Scenes allow you to experience geographic information similarly to the way you would in the real world, in three-dimensional space. This can help you understand large and complex data and its spatial relationships by representing it as real-world objects that can be visualized, analyzed, and managed in a scene.
Working in 3D can incorporate real-world elements with your content, highlighting influences such as the movement of the terrain and the 3D extent of features such as trees, buildings, and subsurface geology. Additionally, the display of quantitative GIS content, such as population, temperature, or relative occurrences of an event, can often be communicated more effectively in a 3D view.
In ArcGIS AllSource, you can combine the advantages of 3D scenes and 2D maps by showing both views at the same time, making GIS information more understandable and helping reveal new insights in the process.
Local and global scenes
Global and local scenes are different viewing modes you can use to visualize 3D data. The decision to create a global or local scene is often influenced by your visualization and analysis needs or how you want to share the scene across the ArcGIS system.
A global scene is typically used to display data that spans the globe when viewing the curvature of the earth is important. Choose a global scene to show the data in a global context, allowing your audience to zoom in and out and see the entire earth. Global scenes support WGS84 and CGCS 2000 geographic coordinate systems.
Use a local scene to view data in a smaller extent. Because data can remain in a projected coordinate system, use a local scene for editing, analysis, and measurement. Local scenes are often used to visualize data such as cities or construction sites. Local scenes support geographic, projected, and custom coordinate systems. Local scenes are not supported in mobile ArcGIS Runtime apps.
Create a scene
There are several ways to create scenes. To open a new scene, you can create a global or local scene directly. On the Insert tab, in the Project group, click the New Map menu and choose New Global Scene 
, New Local Scene 
, or New Basemap 
. Optionally, right-click Maps in the Catalog pane to create a scene in the selected mode.
To change the current view mode for a scene, click the View tab and choose either Global 
or Local 
. The existing scene changes to the updated view choice. To view the same scene in both local and global views side by side, you need to open a second view of the same map. To do this, click the Catalog pane, and under Project, expand Maps. Use the context menu for the scene and open it as a new global or local view. The original scene remains unchanged and a new scene is added to the project. Each view tab is labeled with its respective icon distinguishing the view type. Arrange the views by dragging a view tab and choosing the placement location.
2D draped content is shown in the 2D Layers category in the Contents pane, and all 3D layers are shown in the 3D Layers category. KML layers have their own category in scenes, KML Layers, because a KML layer can contain both 2D and 3D nodes in the same file.
Perspective and parallel drawing modes
Scenes can also be rendered in either perspective or parallel drawing mode. Perspective drawing is the most common drawing mode in 3D: features in the foreground are shown larger than those in the background. This is the way most people see the world in their day-to-day experience, and the result is a realistic representation of 3D content. Parallel drawing renders the 3D view using a parallel projection: features of the same physical size are rendered on-screen identically, regardless of their distance from the viewing camera. Parallel drawing is useful for architectural drawings (for example, building construction designs or campus overview maps), as well as for representing statistical data in a 3D view, such as extruded shapes symbolizing numeric values (for example, population or income).
All scenes open in perspective viewing mode. You can switch between Perspective 
and Parallel 
viewing modes using the Drawing Mode drop-down menu in the Scene group on the Map tab. The settings are stored with open views when the project is saved.
Illumination properties
A unique element to authoring scenes is that you can define illumination properties. This includes properties such as the time of day, whether the sun casts a shadow, and how much ambient light is used. In global mode, you can also simulate atmospheric diffusion. View a day's worth of illumination or adjust the time displayed in the scene using the display settings in the Illumination manager in the Scene group on the Map tab.
To access the illumination properties for maps and scenes, right-click the scene in the Contents pane, click Properties, and click the Illumination tab.
Scene content
A scene can contain data layers, basemap layers, and elevation surfaces. In addition to content that draws in the scene, the scene may also contain tables in the same way that maps do.
