Digital Elevation Data II

Olaf Zielke and Ramón Arrowsmith, ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration

How to use ArcScene to make a DOQQ three-dimensional

Start ArcScene, in general, navigation and layout of ArcScene is very much like ArcMap.

1 arc second Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) DEM: 58195259.zip

1 arc second National Elevation Dataset (NED) DEM: NED_02446943.zip

Digital OrthoPhotoQuaterQuad: 27431447.zip

First thing we want to do is import a DEM => Add data
Browse to the DEM and open it -you want to open the reprojected DEM (UTM) that you produced during the last session.

Now, the DEM is in ArcScene
To make the graphic three-dimensional you have to right-click on the layer => Properties => Base Heights and the following window will open

You want to obtain the height information for the layer from a surface -that surface would be the DEM covering the area => Browse for the DEM -in our example here, the layer and surface are the same data sets)

You may want to increase the z-Factor (Z Unit Conversion) to exaggerate the relief.
The next thing you can do, just the way you did in ArcMap, is going to Symbology and change the Color Ramp to one of your liking
Press OK and you will obtain a view that should look something like this (figure below)

That is quite nice already
The next thing we will do, is using the ortho-rectified photos (DOQQ) that cover this area and make them three-dimensional
For that, we dont need the DEM anymore => remove the layer
Add data => browse and input the DOQQ's -this may take quite a while, so be patient!
Now you should have a view like this

Now we want to do the very same thing a before => Layer (right-click) => Properties => Base Heights =>
We will obtain the heights from the reprojected DEM that we used some minutes ago! Browse to its location and select it
After that, you may also go to Rendering to adjust the rendering quality => BE CAREFUL increasing the quality can signicantly increase the processing time. We recommend to start the the presets and the adjust the rendering if needed.
After the computer has finished the rendering, you can maneuver around to adjust the view and get results such as that