Extruding building footprints from a height attribute is a standard, efficient first step to create massing models from 2D GIS data. It provides immediate 3D context. While trees and street furniture might later be replaced with detailed 3D models, starting with extrusion establishes scale and volume quickly, which is crucial for early-stage visualization and client discussion.

Publishing a web scene to ArcGIS Online and sharing it via Scene Viewer is the optimal solution. Scene Viewer runs in a standard web browser, requires no installation, and provides interactive tools for visualization, layer management, and measurement. It balances performance (through optimized scene layers) with broad accessibility for non-technical stakeholders.

Texturing issues like stretching and misalignment are almost always rooted in the 3D model file itself. The problem typically lies in how the texture coordinates (UV mapping) are defined within the model or where the model’s origin point is located. The first diagnostic step is to inspect and, if necessary, repair the model in dedicated 3D modeling software to ensure proper UV unwrapping and a logical anchor point before bringing it back into ArcGIS Pro.

The ‘Interpolate Shape’ tool is the correct, automated method for converting 2D or 3D features to a new 3D shape by sampling elevations from a raster or TIN surface. This creates a new feature class where the geometry’s z-values are derived from the DEM, ensuring the vegetation multipatches conform accurately to the mountainous terrain for realistic analysis. Setting a base height only affects display, not the actual geometry.

For realistic shadow analysis, the ‘Sunlight’ mode with a specific date and time is essential, as it accurately positions the sun based on geographic location and solar geometry. Enabling ambient occlusion and SSAO adds crucial detail by simulating how light is occluded in corners and crevices, producing much softer, more realistic shadows beyond the hard-edged sun shadows.

Best practice involves inspecting and optimizing 3D models in their native or a dedicated 3D modeling application before GIS integration. Key steps include reducing polygon count (simplifying) for performance, verifying textures, and most importantly, ensuring the model’s internal origin point is logical (e.g., at a corner of the bridge). A misplaced origin can cause the model to be located incorrectly when placed in real-world coordinates. COLLADA is a well-supported interchange format for this.

This is a fundamental distinction. 3D object scene layers contain discrete, geolocated 3D models (multipatch features) that represent objects like buildings, trees, or infrastructure. They have attributes and can be selected, queried, and symbolized individually. Integrated mesh scene layers are created from drone or aerial imagery (e.g., via drone2map) and form a single, continuous, phototextured surface of the terrain and above-ground features, which is not semantically separated into individual objects.

Interactive pop-ups require features with attributes. Only a 3D object scene layer (or a standard feature layer displayed in 3D) contains the necessary vector geometry and an underlying attribute table. When published and configured in a web scene, these attributes can drive pop-up windows. Integrated meshes and tile layers are essentially pictures and cannot have individual feature attributes.

Many 3D model symbols (like those from ESRI’s gallery) are built with multiple Levels of Detail (LODs). A highly detailed model is used when zoomed in, and a simpler, more performance-friendly model (or even a point/billboard) is used when zoomed out. This behavior is defined in the model file’s structure. To change it, you would typically need to modify the LOD switching distances in the 3D modeling software that created the original model, not in ArcGIS Pro’s general layer properties.

Extruding building footprints from a height attribute is a standard, efficient first step to create massing models from 2D GIS data. It provides immediate 3D context. While trees and street furniture might later be replaced with detailed 3D models, starting with extrusion establishes scale and volume quickly, which is crucial for early-stage visualization and client discussion.0