Pre-sybolized Data Layers - where are they now?

[MichaelAugust]

With the release of 2024 StreetMap Premium the mxd that used to contain pre-stylized StreetMap Premium data layers has been deprecated and that makes sense, but I am not seeing an .aprx or any .lyr files anywhere to replace it. I understand that ArcMap is going away, but now we can't even re-point to the new 2024 data from those old mxd layers because of all the field/attribute name changes breaking the label expressions, symbolization, etc.

Is there a new way to get the 2024.2 StreetMap Premium data into something like the old .mxd? Where the data was all symbolized into zoom levels and labeling was cartographically pleasant?

On the webpage for StreetMap Premium I see the following quote: "Make use of high-quality, consistent, ready-to-use maps and prerendered, presymbolized data layers." - where are these presybolized data layers exactly?

[MarcoBoeringa]

I have never used StreetMap Premium, but reading this page:

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/streetmap-premium/latest/get-started/overview.htm

shouldn't you be downloading the GCS mobile map package from your StreetMap Premium licensed organizational "My ESRI" portal, as that map package appears to contain pre-symbolized data similar to ESRI's "Navigation Map" style if I understand the Help text correctly? See the last bullet "Cartographic display".

[MichaelAugust]

Hi Marco - yes, but that tile package is basically the same as the Navigation basemap, you can't edit the layers or turn off the land, water, parks etc. We need only the symbolized (and labeled with diff zoom levels, etc.) street layers, which we could then float on top of different base imagery, like hillshade, historical aerials, etc.

Our previous workflow would be to open the included .mxd and copy out the symbolized streets, turning off the backgrounds, you can't do this now with the mobile map package bc it's just a bunch of 'tiles' vs 'layers' if that makes sense.

[MarcoBoeringa]

Does the package not have some customizable JSON style in it that you could edit in e.g. ESRI's vector style editor or by hand in a text editor? AFAIK, vector tiles are always styled dynamically, and thus require a style file to define its symbology and layers etc. It must be coming from somewhere in the map package... or reference ESRI's navigation style JSON on the web.

[MichaelAugust]

As far as I can tell the only thing you can do with the mobile map package is, using a special tool, clip it to a smaller area. I have used the vector style editor in the past but that only stores your customized layers in Online afaik. I don't see any way to open/edit/clip/save this mobile map package like you could easily do with stylized layers in an mxd that were pointing at a fgdb (the Streets fgdb).

[MichaelAugust]

Furthermore, the documentation doesn't even make sense about what comes with StreetMap Premium, see the screenshot below, it mentions "a file geodatabase (.gbd) folder containing: 

Map document (.mxd)" 

-- this is just incorrect on a couple levels, an fgdb folder is the database and should not contain mxds. 

[MarcoBoeringa]

Well, this is getting quite a bit of a hack, but an *.mmpk file is just a ZIP file that you can unzip to an empty (new) folder. If you do that, you should see its contents. ArcGIS Pro project file can be unzipped as well.

There is likely an *.mmap and *.mapx as part of the unzipped file. When I look at a custom created Mobile Map Package for ESRI's OpenStreetMap vector tile service, I see these files containing a reference to the service as Url/uRI, that you can copy and paste in a browser. That shows a JSON service description, that contains a "defaultStyles" reference to the subfolder with styles (in my case resources/styles)

If you subsequently add this subfolder to the Url, it gets you to the JSON style of the service, where you can see the actual layer definitions as JSON items.

Whether all of this gets you anywhere nearer to editing the style of your *.mmpk, IDK..., but at least it should give you some insights as to where it gets it's styling.

[MichaelAugust]

Yeah thanks, I'm aware of the .zip trick. I'm able to open the json and view it, but what's the workflow to edit and save it for distribution to our Pro users, etc.? 

We're paying for the Streets file geodatabase. If you don't license this fgdb you can't see the streets carto fc, what was nice about previous versions was the included the streets fc as styled layers inside the mxd.

What I'm trying to say here is that you pay the same amount but don't get this 'feature/option/bonus' whatever anymore, you get tiles. They could easily have applied the same highway shields, labeling characteristics, zoom levels, etc. to a layer in an .aprx - but instead cheapened the experience by just throwing that tile package together. A tile package is not the same as 'presymbolized layers' that point to a fgdb. This is the language used on the website currently for SMP and also somewhat confusingly included in documentation.

[TonyBarone]

Michael, I am having the same issues and more. I would be ten times better off with the HERE Data instead of these TomTom tiles, which are just awful for me.

[d484648]

The StreetMap.mxd file was extremely helpful. There are some pre-configured layers in the "Data and Maps" download, but it is not nearly as detailed as what was in the StreetMap.mxd. Please consider creating a similar project file for ArcGIS Pro.