Edit 3D geometries—3D Workflows

ArcGIS Pro, CityEngine, and Scene Viewer provide a robust experience for editing 3D data. The type of 3D data you work with determines which editing tools are supported.

3D point, line, and polygon feature layers are useful when you require simple 3D representations of real-world features. For example, 3D points are useful to depict locations of objects such as trees, fire hydrants, or people. Use 3D lines to model underground pipes or roads and 3D polygons to represent floors and units in buildings. Editing of 3D points, lines, and polygons is similar to editing 2D features in ArcGIS. You can modify vertices by dragging them to a new location, add and delete vertices, move, rotate, and scale the entire feature in 3D, depending on the geometry type.

Multipatch and 3D object feature layers are designed to store and edit complex 3D geometries such as 3D models of buildings, bridges, power lines, wind turbines, and so on. Both feature layers support editing of 3D geometries but with key differences. Multipatches can have textures but do not support materials while 3D object features support GL Transmission (.gltf) or Binary GL Transmission (.glb) animations, advanced materials, such as reflection, emissivity, and ambient occlusion. You can modify 3D object features in external third-party programs whereas multipatches cannot. You can move, scale, and rotate features in a 3D object feature layer without the need to edit individual vertices. The 3D object feature layer is best suited for high-fidelity models that are used once or sparingly. A 3D object feature layer can contain different formats including multipatch. This allows you to combine different inputs to represent simpler models together with other format types.

Workflows

How you edit 3D geometries depends on the layer type and software that you are using. Use ArcGIS Pro to edit 3D point, line, and polygon feature layers as well as multipatch and 3D object feature layers. It supports editing of feature layers with local data sources as well as web layers. To start editing, add the feature layer to a local or global scene, click the Edit tab and start making changes to the 3D geometries. In the modify features pane, you have all available editing tools. You can modify 3D object features by accessing the model files in CityEngine or third-party programs.

To work with a large amount of data as a web layer, you can create a scene layer with an associated feature layer. For example, to work with multipatch, 3D object, or large amounts of 3D point features on the web, publish a scene layer for fast display performance. The scene layer leverages multiple levels of detail with the database of the associated feature layer to provide a fast display performance but also rich editing capabilities.

You can share a scene layer with the following workflows:


Sharing option	When to use
Cache locally	You do not need to make frequent changes to the data.
Publish a scene layer with an associated feature layer	You need to make frequent changes to the data.
Share as a web scene	Shares all layers, bookmarks, and lighting properties in the scene. Configure layers in the sharing pane to determine caching option.

Use Scene Viewer in ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise to edit hosted 3D point, line, and polygon feature layers directly on the web. Ensure you have permissions and enable editing on the hosted feature layer and use the edit button on the designer toolbar in scene viewer to start updating your hosted features layers.

CityEngine supports editing of multipatches stored locally in a geodatabase and you can modify the model files within 3D object features. You can publish multipatch features from CityEngine by exporting to a scene layer package and publishing the scene layer package to a hosted 3D object scene layer. If you need to make updates to the published scene layer, you can re-create the scene layer package and replace the scene layer item in your organization.

Considerations

To edit 3D features in a scene, consider whether you want to work with 3D layers on the web. If yes, publish the 3D layers from ArcGIS applications such as ArcGIS Pro or CityEngine. If no, you can store your 3D layers on disk in a file geodatabase or enterprise geodatabase and work with them in desktop applications.

Required software

You need ArcGIS Pro to edit 3D point, line, polygon, multipatch, and 3D object feature layers as well as point, 3D objects, and building scene layers.

Use CityEngine to edit multipatches stored locally in a geodatabase and to modify the model files within the 3D object features.

To edit hosted 3D point, line, and polygon feature layers or publish and share scene layers, you need an ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise user account with appropriate editing permissions.

ArcGIS help documentation

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