Add Basemap

Every entry on the menu is a single click: there is no dialog. The layer is created, named, and placed in the correct position in the drawing order automatically.

• Basemaps go to the bottom, overlays go to the top. The tool decides this for you: No manual reordering is needed. The Overlay column in the tables below says which entries behave this way.
  • A basemap is added at the bottom of the drawing order, beneath your own layers.
  • An overlay — labels, traffic, reference lines, transportation — is added at the top, so it draws over everything.
• All 31 sources are streamed, not stored. An internet connection is required whenever the map draws. Nothing is copied into the project, so the project file stays small but the map is blank without a connection.
• A tile layer cannot feed raster geoprocessing. These are tile and vector tile layers, not raster datasets, so they cannot be used as the input to Slope, Hillshade, Contour, Extract By Mask, or any other raster tool. To analyse imagery you need an actual raster dataset — add one with Add Raster To Map, or download one with Imagery Downloader.
• Tiles are served in Web Mercator. ArcGIS Pro reprojects them on the fly when the map uses another coordinate system, which can soften the imagery slightly at large scales.
• The tool reports "No active map found." if there is no open map view.
• Review each provider's terms of service before using its tiles in published maps or commercial deliverables. The Google entries in particular are subject to Google's terms, not Esri's.

OpenStreetMap

Google

Served from Google's tile endpoint, selected by its lyrs code.

ESRI raster tile

Served from services.arcgisonline.com / server.arcgisonline.com. No ArcGIS Online sign-in is required.

The two grey canvas basemaps are the ones to reach for when your own data is the subject of the map — they are deliberately desaturated so thematic symbology reads clearly against them.

ESRI vector tile

On the ESRI Vector Tile submenu. These are vector tile styles, so they stay sharp at any zoom and re-label as you zoom, unlike the raster tile entries above. They are added without needing an ArcGIS Online sign-in.

Dark Gray Canvas and Dark Gray Canvas (Labels) are designed to be used together: add the canvas as the backdrop and the labels as an overlay above your data, so place names sit on top rather than being hidden by it.

Add a basemap

1. Open or activate the map that needs the backdrop.
2. On the KGA Toolbox tab, in the Data Creation group, open Quick Template, then point to Add Basemap.
3. Click the basemap you want. It is added at the bottom of the drawing order, beneath your own layers.

Add an overlay on top of a basemap

1. Add a basemap first — Google Satellite or ESRI Imagery, for example.
2. Open Add Basemap again and click an overlay entry — Google Label, ESRI Reference overlay, ESRI Transportation, or Dark Gray Canvas (Labels).
3. The overlay is added at the top of the drawing order, so its labels draw over both the imagery and your own layers.

Use an ESRI vector tile basemap

1. Open Add Basemap and point to ESRI Vector Tile.
2. Click a style. No ArcGIS Online sign-in is needed.

Requires an active KGA Toolbox license. The tool validates the license before running.

Each basemap is subject to its provider's own terms of service. Check them before using the tiles in a published or commercial map.