Operational layers
Any operational layer in the scene is shown as draped on the surface or independent of the surfaces with its own z-coordinates. Operational layers represent the geographical information that you want to visualize. For example, you can add 3D points representing trees or street furniture using 3D symbology. When first displaying any layer in 3D, it's important to set the elevation properties so that features appear at the correct height in the view. To do this, right-click the layer in the Contents pane and click Properties, or double-click the layer name. Then select Elevation on the Layer Properties dialog box.
2D draped content is shown in the 2D Layers category in the Contents pane, and all 3D layers are shown in the 3D Layers category. KML layers have their own category in scenes, KML Layers, because a KML layer can contain both 2D and 3D nodes in the same file.
By default, some layers initially display as 2D layers in the scene because they do not have a z-coordinate stored or are used as draped layers on the ground, for example, aerial imagery. To apply 3D symbology to a layer, such as building footprints or showing lines as tubes, drag the layer into the 3D Layers group in the Contents pane.
ArcGIS AllSource supports the following layer types that can be visualized in a scene:
| Layer type | Description |
|---|---|
Feature layer | A feature layer is a layer containing similar features and their associated properties. Feature layers can represent 3D points such as trees, street furniture, or other objects identified by a 3D symbol. Line and polygon features can be draped on the ground or drawn at their z-coordinate. Feature layers that are designed to be visualized in 3D are multipatch and 3D object feature layers. These feature layers can be created from CAD or BIM data. |
Scene layer | Scene layers provide fast visualization of large 3D content across the ArcGIS system. A scene layer can be of type point, 3D object, integrated mesh, point cloud, building, or voxel. You can create a scene layer with an associated feature layer that allows edits and maintains the data. |
Voxel layer | A voxel layer represents multidimensional spatial and temporal information as a volumetric representation. |
Raster layer | A raster layer can represent aerial imagery in the 2D layers category of a scene and draped on an operational layer or elevation surface. |
TIN layer | A triangulated irregular network (TIN) layer is commonly an elevation surface that represents height values across an extent. |
LAS dataset layer | A LAS dataset stores references to one or more .las files on disk, as well as to additional surface features. A .las file is an industry-standard binary format for storing airborne lidar data. |
KML layer | A KML layer is an XML-based file format for displaying information in a geographic context. A single .kml file can contain features of different geometry types, as well as both vector and raster data. |
Terrain layer | A terrain layer is a multiresolution TIN-based surface model stored in a geodatabase. A terrain layer can be draped on a surface and used to visualize elevation, slope, or aspect. |
Basemap layers
In a scene, the basemap layer is draped on the ground to visualize geographic information in the same way as a 2D map. Global and local scenes contain default Esri basemaps from ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise. When sharing a scene that includes a basemap layer, ensure that the coordinate system of the layer is compatible with the web scene.
Elevation surfaces
Scenes also support the definition of one or more surfaces on which to place other content. Every scene has a default elevation surface called Ground, and you can define as many other surfaces as necessary—for example, Minimum Altitude 1, Maximum Altitude 2, and so on. Each surface can have multiple data sources that describe it, including rasters, TINs, and elevation services. You can also create thematic surfaces from analytical results, such as crime severity or sea surface temperature, and drape other layers on them. See Work with elevation surfaces in the ArcGIS Pro help for more information.
Connect maps and scenes
An integrated 2D-3D environment allows you to work with data, maps, and scenes alongside one another. Enable the Link Views option on the View tab to link the navigation of the views together so you can quickly switch between maps and scenes.
A map and a scene are separate items in a project, even if they reference the same source data. This means that changing the layer visibility in a map or a scene will not impact the layer visibility in another view. Feature edits, however, update all views of that data.
Share scenes from ArcGIS AllSource
You can share a scene from ArcGIS AllSource to your active portal as a web scene. You can work with web scenes in many different clients, such as Scene Viewer, ArcGIS Earth, CityEngine, and ArcGIS Runtime apps.