You have decades of GIS data sitting in a state plane coordinate system. You'd love to view it in 3D -- as a model of construction site phases or a campus walkthrough. Until now, you'd need to either a) transform and republish it in a geographic coordinate system or b) reproject your data at runtime to display it in a global scene of ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps. What if I told you that you could now use that data in the coordinate system of your choosing -- projected or otherwise -- in your 3D app? Well, wonder no longer, because that's exactly what I'm about to tell you!
We're thrilled to announce that with the ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps 300.0 release, developers can now build apps with local scenes. Local scenes allow you to use projected coordinate systems in 3D. In Native Maps SDKs, they also bring in a ton of architectural changes under the hood.
Local scenes have been available in other ArcGIS apps like ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online Web Scenes for a while, but the distinction between local and global scenes can be a little confusing to those unfamiliar with them.
tl;dr: should you choose a local or global scene?
- Use local scenes if you're working with data in a projected coordinate system AND your data type is supported by the current version of Native Maps SDKs (check our Layer Types documentation for .NET, Flutter, Kotlin Qt, or Swift). For example, digital twins, BIM, campus walkthroughs, and other localized representations.
- Use global scenes if your data spans regions, countries, or the whole globe -- or if you want the broadest, most flexible foundation to build from today. For example, mapping flight paths, trade routes, weather patterns, and so on.
If you'd like to read the full article, I'm honored! I'll walk you through the conceptual difference between global and local scenes, where local scenes stand today in Native Maps SDKs, the exciting future of 3D GIS local scenes unlock, and how you can help shape the development roadmap for local scenes.
You can find the full article here: Local or Global Scene? Which Should You Use for Your 3D Native App?
