TimeSlider visualisation issue with polgon shapefiles in ArcGIS Online

[Anonymous User]

Original User: osprey30

Hey there,

I've created a number of polygon shapes in ArcGIS 10.1, combined them in one attribute table and added time data to the polygons. Each Polygon shows the sea extent at a different sea level. Further I've have published it as Feature Service and created a map with it. Link: http://gisp.maps.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=db0154ba20b04d1997cf982668ed4f1b

So far it works but im quite unhappy with the result since the visualisation doesn't look smooth. When i click the manual forward/backward button it takes a few seconds until the next polygon is loaded and while this it only shows the background map. In fact its hard to see where the sea level rises, since the "old" polygon always disappears.

Is it a problem of my connection (which is 16k) or do i have to change some settings in ArcMap or online? I've tried the "progressively display all the data" button but it didn't help.

Thanks in advance

Sebastian

[MikeMinami]

Your data draws pretty fast for me, so I'm not sure if it is your connection. I also adjusted the playback speed to the fastest. The map does clear the data before drawing the next time interval. There's not much we can do here because the browser is drawing the data.

Some things I can suggest...

Can you draw the different polygon in different colors? This may help with the visual differentiation between different times. Drawing with the same color blue doesn't really highlight the differences.

For possibly increased performance, you might generalize your data. Your polygon has over 8000 vertices, and hundreds of "rings" or holes where the land is. The server basically returns all of this data to the browser to draw.

Hope this helps,

Mike

[Anonymous User]

Original User: osprey30

The map does clear the data before drawing the next time interval. There's not much we can do here because the browser is drawing the data.

Ah okay, i thought it would be possible to keep the current polygon while the next one is getting drew about it. That would have been nice 🙂

Can you draw the different polygon in different colors? This may help with the visual differentiation between different times. Drawing with the same color blue doesn't really highlight the differences.

This might be a good idea, gonna play around with some colors.

For possibly increased performance, you might generalize your data. Your polygon has over 8000 vertices, and hundreds of "rings" or holes where the land is. The server basically returns all of this data to the browser to draw.

I've tried the "Simplify Polygon" Tool with 2 km Distance (1km Raster), the amout of data is getting way smallers but esp. the "rings/holes/islands" are looking quite ugly afterwards due to the acute triangles. Are there any other tools i could check out (without the "Smooth Polygon" Tool which increases the data volume) ?

Thanks for the fast answer! 🙂

Edit;

Would setting a scale range (online) reduce the drawing time?

[MikeMinami]

You might try different values for generalization. Maybe the value you are using is too large?? (or is it too small?)

Setting a scale range will not make things draw faster for time animation, unless you set it such that you can't see the entire area at one time. Then there are less features the browser has to draw.

Mike