You can share elevation layers from ArcGIS AllSource to your active portal as web elevation layers. Web elevation layers can supplement the default Terrain3D elevation layer used in Scene Viewer with higher-resolution elevation data for your area of interest. Like other web layers, web elevation layers can also be added from your portal to ArcGIS AllSource.
Any raster dataset that can be added as an elevation surface to ArcGIS AllSource can be shared as a web elevation layer. This includes raster datasets stored in mosaic datasets, in file formats such as TIFF, DTED, DEM, FLT, HGT, Esri Grid, or CRF with LERC compression, or in geodatabases. Elevation surfaces based on TIN datasets and existing image services cannot be shared as web elevation layers.
Learn about best practices for managing elevation data.
Web elevation layers do not maintain elevation surface properties that are set on the Elevation Surface Layer tab in ArcGIS AllSource (for example, vertical exaggeration or surface color).
Note:
When you share a web elevation layer to an ArcGIS Enterprise portal, you can cache the layer on the server (the default) or locally. To cache the layer on the server, you need the privilege to publish server-based layers. To cache the layer locally, you need the privilege to publish hosted tile layers. See User types, roles, and privileges in the ArcGIS Enterprise help for more information.
When you share a web elevation layer to an ArcGIS Online portal, the layer is cached locally. You need the privilege to publish hosted tile layers. See User types, roles, and privileges in the ArcGIS Online help for more information.
Share a web elevation layer using the default configuration
This workflow explains how to share a web elevation layer with default settings. To change the default configuration, see Configure a web elevation layer.
- In the Contents pane, right-click the elevation source layer in your scene that you want to share and click Share As Web Layer
.The Share As Web Layer pane appears.
- Provide a name for the web layer.
- Optionally, complete the Summary and Tags fields.
A summary and tags are required when sharing to an ArcGIS Enterprise 10.9 or earlier portal.
You can enter a maximum of 128 tags.
- If you are sharing to ArcGIS Enterprise, under Layer and Data Type, choose one of the following options:
- Reference registered data—Data that is registered with the server is referenced rather than copied to the server.
- Copy all data—All data is copied to the server.
For information about registering data with a server, see Introduction to sharing web layers. If you are sharing to ArcGIS Online, the data is always copied and this choice does not appear.
- Under Location, use the Folder menu to choose a folder in your portal content in which to store the web layer. Optionally, create a folder.
By default, the web layer is stored at the root level of your portal content.
Tip:
Click the Browse button
to browse to a folder in your portal content. You can also type a folder name in the text box. - If you are sharing to ArcGIS Enterprise, use the Server and Folder drop-down menus to specify the federated server where the service will be published and the folder on the server where it will be stored.
The service is stored in the root folder by default. Optionally, create a folder.
- Under Share with, specify how the web layer will be shared:
- Everyone—Share your content with the public. Anyone can access and see it.
- My Organization—Share your content with all authenticated users in the organization. This option is available when you are signed in with an organizational account.
- Groups—Share your content with groups to which you belong and their members.
Leave all options unchecked to set the sharing level to the owner of the item.
- Optionally, click the Content tab to view the folder, new web layer, and sublayer.
- Under Finish Sharing, click Analyze
to review for potential problems. Errors and warnings are listed on the Messages tab. Right-click a message to open its help topic or take corrective action in the software. Errors
must be resolved before you can share your GIS resource. Resolving warnings 
is recommended but not required. - After you resolve errors, and optionally resolve warnings, click Publish
to share the web layer. - When the web layer is successfully published, click the Manage the web layer link at the bottom of the pane to access the web layer in your portal.
If the web layer will be drawn from cache built automatically on the server, the web layer may not be viewable while cache generation is in progress. Click Jobs
to view the cache status in the Job Status pane.
Considerations when sharing to older portals
Web elevation layers cannot be shared to Portal for ArcGIS 10.3.1 or earlier.