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

KateLeroux1 — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 18:22:29 GMT

Road label repetition and polygon placement: I recommend using Maplex and doing what you can to get positioning set up there. From my conversations with Esri, I think that when Pro generates vector tiles, it creates anchor points for your labels based on how you've configured it in Pro (Maplex or otherwise). There isn't a way to tweak how much labels repeat in the style JSON.

It's hard to tell from your screenshots what configured styles are missing. I can try to help if you give a little more detail.

Missing labels: try playing with the JSON properties text-ignore-placement and text-optional.

Tiling scheme: this is possible! I've created vector tile layers using a custom tiling scheme. They're hard to generate, but once you have one, it works. If I remember correctly, the tool in Pro doesn't create one that works for vector tiles. I'm happy to share my tiling scheme XML if you like - send me a private message.

Another thing to try is to separate your vector tile basemap into two layers: one for labels and one for features. Not only might that reduce or change the collision behavior, but you can then put thematic data (like a choropleth map) in between them. Esri is taking this one step further: their vector basemaps have 3 layers.

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

BradJones2 — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 21:18:20 GMT

The repeating road labels happen in both maplex and standard label engines. I'm going to go back to maplex.

I misspoke when I said configured styles. It is still a placement issue. Like in the first image "MAPLE ST" has two opposite orientations. The building names (also image 1) should only display if they fit completely inside the polygon.

Did you just edit the xml file to get your tiling scheme?

I was just thinking about breaking the baseman up like that while driving to pick up my daughter. This basemap from Esri that I've used got me thinking about it.

Vector tiles look so sharp and they load so quick, but this labeling issue is a pain in the booty.

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

KateLeroux1 — Mon, 12 Jun 2017 17:33:48 GMT

Ok, now I see what you mean. For the label orientation, you could try using the text-keep-upright style property. I haven't used it myself, but it could help.

Building labels: hopefully once you get all the Maplex settings configured, Pro will be better at not creating anchors for labels for small buildings. Check your weight rankings, too, and make sure the polygon boundary weight is high.

I noticed another property you might want to use: text-max-angle. In the lower left of your 4th image, I see the road labels are a jumble because of the tight curve. This setting constrains the angle between each character.

More on custom tiling schemes here: Vector Tile Custom Scheme

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

KoryKramer — Thu, 15 Jun 2017 13:36:32 GMT

As noted in the Idea's original description, this is actually a known issue as the style spec does not support VBNewLine. We continue to work on label placement and formatting for vector tiles for future releases.

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

shan_sarkar — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 09:02:14 GMT

Quite a few fonts are not supported in Vector Tiles.

https://community.esri.com/ideas/13539

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

KateLeroux — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 16:07:33 GMT

For what it's worth, when you create your own vector tiles you can embed whatever font(s) you want. The Esri vector tiles do have a limited font selection, as you said (I agree).

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

ThomasColson — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 15:29:39 GMT

Not sure if this is possible with the way label placement is baked into Maplex, but an easy solution here is to simply expose the label engine to CartoCSS-style editor, which would allow complete control over the style, as well as a preview of what it's going to look like without having to generate tiles. Or, allow editing of the json within the tile package before it's uploaded. Those of us that use AGOL (Only) for tile hosting don't have the luxury of editing the json post-publication.

Re: Fix Labeling Limitations for Vector Tiles

KoryKramer — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 15:41:56 GMT

Thomas, I don't know (don't think) that this will help with label placement, but for your comment about not being able to edit the json post publication, I think you can. Check out Update vector tile layer style—ArcGIS Online Help | ArcGIS and make sure to look at the helpful story maps that walk through the process.