Visibility Analysis with 3D Buildings as Obstructions

Question

Hello all, I really appreciate any help you may provide.

I've come as close as I think I'm going to get on my own. I'm working in a 3D Scene in ArcGIS Pro and simply want to run viewshed analysis from point locations with 3D extruded buildings as obstructions. The exploratory analysis viewshed tool is a great start.. but this tool only shows up to 4 to 5 at a time and doesn't create an output polygon layer. I've tried the Viewshed, Radial Line of Sight, Visibility, and Geodesic Viewshed tools and they all want raster layers for inputs.. I can't even use the default ground elevation layer in the Viewshed or Line of Sight tools. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get the output I desire?

BryndaHatch · Answer

Below is copied from the help found here: https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/tool-reference/3d-analyst/how-skyline-works.htm

Input Features may be any combination of multipatches, polylines, and polygons. Polyline and polygon features will only be accepted as 3D layers with base height and extrusion information.

Is your input a multipatch?

Also, make sure your points and buildings are in the same horizontal and vertical coordinate systems and that your scene properties are set to the same coordinate systems.

CraigClugston · Answer

Thank so much for the reply! It looks like the tool would work great, but the Input Feature Layer isn't being recognized... any ideas? Maybe it's too large?

BryndaHatch · Answer

Have you tried the skyline tool? https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/tool-reference/3d-analyst/skyline.htm

Using a raster input is optional.

It will create a line as an output, but then you can use the skyline as an input to the skyline barrier tool to create a multipatch output.

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/tool-reference/3d-analyst/skyline-barrier.htm