All About Layer Properties
Included in this tutorial:
Accessing the Layer Properties Menu
Vector Layer Properties
Raster Layer Properties
Software version in examples: ArcGIS Pro 3.0.0
Tutorial Data: The tutorial includes demonstration with sample data available here.
Credits: L. Meisterlin and Varisa Tanti (2022)
Layer Properties allow you to view and control (almost) all aspects of a data layer.
Accessing the Layer Properties Menu
You can access Layer Properties through the ribbon pane or by right-clicking a layer and scrolling to the bottom to find the Properties menu.
You can access the Properties menu by right-clicking on a layer in the Table of Contents and scrolling to the bottom.
Vector layer properties
For vector layers, you will see these tabs: General, Metadata, Source, Elevation, Selection, Display, Cache, Definition Query, Time, Range, Indexes, Joins, Relates, and Page Query.
For vector layers, you will see these tabs: General, Metadata, Source, Elevation, Selection, Display, Cache, Definition Query, Time, Range, Indexes, Joins, Relates, and Page Query.
Here’s a brief description of what you will find in each tab:
General: ‘Name’ is the layer name that shows up in the Table of Contents as well as the legend when you choose to insert one. You can also adjust the visibility range, which determines the scale range in which a layer will show up in your project.
Metadata: Information on the layer’s metadata can be found here. It is read-only.
Source: You can view and change the source of your layer, see the extents of the layer, the geometry type, geographic coordinate system, and spatial reference information.
Elevation: For 3D layers, you can select the baseline of elevation used.
Selection: You can set how features in a layer are highlighted when selected. This can help distinguish which layers you are currently working with.
Display: You can select the ‘Display field’ here, which defaults to the first field of string type that contains the text name.
Cache: Information and settings for the local copy of the layer.
Definition Query: You can specify a subset of your features that will be used in the layer.
Time: You can indicate time properties for your layer here, such as start or end time fields.
Range: Ranges allow you to define a specific range for a field in your layer so the attributes in that specific range are active.
Indexes: This tab has information about an index on the attribute table. It allows you to quickly locate data. You can also create and remove indexes here. Attribute indexes are used to find records based on an attribute query; spatial indexes are used to find features that match a spatial query.
Joins: Shows if there are any current table or spatial joins between this layer and other layers.
Relates: Shows if there are any relates between this layer and other layers.
Page Query: Page queries are queries between a field in the layer and the map series page name.
Raster layer properties
For raster layers, you will see these tabs: General, Metadata, Source, Elevation, Display, Cache, Processing Templates, Joins, and Relates.
For raster layers, you will see these tabs: General, Metadata, Source, Elevation, Display, Cache, Processing Templates, Joins, and Relates
Here’s a brief description of what you will find in each tab:
General: ‘Name’ is the layer name that shows up in the Table of Contents as well as the legend when you choose to insert one. You can also adjust the visibility range, which determines the scale range in which a layer will show up in your project.
Metadata: Information on the layer’s metadata can be found here. It is read-only.
Source: You can view and change the source of your layer, see the extents of the layer, geographic coordinate system, and spatial reference information. The most distinguished part of the Source tab is the Raster Information drop-down sub-tab. Here, you can the columns, rows, number of cells, cell size, format, pyramids, and other raster-specific information (See image below.)
Elevation: For 3D layers, you can select the baseline of elevation used.
Display: You can select the ‘Display field’ here, which defaults to the first field of string type that contains the text name.
Cache: Information and settings for the local copy of the layer.
Joins: Shows if there are any current table or spatial joins between this layer and other layers.
Relates: Shows if there are any relates between this layer and other layers.
The Sources tab for raster layers has raster-specific information, such as columns, rows, number of cells, cell size, format, pyramids, and other raster-specific information.