Creating a cache for an existing group layer

If you have finished authoring your layers and want to generate a group cache layer to speed up rendering, you can use the layer's context menu to specify your group cache settings.

See When to use a group layer cache for assistance in choosing the cache option.

Steps:

1. Click the List Including Group Layers button in the table of contents.
2. Right-click the group layer and click Group Cache Settings.
3. Check the applicable group layer cache option check box.

Group Cache Option	Description
Merge child layers (consolidates the rendering cache for the group layer)	Choose this option if You want to keep the child layers separate and active. Your document contains images. Your document contains layers of different types, resolutions, and visibilities.
Rasterize the group layer (rasterizes the entire group layer into a single image)	Choose this option if You want the group layer to draw similar to ArcMap. You do not want the child layers to have an active cache. You have child layers with potentially conflicting labels. You have multiple layers that work well together such as background layers.

If you choose the Rasterize option, you can also open the Layer Properties dialog box for the newly generated group layer cache and define a cell size from the Cache tab.
4. Click OK to close the Group Cache Settings dialog box.

   The cache is generated for the group layer.

5. Click the List By Type button in the table of contents to verify that the group cache layer was added.

Tip:

• You can access the same options by right-clicking the group layer and clicking Properties.
• If you choose to merge the child layers, you will see that your cache layer under List By Type still includes the child layers in the group layer tree. It is not recommended to toggle child layer visibility on group cache layers because doing so invalidates the cache. This requires the cache to be built on demand again, which can be costly.
• When consolidating caches with different disk cache formats, all caches are changed to use the default JPEG format.