Characteristics and Examples of Spatial Data - Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS - page 159

11. Now make sure Customize > Toolbars > 3D View Tools is turned on (checked). Put the toolbar
somewhere out of the way. Use it to zoom in on the area of the river, using the magnifying glass
icon. Now use the Navigate cursor (left end of the toolbar) to look at the gorge of the river, from
the eastern edge of the TIN and somewhat above. You can take your own little helicopter ride
around the area. See Figure 2-38. Play.
FIGURE 2-38
12. Most of the 3D View Tools icons are familiar to you. Experiment with those that aren't. At the
right end of the toolbar is an icon to launch ArcScene.
ArcScene is like ArcMap, but for mapping in three dimensions. It is a 3D viewing application with many
capabilities, including letting you drape raster and vector data over surfaces. I discuss it in Chapter 9 and
show you here only enough to whet your appetite.
13. Launch ArcScene, with a blank scene, from the 3D View Tools of ArcCatalog. Add Data: Boat_
SP83 (use a red dot) and COLE_DRG.TIF. Make sure the Tools toolbar is active and note the
tools it contains. Experiment. Zoom in on the area of the river. (Try out the zoom control that
you activate with the right mouse button.) Now add the TIN layer.
With the addition of the TIN layer, things become a bit tricky. The GPS path and the DRG appear to be
under the TIN—as, upon reflection, you would expect. The GPS track has an assumed elevation of
zero—recall that its elevation data was simply recorded as an attribute. Likewise, the DRG is simply two-
dimensional. But the TIN is truly 3D!
14. Use the Navigate cursor to view the image in a horizontal state from the eastern edge, so that
you see the TIN layer floating above the other two. Then look around the area. Find a view that
you like and save the scene as River_Map_6.SXD (note the ArcScene file extension SDD) in
___IGIS-Arc_ YourInitials . Dismiss ArcScene. Dismiss ArcCatalog.