Layer blend wipes out layout map frame

chrisr_ca_us · ‎10-27-2022

I am working on a series of maps and whenever I try and use a layer blend under the effects group it wipes out my layout map frame. The effect displays fine on the map tab but the map frame in the layout tab just turns white. I am on ArcGIS Pro 3.0.2. This is a big deal as this effect is a symbology requirement from the client, so now I will likely have to take the map into Adobe illustrator to add the effect. Has anyone else experienced this?

TomBole · ‎10-28-2022

HI Chris,

There are some known issues/bug concerning layer blending and the display of the map in Layout map frames. These include:

BUG-000151718 The clip to an outline option in Layout View causes the entire map frame to go white when activated on hill shade imagery that has a layer blend of Multiply applied to it.
BUG-000142625 Setting the layer blending mode to 'Darken' with a map series enabled causes the 'Exclude layers from clipping' settings in the Clip Layers section to not apply.
BUG-000143484 The layout does not honor map colors when the 'Layer blend' configuration is different than 'Normal' or 'Exclusion'

The problem you are running into may be one of the above, or something specific to your data/workflow. Can you contact Esri Support? They are better equipped to handle troubleshooting steps and gather bug data. They can be contacted at https://support.esri.com/en/contact-tech-support.

Thanks,

Tom

chrisr_ca_us · ‎10-31-2022

Thank you for the reply Tom. I had a short turn around on this and did some experimenting but never was able to get past the issue in ArcGIS Pro. I have an Adobe license and the Maps for Adobe Creative Cloud extension so I just did the blend in Illustrator for the time being.

ScottSweet2 · ‎11-27-2023

This bug is also present in ArcGIS Pro version 3.2. I do not have the adobe license to fix it, so I'm SOL. Very disappointing. Is there a work-around for this other than using adobe?

casjone · ‎05-08-2024

and it persists in 3.3

TomBole · ‎05-08-2024

Having a reproducible case is vital to fixing bugs. As far as I know we do not have a reproducible case in house in which to investigate this further. Can you contact Esri Support?

They can be contacted at https://support.esri.com/en/contact-tech-support.

TomBole · ‎11-28-2023

Hi @ScottSweet2

Sorry you are running into an issue. I'm currently unaware of any known issues concerning the "Hard light" blend option. I just tested with a map background and a basemap hill shade (ArcGIS Map Service) and saw no issue. It is likely that the issue is specific to the layers and properties in your (and other's) map. Without knowing these details and being able to reproduce the issue you describe there is very little help I can offer.

Can you contact Esri Support? They are better equipped to handle troubleshooting steps and gather bug data. They can be contacted at https://support.esri.com/en/contact-tech-support.

Thanks,

Tom

MattMurray1 · ‎03-05-2025

I had the exact same problem. Based on the response by Tom, I turned off clipping in Clip Layers, this fixed the problem for me. Apparently you can either have layer clipping or layer blending but not both.

TomBole · ‎03-05-2025

Hi @MattMurray1 ,

I apologize if my response made it appear that "you can either have layer clipping or layer blending but not both." This is NOT the case. Both should work together. In the screenshot below you can see in the map frame an example of a vector tile service layer (USA_Topo_Maps) blended with a red map background using the "Mulitply" blending option. The layer is also clipped. On the right is the clipped layer without blending.

I would assume any case where this is not working to be a bug.

Since there are many different layer type\blend option combinations it is quite possible that there may be a bug with a specific combination when clipped. Or, there could be another variable that is interfering with the drawing in your case. For instance, is this issue only occurring with a map frame (page layout) or do you see it in a map view?

I found some related issues that have been addressed:

BUG-000154946 Blend and Clip behavior on Layouts with CMYK are not WYSIWYG. This issue was fixed with release version 3.2.
BUG-000151718 The clip to an outline option in Layout View causes the entire map frame to go white when activated on hill shade imagery that has a layer blend of Multiply applied to it. This issue was fixed with release version 3.1.
BUG-000142625 Setting the layer blending mode to 'Darken' with a map series enabled causes the 'Exclude layers from clipping' settings in the Clip Layers section to not apply. This issue was fixed with release version 3.1.
BUG-000141559 The Clip Layers tool does not work correctly in ArcGIS Pro 2.8.x for layers that are excluded from clipping if Layer Blend is set to a different option than Normal or Exclusion. This issue was fixed with release version 3.0.

Currently, I'm not aware of any outstanding issue concerning blending and clipping. If you are using version after 3.2 you may be running into a new bug. Can you contact Esri Support? They are better equipped to handle troubleshooting steps and gather bug data. They can be contacted at https://support.esri.com/en/contact-tech-support.

Hope this helps,

Tom