Work with 3D tiles

A 3D tile layer references a tile set that defines an integrated mesh or 3D object type data in a hierarchical data structure. 3D tiles are based on a specific Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standard, such as the Indexed Scene Layer (I3s) specification, allowing you to visualize large amounts of 3D content. You can select a tile set in a supported file format, such as JSON or 3TZ on the Add Data dialog box.

Create 3D tiles

In ArcGIS Drone2Map, you can create 3D tile products for 3D Mesh, DSM Mesh, and Gaussian Splats products.

To create 3D tile products, complete the following steps:

Note:

Using an ellipsoidal vertical coordinate system for products output in the 3D tile format will result in an vertical offset with the default Esri terrain elevation surface. Esri elevation services are created using a combination of local gravity-based vertical coordinate systems and EGM2008, which causes the difference in vertical alignment with 3D tile layers.

1. On the Home tab, in the Processing group, click Options.

   The Options dialog box appears.

2. On the Options dialog box, click the 3D Products tab and do any of the following:
   1. To enable 3D tiles for the DSM Mesh product, check the 3D Tiles check box under Create DSM Textured Meshes.
   2. To enable 3D tiles for the 3D Mesh product, check the 3D Tiles check box under Create 3D Textured Meshes.
   3. To enable 3D tiles for the Gaussian Splats product, check the 3D Tiles check box under Create Gaussian Splats.

   Processing Gaussian Splats products requires an Advanced license and the installation of a separate deep learning package.

3. On the Home tab, in the Processing group, click Start.

   3D tiles are created when processing is complete.

Add 3D tiles to a 3D map

To add 3D tiles to a 3D map in a Drone2Map project, complete the following steps:

Note:

Gaussian Splats products are added to the map automatically but can be re-added using the following steps.

1. Select the 3D Map view.
2. On the Home tab, in the Layer group, click the Add Data button .

   The Add Data dialog box appears.

3. On the Add Data dialog box, browse to the 3D tile product.

   3D tiles processed in Drone2Map are in the following folders:

   • DSM Mesh—<project-folder>\Results\DSM_Mesh\3D_tiles
   • 3D Mesh—<project-folder>\Results\3D_Mesh\3D_tiles
   • Gaussian Splats—<project-folder>\Results\Gaussian_Splats\3D_tiles

   Drone2Map also supports adding 3D tiles from third-party sources in JSON or 3TZ format.

   Tile sets in JSON format are recognized only if they have the file name tileset.json.

4. Click OK.

   The Add 3D Tiles Layer dialog box appears.

5. On the Add 3D Tiles Layer dialog box, select Integrated Mesh or 3D Object for the layer type depending on the data type.
6. Click Add.

   A 3D tile layer is added to the map.