Department of Land Surveying & Geo-Informatics

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

LSGI3220 Building Information Modelling & 3D GIS
Lab 4 Viewshed Analysis and Introduction to 3D GIS
In the first section of this exercise, you will conduct a viewshed analysis to determine
if Interstate 68 can be seen from the runway of the Morgantown Airport. Then, you
will make a 3D map of downtown Pittsburgh. This exercise also describes how to
model 3D buildings in a 3D scene and add a 3D model.
Here is an image of the Morgantown Airport using the National Agriculture Imagery
Program (NAIP) orthphotography from 2016. (Cited from and thanks to Prof.
Maxwell, Geography in the Department of Geology and Geography at West Virginia
University)

Topics covered in this exercise include:

1. Conduct viewshed analysis and interpret the results
2. Produce a simple 3D scene
3. Extrude buildings in a 3D scene
4. Replace simple 3D objects with 3D models

Step 1. Open a Map Project

First, we need to download and open the Exercise_7.aprx file.

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 Download the Exercise_7.zip file.
You will need to extract the compressed files and save it to the
location of your choosing.
Open ArcGIS Pro. This can be done by navigating to All Apps followed
by the ArcGIS Folder. Within the ArcGIS Folder, select ArcGIS Pro.
Note that you can also use a Task Bar or Desktop shortcut if they are
available on your machine.
After ArcGIS Pro launches, select “Open another project.”

Navigate to the directory that houses the material for this course. The
project files are in the Exercise_7 folder where it was saved on your
local machine.
Select Exercise_7.aprx. Click OK to open the project.
If necessary, navigate to the WV map.

Note: If you’d prefer, you can also just click on the Exercise_7.aprx file
within the uncompressed folder directly to launch ArcGIS Pro.
This project contains one map (Viewshed).

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Step 2. Setting Up the Working Environment
In this lab, you will generate some outputs. Before you begin, it is a good
idea to set up the working environment. Specifically, you will set a current
workspace and a scratch workspace. If you plan to perform data analysis
and spatial analysis in a project, it is a good idea to set environment
settings.
Under the Analysis Tab, select Environments from the Geoprocessing
area.
In the Environments window and in
the Workspace settings, set the
Current Workspace and Scratch
Workspace to the Exercise7.gdb
geodatabase in your copy of the
downloaded Exercise_7 folder. All
of your outputs will now be saved to
this geodatabase.
Click OK to accept these changes.

Step 3. Perform Viewshed Analysis

You will now perform a viewshed analysis. The goal will be to determine if
any section of Interstate 68 is visible from the Morgantown Airport.
Click on the Tools icon in the Geoprocessing area of the
Analysis Tab. This should load the Geoprocessing Pane.

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 In the Geoprocessing Pane, select
Toolboxes. This will open the ArcToolbox
directory.
Navigate to Spatial Analyst Tools followed
by Surface.
Click on Viewshed (do not select
Viewshed 2).
Set the Input Raster to elev.
Set the Input Point or Polyline Observer
Features to the Airport layer.
Name the Output Raster view_r. This will
save to the workspace defined in the
environment settings unless you browse
to a different location.
You do not need to change any of the
other settings.
Click Run to execute the tool.

Once the tool executes the result should be added to the Contents Pane and
map. The result is a binary (0/1) surface. A value of 1 indicates locations or
cells that are visible from the airport whereas a value of 0 indicates locations
that are not visible. The display will only show the visible locations.
Question 1. Can any portion of Interstate 68 be seen from this location on
the airport runway?
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Question 2. What is one factor that could impact visibility that is not
modelled using only a DEM and the Viewshed tool?
Question 3. In this exercise, we did not calculate an output above ground
level raster. Using the tool help, explain what this output would show.
Question 4. Using the tool help, explain the purpose of the Z factor when
conducting a viewshed analysis.

Step 4. Creating a 3D Scene

You will now create a simple 3D scene of downtown Pittsburgh. Before you
can begin, you will need to add a new scene to the map. 3D scenes are
created within scenes as opposed to maps.

Navigate to the Insert Tab. Click on the

dropdown portion of New Map. Select New
Local Scene.
Having issues? See Troubleshooting options at
the end of this lab.

