Viewsheds are visualizations of what is visible from a given point and are used often in urban planning. Use the Viewshed tool 
when you want to determine the visible area from an observer point to a point of interest. The Viewshed colors areas that are visible (by default in green) or occluded (by default in red) from the observer. The Viewshed object you created can then be managed in the Scene Editor.
You can create a Viewshed in the following ways:
- Click the Viewshed tool in the toolbar.
- Click Analysis > Viewshed creation in the main menu.
Create a Viewshed
To create a Viewshed, do the following:
- Click a point in the Viewport to create an observer point.
This starts the Viewshed tool
that dynamically displays the Viewshed as you move. - Drag the Viewshed tool to set the point of interest.
- Click again to anchor the Point of Interest in the Viewshed.
The Viewshed is added to the Scene Editor and is automatically selected. You can directly adjust its properties, such as the Angle of View and View Distance in the Viewport using handles or in the Inspector using input fields.
Adjust the Viewshed
You can adjust the Viewshed in the following ways:
- In the Viewport, you can click and drag any of the orange sphere handles to modify the properties Observer point, Point of Interest, or Angle of View.
- In the Inspector you can edit any of the properties.
Properties
The following is a list of the Viewshed the properties in the Inspector:
Horizontal Angle of View | Horizontal angle of view, or field of view, from observer |
Vertical Angle of View | Vertical angle of view, or field of view, from observer |
Observer Point X | x coordinate of observer |
Observer Point Y | y coordinate of observer |
Observer Point Z | z coordinate of observer |
Tilt Angle | camera view angle from -85 to 85 degrees |
Heading Angle | camera view angle from -360 to 360 degrees |
View Distance | Distance between observer and point of interest |
Tip:
The Colorize Scene property in the Inspector allows you to choose whether you want to display the colorized visible or hidden areas in the Viewport. The preview shows you the view from the observer point with the current properties, enabling an intuitive placement of the Viewshed
Analyze by layer
The Inspector displays visibility statistics about the current viewshed and breaks the visibility down by layer. See Visibility by layer for more detail.