Tag Archives: edit in 3D
New 3D Analyst geoprocessing tools and enhancements at 10.1
A large effort was put into creating several new tools and reorganizing existing ones into more logical groupings within the 3D Analyst toolbox. A full summary of the toolset changes can be found listed inside What’s new in the 3D Analyst toolbox.
New geoprocessing tools for LAS datasets with flexible licensing requirement levels
Although most tools for working with LAS datasets new at 10.1 require the 3D Analyst extension, some are licensed a little differently to allow more flexibility. The tools located inside the 3D Analyst toolbox require 3D Analyst. The tools located in core toolboxes work if you have one of these three options: 3D Analyst, Spatial Analyst, or ArcGIS Standard.
A quick tour of what's new in 3D Analyst at 10.1
The 3D Analyst at 10.1 solidifies the 3D GIS story delivered with 10. Continuing to expand a fully functional and easy-to-use solution for visualizing, managing, analyzing, and sharing your GIS information in 3D.
The 10.1 release specifically targets users of:
- Virtual Cities (Urban Planners, Emergency response, Public safety)
- Virtual Campuses (Facilities Managers, Defense, Universities, Hospitals)
- Surfaces (Civil engineers, Defense, Forestry, Government)
by expanding and improving:
- the online integration of 3D
- support for authoring and maintaining 3D City and Campus-level data
- support for point clouds, with focus on airborne lidar (LAS) data
"Hello Building"
Esri CityEngine allows you to generate high quality 3D urban content using procedural rules. Writing rules isn’t every-body’s cup of tea though especially with no programming background. Then again it isn’t as hard as you might think. Let’s have a look at … Continue reading
ArcGIS to SketchUp and back
A lot of users need to be able to edit the geometry of their 3D objects or add/update the textures. Up until now this was a pretty cumbersome process. At ArcGIS10, this work-flow becomes much easier. Basically it comes to:
- export the object you need to modify from ArcGIS as a COLLADA model
- use the 3D modeling package of choice (for example SketchUp) and
- replace the old geometry with the new one in an ArcGIS edit session.
Have a look at the ‘Edit 3D geometry and textures’ video in our video gallery.
Another good resource are these videos from Gary Smith, President of Green Mountain GeoGraphics.
They show similar ArcGIS <-> SketchUp work-flows.
- Converting SketchUp 8 models to ArcGIS 10 Multipatch features
- Updating a Multipatch Feature using SketchUp 8
Gert van Maren
3D Product Manager
3D Analyst at 10
3D Analyst 10 makes ArcGIS a complete system for 3D GIS.
That is a big statement so let me explain. Not only can you view your geospatial data in 3D Analyst, at 10 you can edit your data in 3D and analyze your data in 3D. Now that is pretty huge. Most companies focus on 3D visualization of geospatial data and some are very good at it. However you can only look at your data on a globe for so long. After awhile, the WOW factor starts wearing off and you’ll want to edit and analyze your data in 3D. This is what makes 3D Analyst different from 3D viewers.
So what does that mean: Edit in 3D and 3D Analysis?
We have enabled the standard ArcGIS editing environment inside both ArcGlobe and ArcScene. You can create and delete individual features, move, rotate, scale and replace feature geometry. This includes the ability to place 3D models (e.g.: COLLADA files) directly into the 3D view as new multipatch features, and then move / scale / rotate them on the landscape. All the standard editing options – Undo, Redo, Edit Templates, etc – are supported, as is the classic Snapping environment.
We’ve also made huge improvements in the analysis of 3D vector features. We have added 3D boolean operators such as Intersect 3D, Union 3D, Difference3D and Inside 3D to be used with closed multipatches, new GP tools that expose 3D vector analysis specifically for virtual city workflows, such as Skyline and Skyline Barrier and enhanced existing GP tools to work better with 3D – ‘Select by Location’ dialog uses 3D distances, multipatch objects can participate in the Line of Sight tool.
edit in 3D Analyze in 3D
So what does this all mean?
It means that 3DAnalyst 10 is a big leap forward for the handling of 3D GIS data. Not only can you view huge volumes of your data in 3D, you can edit your data in 3D, analyze it in 3D and easily share it with your colleagues or the public.
That sounds great but what can you actually do with it?
I’ll get into that in more detail next time.
Gert van Maren
3D Product Manager
