Vector Tile Customization - Add Layers?

[Anonymous User]

I have read through the documentation about how you can copy ESRI's vector tile maps and do some custom styling such as changing colors, deleting layers and so on. However, is there a way to add layers to one of their templates? I have another vector tile package published to ArcGIS Online. I tried adding an additional source and then adding the layers in the json, but it seems that there is more to it then that if its even possible. 

[PatrickArlt1 · Accepted solution]

Nikholai O'Hara‌ I would check out the new vector tile style editor which is part of the Developers site Design custom basemaps with the new ArcGIS Vector Tile Style Editor . It can do quite a bit of customization.

[RachaelChasse]

I use the Vector Tile Style Editor (BETA) as well.  This tool does a good job of customizing many style elements (color, visibility, font size, line thickness, transparency) in a visual editor format.

I have been using the following approach to using custom vector base maps with my own map data:

1.  Use the vector tile style editor to style a vector map with only the background elements visible (land, water

2.  Use the vector tile style editor to style a vector map with only the foreground (labels, roads, boundaries) visible

From there I go into either ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Pro and add both vector tile layers to the map.  This two layer map can now have custom layers added, and they can be stacked beneath roads/labels if needed.

This generally works well, though a few things have cropped up:

--Updates made through the vector tile style editor can take awhile to show up in AGOL or Pro--even with refreshing

--The style editor has poor label placement customization compared to Pro / maplex.  In some cases I revert back to my old road labels layer

--The vector tile style editor web page seems to use a large amount of memory

--The vector base maps provided by ESRI don't always line up well with the other data sets that I often use 

The style editor is still in BETA and these things can be expected.  I can't find a discussion / idea board on the ESRI community for it yet, but it would be helpful to have one if there is serious development going on with the product.