In the Properties pane, you can set properties for a layer, including its transparency, visible range, and refresh interval.
Set layer transparency
Changing the transparency, or opacity, of a layer in a map allows you to see more, or less, of the underlying layers. You can adjust the transparency of any layer from 0 percent to 100 percent. The more transparent a layer is, the less visible it appears on the map and the more visible the other layers appear. To focus attention on a specific layer, make that layer fully visible and add transparency to the other layers.
Note:
The basemap is always 0 percent transparent, meaning that it is always visible.
To set the overall transparency of a layer, do the following:
- At the top of the layer list,
click Layer options
. The layer options appear.
- Select the layer to modify from the Active layer drop-down menu.
- From the layer options, select Properties
.The Properties pane appears.
- Use the Layer transparency slider to alter the transparency, moving it left to make the layer less transparent or right to make the layer more transparent.
You can also click the slider track to move the slider handle to that location or click the percentage value and type a new value.
A layer with 0 percent transparency has no transparency applied and appears completely opaque. A layer with 100 percent transparency does not appear on the map.
- Click Back
to close the Properties pane and view the layer list.
Set visible range
As you configure or view the map, you can limit the levels at which layers display. These levels, or thresholds, allow you to specify that, for example, a layer only displays when you zoom in to the level of a neighborhood or city or a layer displays only when you zoom out to the level of an entire region or country.
Setting the visible range of a layer can be particularly useful to ensure that only relevant data is displayed when zooming in and out on the map. For example, a map may have state boundaries that only need to be shown at the country level, but not when zoomed in to city or neighborhood levels. In this scenario, set the minimum threshold of the state boundaries layer to country. As you zoom in, the layer no longer displays. In other words, with a minimum threshold of country, the state boundaries layer displays only when you are zoomed out to the country extent.
To set the visible range for a layer, do the following:
- At the top of the layer list,
click Layer options .
The layer options appear.
- Select the layer to modify from the Active layer drop-down menu.
- From the layer options, select Properties .
The Properties pane opens.
- To set the maximum and minimum zoom levels for layer visibility, drag one or both handles on the slider.
Labels such as Country, City, and Building can assist you in choosing the best zoom levels. To set a more precise scale, click the drop-down arrows and choose a predefined zoom level. The black arrow on the slider indicates the current zoom level of the map.
As you drag the handle along the slider, a thumbnail map illustrates the zoom level.
- Click Back to close the Properties pane and view the layer list.
As you zoom in and out on the map, the layer displays only within the visible range you specified. The layer appears inactive in the layer list when it is out of visible range.
Set the layer refresh interval
You can specify how often a layer is updated by turning on and specifying the refresh interval for that layer. For example, if you have a layer that shows traffic flow and incidents, you can set a refresh interval to automatically reload the layer at a specified interval to show the most recent updates.
This feature is available only for layers added from ArcGIS. Layer refresh applies only to visible layers; if a layer is hidden, it does not refresh until it is made visible.
To specify a layer refresh interval, do the following:
- At the top of the layer list,
click Layer options .
The layer options appear.
- Select the layer to modify from the Active layer drop-down menu.
- From the layer options, select Properties .
The Properties pane appears.
- Turn on the Enable auto-refresh toggle button.
The refresh interval text box becomes active.
- Type a time interval in the text box or use the arrows to increase or decrease the time interval.
Specify the time interval in minutes, from 6 seconds to 24 hours. For example, 6 seconds is represented as 0.1 minute; 1 day (23 hours) is represented as 1440 minutes.
- Click Back to close the Properties pane and view the layer list.