A new scene should be added to your map showing the united states.

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On the bottom left corner of the scene are the navigation tools.
Click on the small arrow in the upper corner
of the navigation tools to obtain the full
controls.
Take some time to experiment with the 3D
navigation controls.

You will now add new layers to the 3D layout. Note that 3D scenes can be a
bit slower than 2D maps. Also, it is a good idea to save your project often
just in case the software crashes.
Navigate to the Map Tab. Click the Add Data button.
Navigate to the Data folder within the Exercise_7 folder
you downloaded from the website.
Add the building_footprints_sub_17N.shp file and the
pitt_image.tif file to the scene. Once the files have been added the
scene should automatically zoom to the extent of these layers.

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Feel free to navigate in the 3D space to visualize the data. Note that the
data have already been draped over a terrain surface.

The building have been drawn as flat polygons. However, we would like to
extrude the buildings to their actual heights within the scene. Luckily, the
attribute table contains a field that provides the height of the buildings in
meters (“Max_M”). We will use this field to extrude the buildings.
With the buildings layer selected in the Contents Pane, navigate to the
Appearance Tab.
Under Type in the Extrusion area, set this to Max Height.
Select “Max_M” as the height field.
Make sure the units are meters (this should be the default).

The buildings should now be extruded to their max heights. Note that this
height information was derived from LiDAR data.

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We would now like you to convert this extruded 2D feature to a 3D layer.
This can be done using the Layer 3D to Feature Class Tool.
Click on the Tools icon in the Geoprocessing area of the
Analysis Tab. This should load the Geoprocessing Pane.
In the Geoprocessing Pane, select Toolboxes. This will
open the ArcToolbox directory.
Navigate to 3D Analyst Tools followed
by Conversion.
Click on Layer 3D To Feature Class.
Set the Input Feature Layer to the
building_footprints_sub_17N layer.
Name the output buildings3D.
Do not change any of the other
settings.
Click Run to execute the tool.

Once the tool executes, the new 3D layer should automatically be added to
the Contents Pane and scene.

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 Uncheck or remove the original 2D buildings layer.
You will now replace one of the buildings in the 3D layer with a 3D model of
the building. Specifically, you will replace the U.S. Steel Building with a 3D
model produced using Google SketchUp. The original SketchUp file was
already converted to a COLLADA (.dae) file. It is been provided in the Data
folder within the Exercise_7 folder downloaded from the website as
USSB.dae.

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You will need to select the 3D object representing the U.S. Steel Building.
This should be the tallest building in the scene.

Make sure the buldings3D layer is selected in the Contents

Pane. In the Map Tab, select the Select Tool then navigate to
the Appearance Tab.
Click on the 3D object representing the U.S. Steel Building to
select it.

Navigate to the Edit Tab.

Click on the Replace Multipath Tool.
Navigate to the Data folder within the Exercise_7 you downloaded.
Select the USSB.dae file and click OK.
The model should now have replaced the 3D object in the scene.

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Finally, let’s save a 2D
graphic of the scene.
Navigate to an
extent and
orientation you
find appealing.

Navigate to the Share Tab. Select Map in the Export area.

Save the scene as a PDF to your personal directory.

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Step 5. Extra: How I Obtained the Building Heights
The building heights in this exercise were obtained from a LiDAR-derived
normalized digital surface model (nDSM). Using the Zonal Statistics as
Table Tool made available in the Zonal subtoolbox within the Spatial
Analyst Toolbox. Using this tool, the maximum elevation value within each
building polygon was calculated, and the results were written to a table. This
table was then joined to the polygon layer using a table join. The heights
were in feet, so a new field was created in which the heights were
recalculated to meters. Similar techniques will be explored in later lab
exercises.
END OF EXERCISE

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Troubleshooting:
If your screen seems to be noisy/jumpy when opening a new scene.
Navigate to project tab then Options.
Go to Project Tab followed by Options then Display.
Under Rendering Engine,
change from DirectX to
OpenGL.
Under the display options,
you can change the
rendering quality.
Another option is to clear the
cache.

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