ArcGISVectorTiledLayer Class

Detailed Description

ArcGIS vector tiled layers are much like ArcGIS tiled layers. An ArcGIS vector tiled layer consumes vector tiles and an associated style for drawing them. The data source can be a service in ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise portal, or local vector tiles in a package (.vtpk file). You can use one of the many styled vector tiled basemaps on ArcGIS Online or create your own with the online style editor. Your customized vector tiled layers can be saved to and read from ArcGIS Online.

The tile data format is optimized to reduce network bandwidth demand and reduce CPU load while rendering the tiles. Vector tiled layers are appropriate for basemap, reference and possibly operational layers. They do not contain any feature data, and do not support identify or search operations.

Vector tiles are an alternative to raster tile basemap layers. Instead of pixels, the cartography is delivered using 2-D points. The points describe lines, polygons or the locations of labels and marker symbols. The file format of tiles is binary and conforms to the Mapbox Vector Tile Specification. Because the vector tile file format requires much less space than raster tiles, they take up less disk space and draw more quickly than bitmap-based data. Thus, they also tend to be more suitable for low-bandwidth or offline environments.

Vector tiles are rendered on the device at runtime and so the differences between levels of detail appear more continuous and crisp regardless of screen size or resolution. Vector tiled layers do not support identify, query, selection, or time, and they cannot be displayed in scenes.

To create a vector tiled layer, the runtime client is given either a URL or a portal item. The URL can point to a vector tile source, a vector tile style sheet, or a local vector tile package file. The portal item will contain a URL to a vector tile style sheet, which describes the appearance of the geometry and must be in the Mapbox GL Style format. The style sheet also contains a URL to a vector tile source. The source must be in the Mapbox TileJSON format. The vector tile source info includes a URL to a default style sheet.

More than one vector tile style sheet can use the same source. Both the vector tile source info and the style sheet are persisted as human readable JSON files.

The vector tile package is a single file (.vptk) that contains all of the tile data files, the source information, a style sheet, and the font and symbol marker resources required to display the map.

Use ExportVectorTilesTask to generate and download a VectorTileCache (optionally including a custom style) directly to the device as a single-tile .vtpk file which can be used to instantiate the layer. You can use ArcGIS Pro to create a vector tile package and provision it to the device. The same task can also create an ItemResourceCache, which stores style resources of the vector tile package. Or, you can use ArcGIS Pro to create a mobile map package (.mmpk file) that contains a vector tile package and your custom style.

Example:

Display the Navigation vector tile layer by using an online service:

// create a vector tiled basemap
ArcGISVectorTiledLayer* vectorTiledLayer = new ArcGISVectorTiledLayer(QUrl("https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=7675d44bb1e4428aa2c30a9b68f97822"), this);
Basemap* basemap = new Basemap(vectorTiledLayer, this);
// create a new map instance
m_map = new Map(basemap, this);

Alternatively, you can display vector tiles offline by setting the file path to a local vector tile package (*.vtpk):

// Create a map using a local vector tile package
ArcGISVectorTiledLayer* vectorTiledLayer = new ArcGISVectorTiledLayer(QUrl::fromLocalFile(m_dataPath + "vtpk/LosAngeles.vtpk"), this);
Basemap* basemap = new Basemap(vectorTiledLayer, this);
m_map = new Map(basemap, this);

See sample: Vector tiled layer (URL)