Choosing Area of Interest for generating tile cache

[GabrielHolbrow]

I am using ArcGIS 10.1 for Desktop (Basic License) to publish a cached tile service to ArcGIS Online. Tile generation and storage costs credits, so to be strategic I am generating tiles manually using the Manage Map Server Cache Tiles tool. At certain scales, I would like to define a polygon as an Area of Interest so that only tiles that overlap that area will be generated.

In the dialog box for the Manage Map Server Cache Tiles tool, there is a drop-down menu under the Area of Interest (Polygon) parameter. However, the arrow to cause the menu to drop down is greyed out, leaving the default "ManageMapServerCacheTiles::area_of_interest" polygon as my only option. I would like to use a feature class that I previously created, and the help topics for the Manage Map Server Cache Tiles tool seem to indicate that using a feature class should be possible.

Why might the arrow on the drop-down menu for Area of Interest (Polygon) be greyed out?
How can I use a polygon feature class as my Area of Interest?

Two work-arounds are immediately obvious, but neither are ideal. (1) I can create the shape of the default "ManageMapServerCacheTiles::area_of_interest" polygon by tracing the feature class I want to use, but manually tracing takes time and looses precision. (2) I can select the feature class I want to use with the drop-down menu under the Area of Interest (Envelope) parameter, which is not greyed out. However, this setting creates an rectangular extent in which tiles will be created but I want to use a polygon that is not a rectangle and in fact has holes in it.

[JonathanQuinn]

I'm not sure why the drop down is greyed out, but you could look into using some geoprocessing tools to create your area of interest feature class.  For example, you could create a fishnet and then use the Select By Location to select for grid features that only intersect your data.  Perhaps you could also use the Buffer tool to buffer an existing layer within your data that completely covers your data and use the output as the Area of Interest feature class.

[GabrielHolbrow]

j.quinn, thank you for the extra idea about how to create the feature class that I want to use as my area of interest. However, creating the feature class is not the problem; I can do that without trouble.

My problem is that I cannot find a way to use the feature class I have created as the area of interest polygon for the Manage Map Server Cache Tiles tool.

[JonathanQuinn]

So you can't even browse to a feature class by clicking on the folder button next to the drop down arrow?

[GabrielHolbrow]

So you can't even browse to a feature class by clicking on the folder button next to the drop down arrow?

Yes, that is correct. Strange, isn't it.

[JeffPace]

I have this same problem at 10.2 Alot of the tile options are greyed out

Any idea why?

[DanielleKulas]

I'm having this exact same issue with 10.3. Any progress or solutions?

[MichaelVolz]

How about this thread to save credits?

https://community.esri.com/docs/DOC-2996#comment-20064

[VHolubec]

It is a bug: BUG-000082168. Will be fixed in Desktop 10.4. Until that you can create the TPK with just area of interest (using tools manage tile cache and Export tile cache) in you local PC and the TPK you can publish to AGOL.

[DougBrowning]

Will any of the similar bugs I logged be fixed in 10.4?  Thanks

[BUG-000086429: The Manage Tile Cache tool does not honor the area of interest parameter set when creating the cache.]  I have 2 out there now that say only 3.63% of the tiles published but it actually works just fine.  Case #01691221 and  #01642593

[BUG-000085241: Publishing tiles does not complete in ArcGIS Online. This may be due to incorrect extents, however this warning is never provided to the user when creating the tile package.]

Unknown number - the extent is also wrong when using the Export Tile cache tool.  They listed BUG-000085241 but this is already above and different.  I had case  #01642593 and #01623834 because the export tool also bombs in scheduled scripts but works fine not scheduled.

BUG-000084160 The Manage Tile Cache tool will fail when run in python.  I was trying to get around the bug above and found another one.