What is a globe service?
A globe service provides a 3D view of a globe originating from an ArcGlobe document (.3dd). To create a globe service, you need to first create the globe document, then publish it as a service. Once you create the service, supported clients such as ArcGlobe, ArcGIS Explorer, and ArcReader will be able to access the globe service remotely.
The steps to create a globe service are as follows:
- Prepare an ArcGlobe document, ensuring that the document, data, and layer caches are accessible from all server object container (SOC) machines.
- Create the globe service using ArcCatalog, the Catalog Window in ArcMap, or ArcGIS Server Manager.
- Create a globe cache for optimal performance, if not already present.
The following sections explain the process of preparing, creating, and using a globe service, as well as how to improve the rendering speed of the service by creating a globe cache.
Preparing the globe document
The first step to deploying a globe service is creating the ArcGlobe document. You'll need to have ArcGIS Desktop with the 3D Analyst extension to do that. For some helpful introductory information about working with ArcGlobe, see the topic ArcGlobe 3D display environment in the ArcGIS Desktop Help.
A globe service consists of a collection of layers that can be added individually to an application as data. This differs from a map service, which references the entire map document when added to an application as data. Because the ingredients of a globe service are these individual layers, globe document properties, such as ambient lights, sun position, background color, and exaggeration, are not reflected in a globe service.
See Tips for authoring globe services for more detailed information about preparing your globe documents in the best way for use with ArcGIS Server.
Creating the globe service
To create a globe service, follow the steps in Publishing a GIS resource to the server. Choose to publish a globe service and browse to the globe document that you want to publish.
Note that when you publish a globe service using these steps, the wizard will pick the first cache directory registered from among the ArcGIS Server cache directories. If you want to use a different cache directory, use the Add New Service wizard instead. The topics Adding a new service in Manager and Adding a new service in ArcCatalog contain instructions for the Add New Service wizard.
Creating a globe cache
For faster display of your globe services, you can create a cache that stores prerendered image tiles on disk. When someone uses a globe service client, such as ArcGIS Explorer or ArcGlobe, to view an area of your service, your server can simply retrieve the tile from the cache instead of taking the time to render the view. It's up to you to determine the size of your initial cache, but you should consider creating at least a partial cache to optimize the performance of your services. The scope of the cache you choose to build may depend on the resources that you have available for creating and storing the cache. Information on globe caching techniques is located elsewhere in this documentation.