Analyze visibility by layer

The Viewshed Creation and View Dome Creation tools provide information on how much each scene layer contributes to the geometry visibility in the specified field of view. This information is presented as a horizontal bar chart and as a table in the Inspector window when the analysis object is selected. The table provides the information as percentages of the specified field of view and as solid angles expressed as steradians(sr).

Besides the layers as defined in the Scene Editor, an additional category Panorama is shown. Panorama applies to all nongeometry areas in the field of view including the sky and areas below the horizon not covered by terrain or geometry.

The scene displays a viewshed with colored geometry and a bar chart and table displaying statistics in the Inspector window.

Note:

Only geometry inside the viewshed or view dome body is taken into account for the calculations. Geometry farther away than the view distance is not colored in the Viewport window, not visible in the Inspector window and also not taken into account when the visibility statistics are calculated. These directions are therefore counted as Panorama.

For further analysis, you can expand a layer to see how much of it is visible or occluded within the viewshed or view dome. Furthermore, you get a list of layers that contribute to the occlusion of the expanded layer including percentages and sr values. In the image below, 15.7 percent of the Streets layer is visible and 84.3 percent is occluded by other layers. Additionally, you can see the Office buildings layer is the main occluder of the Streets layer with a share of 55.3 percent.

The table shows that approximately half of the geometry of the Streets layer field of view is covered by the Buildings layer.

You can use visibility analysis in scenarios as well.