Summary
Builds raster pyramids for your raster dataset.
This tool can also be used to delete pyramids. To delete pyramids, set the Pyramids Levels parameter to 0.
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. The Supported raster dataset file formats topic lists which specifications the JPEG format can support.
Syntax
BuildPyramids_management (in_raster_dataset, {pyramid_level}, {SKIP_FIRST}, {resample_technique}, {compression_type}, {compression_quality}, {skip_existing})
Parameter | Explanation | Data Type |
in_raster_dataset | The raster dataset for which you want to build pyramids. The input should have more than 1024 rows and 1024 columns. | Raster Dataset; Raster Layer |
pyramid_level (Optional) | Choose the number of reduced-resolution dataset layers that will be built. The default value is -1, which will build full pyramids. A value of 0 will result in no pyramid levels. To delete pyramids, set the number of levels to 0. The maximum number of pyramid levels you can specify is 29. Any value that is 30 or higher will revert to a value of -1, which will create a full set of pyramids. | Long |
SKIP_FIRST (Optional) | Choose whether to skip the first pyramid level. Skipping the first level will take up slightly less disk space, but it will slow down performance at these scales.
| Boolean |
resample_technique (Optional) | The resampling technique used to build your pyramids.
| String |
compression_type (Optional) | The compression type to use when building the raster pyramids.
| String |
compression_quality (Optional) | The compression quality to use when pyramids are built with the JPEG compression method. The value must be between 0 and 100. The values closer to 100 would produce a higher-quality image, but the compression ratio would be lower. | Long |
skip_existing (Optional) | Specify whether to build pyramids only when they are missing or regenerate them even if they exist.
| Boolean |
Code sample
BuildPyramids example 1 (Python window)
This is a Python sample for BuildPyramids.
import arcpy
arcpy.BuildPyramids_management(
"C:/data/image.tif", "3", "NONE",
"BILINEAR", "JPEG", "50", "SKIP_EXISTING")
BuildPyramids example 2 (stand-alone window)
This is a Python script sample for BuildPyramids.
#Build Pyramids for single Raster Dataset
#Define the type and compression of pyramids in the tool
#Skip if dataset already has pyramids
import arcpy
arcpy.env.workspace = "C:/Workspace"
inras = "image.tif"
pylevel = "3"
skipfirst = "NONE"
resample = "BILINEAR"
compress = "JPEG"
quality = "80"
skipexist = "SKIP_EXISTING"
arcpy.BuildPyramids_management(inras, pylevel, skipfirst, resample,
compress, quality, skipexist)
Environments
Licensing information
- ArcGIS Desktop Basic: Yes
- ArcGIS Desktop Standard: Yes
- ArcGIS Desktop Advanced: Yes