Layer structure, count and performance

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11-27-2013 01:42 AM
AndrewWebb
New Contributor
Hi

Let me start by saying I'm not a GIS expert. We have a planning team who demand maps with two to three hundred layers in. This causes performance issues in the desktop tools and Localview. These layers could be logically grouped together - for example ones that relate to floodplains.

Do the ESRI products support the concept of composite layers, or parent layers made up of data from a number of independent sub-layers ? If so, would structuring the data in this way so that each map had fewer composite layers result in improved performance ?

If not, what other approaches could work other than requiring the team to use fewer layers per map !

Kind regards

Andy Webb
ICT Customer Services Manager
Chelmsford City Council
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2 Replies
George_Thompson
Esri Frequent Contributor
Andy,
  Having that many layers in a map document seems to be overkill. Can some of those layers be combined and symbolized differently based off of attribute data? For example the floodplain polygon data can be in one layer and be symbolized based on the flood zone and floodway fields.

How much data is in each layer that is being used?

Why do you have 200-300 layers in a map? What is trying to be shown?

Maybe look into using group layers and only showing what is needed to complete the map.

About displaying layers:
http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.2/#/About_displaying_layers/00s50000001s000000/

Working with group layers:
http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.2/#/Working_with_group_layers/00s500000011000000/
--- George T.
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AndrewWebb
New Contributor
Hi

Thanks for your reply. The amount of data per layer varies from layer to layer and I would need to defer to someone else to get actual figures. The use case for hundreds of layers is that our planning officers work on a broad range of enquiries and need to know 'everything' about a particular locality. It's not believed to be practical to offer a range of maps and check them independently.

I'm open to creative solutions (for example, some way to toggle between maps but retaining pan and zoom).

Thanks

Andy
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