Future of GIS in 3D?

Question

At the Esri User convention they made mention that the future is 3D. I then noticed that they have their City Engine product which makes 2D GIS data into 3D GIS data (at least I think that's what it does, I'm new). I'm really wondering how much truth there is to this and how 3D GIS actually matters to the industry?

Also, are there other versions of this program out there, as in, are there any other 3D GIS products out there?

Thanks in advance! Really trying to understand GIS, and the industry, more.

BillFox · Answer

truth: see the video in this link:

https://www.esri.com/en-us/industries/blog/articles/3d-gis-data-migration-for-the-psap/

@Anonymous User

https://www.esri.com/en-us/industries/emergency-communications/overview

jhindleCRG · Answer

Yes, it's incredibly useful and powerful. For example, you can take 2D building footprints, load them into ArcGIS Pro, and combine them with Lidar data to generate 3d point clouds. Once these height attributes are added to the 2D footprints, you can generate 3d buildings with almost exact heights, as well as add rules to change the roof types.

Then, taking this data into City Engine, you can generate 3d models which can then be ported into Unreal Engine, for example, thus being able to use these models in game development, or special effects for CGI landscapes in film and television. They can also be used to run disaster simulations like flooding, hurricanes, and earthquakes.

Or just to make cool 3d maps that show things like sunlight coverage, shade, and terrain details.

BillFox · Answer

see an intro link here:

https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/3d-gis/overview