Introduction to 3D Buildings

The 3D Buildings solution delivers a set of capabilities that help local governments develop a standard set of 3D layers that can be used to visualize your community in an immersive way.

Populations continue to move from rural to urban centers, making cities larger and denser than ever before. Today, four out of five people in the United States live in urban areas, a percentage that is still increasing. As a result, governments must embrace 3D maps to manage the physical environment, improve operations, and engage residents.

3D maps offer a more intuitive and realistic representation of the physical environment. They are also the foundation for digital twins, which aim to replicate the real-world in a digital form. Many communities are investing in digital twins because they help decision-makers understand current conditions, assess the impact of proposed planning or infrastructure improvements, and improve emergency responses. They also help communities connect with residents, capture public comment, and create more lasting public conversations. To begin this journey, they must create a set of 3D layers that provide spatial context and represent the structures, terrain, and other relevant elements in their community.

Deploy the solution

This solution can be deployed in your ArcGIS organization.

Deploy the solution

See Deploying a solution for more information.

Requirements

The 3D Buildings solution requires the following:

• ArcGIS Online
• ArcGIS Pro 3.5 or later

Note:

To deploy this solution, you must have an ArcGIS organizational account. After deploying the solution, you can download it from your organization and begin using it in ArcGIS Pro.

Information products

3D Buildings includes the following:

Item	Description	Minimum user type
3DBuildings	An ArcGIS Pro project used by GIS analysts and mapping technicians to create and maintain 3D content for their organization	Professional Plus

When you deploy this solution in your ArcGIS organization, you also get a solution item that organizes the key information products and summarizes all the ArcGIS items (applications, forms, projects, maps, feature layers, feature layer views, and so on) included with the solution. The solution item also illustrates any dependencies items have on each other.

Release notes

The following are the release notes:

Version	Description
2.0 (Nov 2025)	The Extract LOD2 Buildings tool has been added to streamline the creation of 3D Buildings. The Split and Publish Building Floors task has been updated to support the ArcGIS Indoors Information Model.
1.1 (Nov 2024)	A new 3D Buildings ArcGIS Pro project fixes minor issues with steps within tasks.
1.0 (Jun 2023)	First release of 3D Buildings