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Tutorial 20: Working in ArcScene and Opening ArcMap Data in 3D Google Earth Module Content: 3D data can be displayed and navigated using the ArcScene Application. 3D ArcMap data can also be displayed in Google Earth. 20.1. Opening ArcScene Right click on the grey area at the top of ArcMap and select 3D Analyst. The 3D Analyst Toolbar will open.

From the 3D Analyst tool bar Click on ArcScene

ArcScene will open. Try adding your TIN shapefile to the project window, using the ‘Add Data’ icon.

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20.2. Moving Around the 3D Environment You can use the navigate tools (in the main toolbar along the top of the display area) to move around the 3D environment. Fly Zoom to Target

Navigate Centre on Set Observer Standard ArcMap tools

Target Tips:

20.3. Draping shapefiles over terrain Add a shapefile, in this case we will add an aerial photograph (e.g. aerial 5 in the tutorial data folder) but you could use this technique with any shapefile. Right click on the layer name in the table of contents and click on Properties. Select the ‘Base Heights’ tab In the ‘Elevation from Surfaces’ box, click on Floating on a Custom Surface. The TIN that you added to the project should already be selected. There is an option to offset, but in this case we want the default option ‘0’ Click Apply, and then click OK

- Hold down the left mouse button to rotate the landscape - Hold down the right mouse button to zoom - Use the mouse roller ball to pan - Click the left mouse button to speed up - Click the right mouse button to slow down - Push down on the mouse roller ball to speed up

 

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The aerial photograph will be draped over the TIN. You may need to zoom in so that you can see it.

You might need to improve the image quality of the aerial photographs. Right click on the layer name in the table of contents and select Properties. Select the ‘Rendering’ tab. Increase the ‘Quality enhancement for raster images’ scale bar towards ‘High’. Click Apply, you may have to wait a few minutes while it renders. Then click OK. Repeat the ‘Base Heights’ operation for all your shapefiles.

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20.4. Extruding Shapefiles You might want to extrude shapefiles, for example to make 3D buildings. Add a shapefile, such as a shapefile created by exporting building data from an AutoCAD file (see tutorial 19). Right click on the layer name in the table of contents to open the layer properties, and set the ‘base height’ as above. Then select the ‘Extrusion’ tab. You can make all the features the same height by putting a number in the extrusion box. If you want your buildings to be different heights, then you need to use, or create a column in the attribute table with height information. For example, ‘Storeys’ then ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’ and so on. Then use the ‘Expression Builder’ to calculate the different heights. Double click the column name in the top left hand box, so that it is added to the Expression box (bottom left) and then type ‘*3’ or whatever you think represents a storey.

Here is an example where all the buildings have been extruded to 4m.

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20.5. Creating an Animation Once you have added your shapefiles, you can then start creating a video in ArcScene. Right click in the area of grey at the top of the screen and select Animation to display the animation toolbar. The ‘Animation’ drop down menu allows you to access the animation manager, save your animation, export a video and clear the animation.

The camera icon is the ‘key frame’. Use this icon to navigate between points. Click on the key frame icon then click on the map to create the first key frame. Navigate to where you want the second point to be, select the key frame tool again and click. The route will be saved.

The icon that looks like a play/pause button opens the animation controls. You can play through the key frames you just saved. You can also use these to record, pause and stop your animation. By clicking on ‘options’ you can change the length of the animation. If you want to create an animation which appears like you are flying, it is best to use the bird and then the record button. 20.6. Exporting your Animation To export your animation, click Animation, then select Export Animation... You can choose to export as an .avi file or as sequential images. *Note: When ArcScene is exporting the file, do not use the computer for anything; otherwise the export will be interrupted.

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20.7. Opening ArcMap data in Google Earth a) Exporting Shapefiles as KML from ArcMap

There is a free script available from ESRI for exporting shapefiles to KML. The extension allows users to export GIS data for use in Google Earth. Any point, polyline or polygon dataset can be exported to KML and opened in Google Earth. A .pdf can be downloaded which explains how to use the script. The script is available from: http://arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid=14273 b) Using the ‘Data Import’ Feature in Google Earth You can use the import data into Google Earth using the ‘Data Import’ feature. You can then view your data as one of the layers in the ‘layers panel’. For details see: http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/ug_importdata.html