Ways to add tiles to a cache

This topic explains ways that you can add tiles to a cache. It goes into more detail than the basic steps for creating a cache.

There are several ways you can add tiles to a cache:

• Build the cache automatically when the service is published.
• Build the cache manually after the service is published using the Manage Map Server Cache Tiles tool.
• Build the tiles on demand when they are first visited by a user.

A small cache can be built in one attempt at the time the service is published. Large caches require more planning and may require that you run the caching tools manually or that you fill in some tiles on demand. See Strategies for creating map cache tiles.

Building the cache automatically when the service is published

When you first define the properties for your service on the Service Editor dialog box in ArcGIS for Desktop, you can choose to build the cache automatically at the time the service is published. To do this, click the Caching tab and click Build cache automatically when the service is published. It's recommended that you do this only if your cache covers a small extent (like a city or county), or if you only have small scales selected. You can click the Calculate Cache Size button to see the anticipated size of your cache.

When you choose to build the cache automatically at publish time, the caching job is sent to the server and you can safely continue working in ArcMap or even close ArcMap while you wait for your job to complete. Even though the Manage Map Server Cache Tiles tool quickly gives a completion message, your cache is still being built on the server. The best-way to learn the progress of your cache is to right-click the service in the Catalog tree and click View Cache Status.

Tiles that you do not create at publish time can be built later using the Manage Map Server Cache Tiles tool or on-demand caching.

Build the cache manually after the service is published

If you choose to build the cache manually after the service is published, you will use the Manage Map Server Cache Tiles tool in the Server Toolbox. This tool allows you to create, delete, or update tiles in your cache. Follow the steps below to access the tool.

Steps:

1. In ArcCatalog or the Catalog window in ArcGIS for Desktop, expand the GIS Servers node.
2. Within your connection to ArcGIS for Server, find the service for which you want to create tiles.
3. Right-click the service and choose Manage Cache > Manage Tiles. This option is only available if you have previously used the Service Editor to specify that you want to draw your service using tiles from a cache.
4. Supply the required parameters and launch the tool. To understand what each parameter of the tool does, click the Show Help button and click the parameter that you want to learn about.

Note:

You cannot launch the caching tools from Manager.

When you access the tool in the way described above, most of the parameters are automatically populated with values that the tool reads from the map service. If you access the tool through the Geoprocessing menu, you need to specify the service you want to cache. To do this, drag the service from the Catalog tree into the first parameter of the tool. Once you do this, most of the remaining properties fill in with their default values.

One parameter that you must manually set no matter how you open the tool is Update Mode. If you're building the cache for the first time, choose Recreate All Tiles. If you're updating the cache, see Map cache updates for guidelines on which settings to use.

Once you've supplied the service name and the update mode, you can get started with creating the cache, or you can change some of the default settings. If you uncheck Wait for job completion, you'll be able to close ArcMap while the server is building your tiles. You can check the status of your cache later by right-clicking the service in the Catalog tree, and clicking View Cache Status.

Legacy:

Previous versions of ArcGIS allowed you to select the data frame to be cached. At ArcGIS 10.1, only the active data frame is cached. Previous versions also allowed you to set an antialiasing property when you configured a tiling scheme or ran the caching tools. At ArcGIS 10.1, the antialiasing settings that you choose for the map service on the Service Editor are automatically applied to the cache.

Caching on demand

You can configure your cache to create tiles when an end user navigates to an uncached area of the map. This practice of on-demand caching should be used as a way to display less-commonly-visited areas of the map that you do not have the time or disk space to cache in full. See Map caching on demand to learn how to set up and use on-demand caching.