Change the appearance of a voxel layer

You can adjust the display and appearance of a voxel layer on the  Voxel Layer tab set. You can change the offset, vertical exaggeration, the variable used, and the symbology as well as manipulate lighting options on your voxel layer.

Elevation

When a voxel layer is added to a local scene, default elevation properties are applied to make the differences in height more apparent. These properties include Offset and Vertical Exaggeration. The default value given to vertically exaggerate the height of the voxel layer is proportional to the x,y extent of the layer. When vertically exaggerating a voxel layer, its height is scaled by the value you set for the Vertical Exaggeration property.

The default method of voxel exaggeration From voxel dataset origin, scales only the voxels themselves and not the space between the coordinate system and the voxel dataset origin. It is equivalent to translating the voxel dataset to the coordinate system origin, applying the vertical exaggeration scaling, and then translating the voxel dataset origin back to its correct position. The ground elevation surface layer and other layer types in ArcGIS AllSource do not apply vertical exaggeration in this manner as they multiply all z positions by the exaggeration scaling factor.

Note:

The voxel dataset's Z origin is the first Z value in the netCDF file. Use the Make netCDF Table View tool to list Z values for a netCDF file. If the origin does not start at 0 or the Z values are irregular, you can use the regularize z Python script to flip the Z values.

To exaggerate a voxel layer in the same way as the terrain and other layers, you can change the exaggeration mode for the voxel layer. For example, if a voxel layer represents a geological formation and you want to show it in the same scene with an exaggerated borehole feature layer, you can change the voxel layer exaggeration mode to Z-coordinates.

Set vertical exaggeration

To set the vertical exaggeration of a voxel layer, follow these steps:

1. Select a voxel layer in the  Contents  pane.
2. Click the Voxel Layer tab set.
3. Set the Offset and Vertical Exaggeration properties in the Elevation group.
4. Optionally, change the Exaggeration mode property to match the feature layer's z-coordinate exaggeration mode on the Layer Properties dialog box.

Lighting

Use lighting options with a voxel layer to improve depth perception in 3D visualization. Lighting options are important if a voxel layer contains many different cubes as unique values or if you are visualizing an isosurface. You can define the Diffuse property to make the voxel layer appear more matte or the Specular property to make the voxel layer appear glossier. Depending on the position of the light source, the appearance of the voxel layer changes.

A geological model is shown with the lighting option turned off. The sample set of the GeoTOP model is from the TNO - Geological Survey of the Netherlands.

The geological model is shown with lighting options set. The diffuse property is set to 50 percent and the specular property is set to 30 percent. The sample set of the GeoTOP model is from the TNO - Geological Survey of the Netherlands.

Set lighting options

To set the lighting options for a voxel layer, follow these steps:

1. Select a voxel layer in the  Contents  pane.
2. Click the Voxel Layer tab set.
3. Set the Diffuse and Specular properties using the slider, or type the number.