Build Pyramids (Data Management)

Summary

Builds raster pyramids for a raster dataset.

This tool can also be used to delete pyramids. To delete pyramids, uncheck the Build Pyramids checkbox in the geoprocessing Environment Settings window.

Illustration

Usage

• Building pyramids improves the display performance of raster datasets.

• You only need to build pyramids once per dataset. The pyramids will be accessed every time you display the raster dataset.

• Pyramids will not be built for raster datasets that have less than 1024 pixels in the row or column. Pyramids are not needed since the raster dataset is small enough, and building pyramids will not help increase the performance.

• Wavelet compressed raster datasets, such as ECW, and MrSID, do not need to have pyramids built. These formats have internal pyramids that are created upon encoding.

• You can choose the compression type for your overview pyramid file, in the Raster Storage Environment Settings. Compression will create a smaller .ovr file. The IMAGINE format and older versions of ArcGIS will create reduced resolution dataset (.rrd) files, where compression is not available.

• The default pyramid compression will use the optimal compression type, given the type of data. You can manually choose to have LZ77, JPEG, or no compression.

• JPEG compression can only be used with file formats that can store data according to the JPEG specifications.

Syntax

BuildPyramids_management (in_raster_dataset)

Parameter	Explanation	Data Type
in_raster_dataset	The input raster dataset. The input should have more than 1024 rows and 1024 columns.	Raster Dataset

Code Sample

BuildPyramids example 1 (Python window)

This is a Python sample for BuildPyramids.

import arcpy
from arcpy import env
env.workspace = "c:/data"
arcpy.env.pyramid = "PYRAMIDS 3 BILINEAR JPEG"
arcpy.BuildPyramids_management("image.tif")

BuildPyramids example 2 (stand-alone window)

This is a Python script sample for BuildPyramids.

##====================================
##Build Pyramids
##Usage: BuildPyramids_management in_raster_datasetues...

try:
    import arcpy
    arcpy.env.workspace = r"\\machine\PrjWorkspace\RasGP"
    
    ##Build Pyramids for single Raster Dataset
    ##Define the type and compression of pyramids in the environment setting
    arcpy.env.pyramid = "PYRAMIDS 3 BILINEAR JPEG"
    arcpy.BuildPyramids_management("image.tif")

except:
    print "Build Pyramids example failed."
    print arcpy.GetMessages()

Environments

Current Workspace, Pyramid

Pyramid

The pyramid level, pyramid compression, and resampling method does not apply to the IMG format.

Licensing Information

ArcView: Yes

ArcEditor: Yes

ArcInfo: Yes