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In my last post, I talked about going 3D with your GIS.  But how do you do it? Let's say you want to create a 3D surface and use it in a 3D scene online, and you have a Microstation XML in Utah State Plane Central Foot. Where do you start? Open a new Pro project.   First, you will convert the XML to a TIN. Convert TIN to Raster Change the sample distance to cell size  Sampling Value is 1 foot Optional - Mosaic to new Raster If you are working with multiple surfaces, it is easiest to mosaic them into one raster at this point. Doing this allows the remaining steps to be done on one raster, instead of multiple. Change the pixel type to 32 bit float to maintain the elevation. Define Projection Up to this point in the conversion process, it is finally time to tell the data where in the world it is located.  Use the Define Projection tool and set it to Utah State Plane Central Foot. Project Raster Since you will be using your 3D surface in ...

There is a big push in the GIS world to go 3D.  But this is being met with quite the resistance.  The reasons I hear are that organizations don't have time, resources, the right programs, money, and the biggest reason, why? The conversion process can take a long time, but the results are incredible. The first time I was tasked with converting something to 3D, it was daunting.  Nobody had done it before.  There wasn't any documentation online about how to do so.  Tech support was no help. First, I started with LiDar points, and pulled out trees and buildings.  I spent 2 weeks learning how to change the roof types and directions, the tree heights and canopy spreads.  I felt like I was building a video game (does anyone remember Half Life?). I finally got it to work.  And I was proud of figuring it all out. A random engineer came to my desk to ask for a map.  He saw my screen and asked "What is that?"  I told him all about it....