Digitizing 3D graphics over a surface

Available with 3D Analyst license.

It is often useful to have features with 3D geometry. Although you can display 2D features by draping them over a surface, 3D features are displayed more rapidly, and you can share them with others without having to send along the surface data. You can create 3D graphics on a surface using either the Interpolate Point, Interpolate Line, or Interpolate Polygon interactive tools on the 3D Analyst toolbar.

When you use the interpolation tools on the 3D Analyst toolbar, the result is added to the map either as a graphic or as a point feature if an editable 3D point feature class is present. The point height is reported on the application status bar. The interpolation tools work on raster, triangulated irregular network (TIN), or terrain dataset surfaces.

The following steps describe how to digitize 3D graphics on a surface using either the Interpolate Point , Interpolate Line , or Interpolate Polygon interactive tool.

1. Start ArcMap and add the surface that you want to use as the source for the graphics' heights to the map.
If you have more than one surface on the map, use the Layer drop-down list on the 3D Analyst toolbar to specify the surface that will be the source of your graphics' z-values.
2. Click the Interpolate Point , Interpolate Line , or Interpolate Polygon button (depending on the geometry of the graphics you are creating).
3. Click the surface at the location where you want to start drawing. If you are using the Interpolate Point tool, a point appears. If you are using the Interpolate Line or Interpolate Polygon tool, the first vertex appears. Click the surface where you want to create the next vertex.
4. Double-click the surface to create the last vertex and finish drawing.
You can copy 3D graphics that you've created in ArcMap and paste them into ArcGlobe or ArcScene.
You can further display the Interpolate Line results in a profile. For more information on how to display these results in a profile, see Creating profile graphs from 3D line features.

Note:

• The perimeters of 3D polygons are where the z-values are stored. The interior elevations are interpolated based on these values. For relatively smooth surfaces, the interiors of 3D graphic polygons reflect the actual surface reasonably well. If you need to accurately model the details of an area, use a TIN or raster surface instead of polygons.
• Use the Draw toolbar to select and change symbology of the 3D graphic.
• For information about enabling the interactive tools with terrain datasets, see Interactive tools for terrain datasets.