Webscene - Create 3d trees

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04-26-2017 02:38 AM
ShaneConserdyne
New Contributor

I can't seem to find a way to create a 3d tree layer using xfrog 3D tree models. I have a z enabled point featureclass which has the on ground base of the tree with attributes for the height and model to use (per species). I want to be able to create a scene layer package for a 3D webscene on AGOL. How do I use the xfrog .3ds models and scale them to the height at each x,y,z location in the featureclass? I have ArcGIS Pro, desktop and CityEngine at my disposal but I am not yet familiar with CGA. Does anyone have a script or rule set that would help. Thanks

1 Reply
NathanShephard
Esri Contributor

Hi Shane,

The process is a bit labor intensive (depending on how many tree types you have), but the manual way to set up this layer in Pro is as follows:

[1] Set your Tree layer to use real-world size

- Open the Layer Properties dialog, click on the Display tab, and check on 'Display 3D symbols in real world units', OK

[2] Apply a Unique Values renderer for the Trees layer based on the TreeType field

 - Select the layer in the table of contents and click the Symbology dropdown on the Appearance ribbon

- Then choose the applicable field (eg: Tree Type) in the Symbology pane

  -> This will create a set of symbols, one for each type of tree you have in your data

[3] For each tree type symbol, connect it to its model

- Click on a current symbol, open the 'Properties' tab (top of pane), click on the 'Layers' sub-tab

- Change the type to '3D Model Marker', click the 'File...' button and navigate to the 3ds file for that tree type

  -> Click the 'back' arrow (top-left) and repeat until all tree types have been connected to their 3ds model

[4] Define visual variable overrides for the symbol height

- Click the 'burger' button in the top-right of the Symbology pane, click 'Vary symbology by Attribute'

- Expand the 'Size' section and select the Tree Height field from the dropdown list of numeric fields

If everything looks correct, you can use Share (ribbon tab) > Web Scene to publish it out, or use the Create Scene Layer Package GP tool to create an SLPK.  I just tried it on an alpha version of Pro 2.0 and it worked well.

Note: Esri also provides a preset layer for Realistic Trees that can reference a "Genus" fieldname for applying different tree models (with height and crown width). You can learn more about this here: Preset layers—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS Desktop 

Hope this helps!

Thanks, Nathan