Mensuration Options

The Mensuration Options pane is where you set the parameters for defining your measurements of features and objects visible in your imagery and raster datasets. The types of parameters you can define include measurement units, symbols and colors representing Measurement Types, and the Level of Precision for your measurements. You can specify an Elevation file to increase measurement accuracy, or to compute Volume measurements.

The Level of Precision value determines the number of decimal places for the specified units; the default value is four decimal places.

Different Symbol types can be selected by clicking on the default symbol for each Measurement Type. The Color can be assigned to the different symbol and measurement types by clicking on the color drop-down arrow and choosing a color from the color pallette or assigning a unique color using the Color Editor.

Measurement accuracy can be increased by assigning an elevation dataset from the file navigation icon. An elevation can be specified as an elevation file or the URL address of an elevation service.

Mensuration Options pane

On the Imagery tab, in the Mensuration group, click Mensuration Options to open the Mensuration Options pane.

Units

Specify the units for each of the measurement tools.

Measurement type	Units
Point	Unknown Decimal Degree Decimal Minutes Seconds Decimal Degree Minute MGRS (Military Grid Reference System) U.S. National Grid UTM Kilometer Meter Decimeter Centimeter Millimeter Mile Nautical Mile Yard Feet Inch
Distance	Kilometer Meter Decimeter Centimeter Millimeter Mile Nautical Mile Yard Feet Inch
Angle	Decimal Degrees Decimal Seconds Radian
Area	Acre Hectare Square Meter Square Feet Square Mile Square Yard Square Millimeter Square Centimeters Square Kilometer Square Decimeter Square Inch
Volume	Cubic Meters Cubic Yards Cubic Feet

Symbols

Each of the measurement types can be represented with a unique symbol and color. Click the symbol to open the Symbols pane, which displays the gallery of symbols for each data type, such as point, line, polygon, and text. Click the drop-down arrow next to the color chip to display the color palette and properties dialog box.

Elevation

You can increase the accuracy of the measurement calculations by incorporating an elevation dataset.

The Volume measurement tool will only be enabled after you specify an elevation dataset.

If you are working in an Ortho Mapping workspace where digital surface model (DSM) and digital terrain model (DTM) products have been generated and are available as layers in the Contents pane, they can be selected as Elevation input layers using the drop-down list.

When you're working in an Ortho Mapping workspace and a DSM or DTM are specified as the Elevation input, the error of the volume measurement is also calculated.

Volume

The volume measurement is calculated from a reference surface determined by the polygon delineating the object you want to measure. The reference surface—called the Base Surface—is created using different methods as options:

• Constant—A user defined value that defines a flat base surface
• Interpolate—Uses the z-value at each vertex in your sketch to interpolate a base surface for the volume calculation.
• Minimum—Uses the minimum z-value found in the sketch vertices to define a flat base surface at the minimum elevation.
• Maximum—Uses the maximum z-value found in the sketch vertices to define a flat base surface at the maximum elevation
• Mean—Uses the mean z-value from the sketch vertices to define a flat base surface at the mean elevation.