Displaying vertical section drawings (rasters) in 3D

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01-29-2015 12:40 AM
VictorKlinkenberg
New Contributor III

Hi everyone, I was wondering what people's solutions are for the display of section drawings in arcscene. Especially for archaeologists this is an important issue. To my knowledge there are three possible ways:

1. adding the raster as point symbol (Creating 3D cross sections for use in ArcGIS Explorer | ArcGIS Blog )

2. create a TIN surface which is almost vertical, and georeference the raster on top of it. (see for instance Guides to Good Practice: CS_ACE-AUTH-Katsianis )

3. Using a 3D modelling program to place (scale and xyz rotation) them correctly and then import the textured models in a textured multipatch feature class.

 

the first option has the problem that you cant place the section drawing in a detailed way. the second option has the obvious problem of not actually being vertical. Also I have been experiencing quite a lot of rendering issues with large rasters using this approach.

The third option is very useful but when exporting the raster from sketchup the location of the object is not retained, only scale and x,y,z rotation. so after import in arcscene the raster still has to be moved to the correct x,y,z location.

 

currently we are mainly using the last option because the objects render very well within the scene. Also the rasters are placed properly vertically. The process is as follows: We use a simple 3D model of our excavation in sketchup and place the imported rasters in there. then select the raster we would like to import in arcene - export as collada - in arcscene create multipatch feature class - start editing - insert object - select collada file - click in scene - then select imported object and use the move tool to move it to the correct x,y,z. I also use this process for the import of 3D photogrammetry results of the same excavation.

Unfortunately the textures are not exported in 2D exports (see the yet unanswered layers and textures in 2d scene export fail..).

 

Are there people around with similar issues or ideas? Any comment are welcome, very interested in seeing how others deal with this.

Victor

3 Replies
RiccardoRocca
New Contributor

I have written a simple Toolbox that does just that.

It converts a raster image into a 3D object that can be displayed as a vertical cross section in ArcScene.

You can download and try it from: ArcGis Cross Section - Riccardo Rocca

kannan123
New Contributor

the download link brocken. can u please upload it again

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