Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The Third Spatial
Dimension
STEP-BY-STEP
Open your Fast Facts File.
Open the Color Figures file.
An (Almost) New Software Package: ArcScene
ArcScene is the software package you saw briefly in Chapter 2. We will use it to look at multiple 3-D data
sets simultaneously. If we want to look at an individual data set, we can use ArcCatalog, using 3D View
Preview. ArcScene operates a lot like ArcMap.
_____ Before starting the exercise that follows, let's get into a three-dimensional, “large view of the world”
frame of mind. Start Menu > All Programs > ArcGIS > ArcGlobe. Initialize with a Blank Globe. Make the
window occupy the full screen. In Globe Layers, turn off all layers except Imagery. Under the Customize
menu, click Toolbars and place a check mark beside Spin to bring up the Spin toolbar. In the Speed text
box, type 2.0. Click the Spin Counter Clockwise button (that's counterclockwise when looking down on
the North Pole—this is the way Earth spins). (I suggest you turn off the stars 3 - although they look kind of
neat. Right-click on “Globe layers” and select Properties. Click off the Stars.) Sit back and be impressed for
at least three revolutions. Stop the Earth (Stop Spin button). Click Draped layers. Add as data:
[___] IGIS-Arc\Other_Data\Countries\Countries.lyr
Press Navigate on the Tools toolbar. (Hint: Find it with the ToolTip). Restart rotation. When your country
shows up stop the spin. Use the left and right mouse buttons to position the globe so that you are
looking at the middle of your location in your county from about a thousand kilometers away. 4 Restart
the counterclockwise spin. Let one revolution of Earth go by—observing other countries that are at the
same latitude as yours. Minimize the ArcGlobe window and begin the following exercises with Step 1,
knowing that, as you do, the Earth will continue to turn.
3 Actually, the stars in the background are a little confusing. If we were at a point in space looking at a spinning earth
the stars wouldn't be moving. Our view is more like the one we would have from a high-altitude satellite, in which we
are orbiting Earth. Our satellite would be moving from east to west (which is the direction opposite of most satellites).
The stars are realistic when we move the Earth with a cursor, but not when it is spinning.
4 See the Distance value in the lower-right corner of the window.
 
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