Vector Tiles Many Duplicate Labels at High Zoom

[JCGuarneri]

I have a long-standing issue with my vector tiles that I've been trying to resolve. The issue is that I design my label classes in Pro and get results that I like. However, in the published vector tiles, there are invariably high densities of repeating labels at high zoom levels (see examples below). I've gone through the suggestions in https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/mapping/map-authoring/labeling-in-vector-tiles.htm and made adjustments accordingly, but I still see this issue. I suspect there's something simple I'm missing. Does anyone have a good suggestion?

I'm working in Enterprise 10.9.1, publishing from Pro 3.1.3, but this has been an issue for years.

Desired:

 

Actual:

 

[Bilal_Alam_GIS]

Could you please try Enable scale-based sizing and remove duplicate labels in label setting:

[ChelseaRozek]

Those suggestions did not fix it for me.

@JCGuarneri , did you find any work arounds?

[JCGuarneri]

@ChelseaRozek It turns out this is caused by Vector Tiles using the default labeling engine and not Maplex. So the "fix" is to use Annotations for various zoom levels, if you have time for that. I learned that from some members of the Esri Maplex team that were kind enough to take an interest in my map gallery entry at UC.
Completely forgot about this post, otherwise would have updated earlier!

[ChelseaRozek]

@JCGuarneri Thanks for the quick reply! That's a bummer, feels like a step backwards instead of forward... May have to stop using them.

[ChrisWesson]

@JCGuarneri If I understand your question correctly then the workaround is not annotations, they are not currently compatible with vector tiles. Remove duplicates will also be ignored.

If your roads are lines, then you can use the option under Repeat > Minimum interval. I know in GIS you would often use this to increase the frequency of labels but when creating vector tiles it is also useful for limiting the frequency of labels. The reason being is that this setting gets converted to the vector tile "symbol-spacing" property. For the river polygon, if you use the Maplex placement "Curved in polygon" then you can also use the Repeat > Minimum interval setting in the same way.

[JCGuarneri]

@ChrisWesson I'm already using Minimum Interval, and it doesn't seem to be honored by the vector tiles. Enterprise 11.1, published from Pro 3.2.3. Are there any special tricks or constraints to be aware of to make sure it works properly?

As for the Annotations, perhaps I misunderstood the folks I talked to at UC. I haven't actually tried annotations to confirm or deny.

[ChelseaRozek]

@ChrisWesson I bumped up the Minimum Interval and republished to ArcGIS Online but I'm still getting the duplicate road labels as seen in my screenshot earlier in this thread.

[ChrisWesson]

Sorry to hear this @ChelseaRozek . I sometimes get the same.
Other things you could try are joining segmented road sections or editing the JSON to include the Mapbox setting "text-repeat-distance".
Beyond that, what you are likely seeing is repeats across different tiles. My understanding is that the rules beyond a tile edge only extend within a small buffer distance. The only way around this is to try to force less labels by modifying the tile index. Essentially it would be the opposite of this workflow. So try for example increasing the maximum vertex count to 50,000. But that may reduce performance.

[ChelseaRozek]

I tried dissolving my roads based on name and a few other fields we use to label. I tried adding in "text-repeat-distance" in the Vector Tile Style Editor's JSON editing (after confirming I was on the right label class by changing the text color). Neither helped. I wouldn't think it's a tile issue as I'm only looking at an 800 ft driveway.