ArcGIS Online Basemaps: Creating a Tile Cache for Offline Use

[JenniferLink]

Hello,

At the Developer Summit this year, I saw that you should now be able to take the ArcGIS Online Basemaps (such as the World Street Map), and export an area of interest to a tile cache that an application can use offline.  Does anyone know where I would find this information?

Thanks,

Jen

[AndySmith]

Hi Jennifer,

A number of the Esri basemaps have been optimised for offline use. These can be identified by looking for the "for export" option: http://www.arcgis.com/home/search.html?q=for%20export&t=content&focus=layers

World Street Map: http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=e384f5aa4eb1433c92afff09500b073d

You can then take the basemap offline by creating a tile package: Go offline—Collector for ArcGIS | ArcGIS

[JenniferLink]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for your quick reply. I see from the link you provided that ESRI included the following documentation...

"This map service is designed to support exporting small volumes of basemap tiles for offline use, according to the access and use constraints below.  This map service will enable you to export up to 100,000 tiles in a single request."

Is there a tool available to download these tiles from ArcGIS for Desktop or ArcGIS Pro?

[RenatoSalvaleon]

@Andy Smith, in Portal for ArcGIS, what action actually downloads the tiles from this URL https://services.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Imagery/MapServer to our Portal's server with this URL: https://gisportal.ourdomain.com/portal/home/item.html?id=someGUIDitemID12345678

[RenatoSalvaleon]

I saw this link - Example: Prepare Esri basemaps for use in offline workflows—Portal for ArcGIS (10.3 and 10.3.1) | Ar... .  Is this it? Is there an easier way ?

[AndySmith]

Hi Jennifer,

These basemaps can just be added to your webmap. It can then be opened in Collector and when you select to take it offline, the basemap will also be taken offline (i.e. the tiles will be downloaded - up to 100,000 tiles).

[BenGrod]

Jennifer,

Andy seems to have correctly provided the relevant links and information to taking Esri basemaps offline with the mobile Collector app. When I read your posts I'm wondering if your intent is take basemaps offline with ArcGIS Desktop or Pro? It's not a common workflow which is why I asked.

Also, on a side note, but possibly relevant. Taking Esri basemap data offline with Collector has a file size limit of 5MB which you can overcome if you create tile packages of your own basemaps.

Good luck,

[JenniferLink]

Hi Ben,

We have created a mobile application based on the ArcGIS Runtime for .NET. Currently we provide offline basemaps to the end user by creating a tile package (.tpk), and side loading this file onto the device. What we would like to do instead is create a tile package based on the ArcGIS Online World Street Map so we do not have to create the symbology ourselves at the different scale levels.

I thought that there might be tools in the latest version of ArcGIS for Desktop or ArcGIS Pro to create these tile packages, similar to the 'Create ArcGIS Runtime Content' tool or the 'Create Tile Package' tools that are both in ArcGIS for Desktop. Currently, it seems you cannot use those tools with ArcGIS Online content.

[BenGrod]

Jennifer, I think an Esri employee might be more suited to answer that question but as I understand it the ArcGIS Online content is not available or accessible to create tile packages against. Through different licensing Esri makes Data and Maps for Server available which is essentially the data behind some of the AGOL content. You may want to explore that, it is possible to create tile packages off of content hosted on your local ArcGIS Server. Hope this helps and good luck!

[AndySmith]

Hi Jennifer,

The following help page from the Runtime SDK for .NET explains how to "Create a basemap from a tiled service (download a basemap)":

Create an offline map—ArcGIS Runtime SDK for .NET | ArcGIS for Developers

You are able to download it as a tile package (up to 100,000 tiles).