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Change layer display

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Set the visible range of a layer

As you configure or view your map, you may find it appropriate to limit the levels at which layers display. These levels, or thresholds, allow you to specify that, for example, certain layers should only display when you zoom to the level of a neighborhood or city, or that a layer only displays when you zoom to the level of an entire region or country.

Setting the visible range of a layer can be particularly useful for ensuring that only the relevant data is displayed when zooming in and out to different levels on the map. For example, you may have a layer showing the locations of parks throughout a city. It would be appropriate to display the layer at a city level, but not at a continent level. In this scenario, you would set the city level to be the maximum threshold at which the layer displays. As you zoom out past the city level, the parks layer no longer displays. Alternatively, your map may have state boundaries that only need to be shown at the country level, but not when you have zoomed in closer to the city or neighborhood levels. In this scenario, you would set the minimum threshold of the state boundaries layer to country so that as soon as you zoom in past that level, the layer no longer displays. In other words, with a minimum threshold of country, the state boundaries layer only displays when you have zoomed out to the country level.

  1. Press the Show map contents button to display the Contents pane.
  2. On the Contents pane, press the arrow to the right of the layer for which you want to set the visible range.
  3. Press Visible range to display the visible range settings.
  4. Move the Minimum and Maximum sliders as desired.
  5. Press OK.

    As you zoom in and out on the map, the layer displays only within the visible range you specified.

Set layer transparency

You can configure the transparency of layers in the map. This allows you to see more or less of certain layers so that you can emphasize specific data.

  1. Press the Show map contents button to display the Contents pane.
  2. On the Contents pane, press the arrow to the right of the layer whose transparency you want to set.
  3. Use the Transparency slider to specify the desired setting. A layer with 0 percent transparency has no transparency applied. A layer with 100 percent transparency is not visible in the map.
    Tip:

    You can also set the transparency by entering a value in the box beside the slider.