topic Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX in 3D Mapping Questions

Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

DanielMarkbreiter — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 04:55:03 GMT

Issue

When exporting a global scene from ArcGIS Pro to AIX/SVG using the Export Map tool, it outputs an image. The scene has only one layer, the World Continents vector layer from the Living Atlas. The World Continents layer does not include any transparent styling, only a simple fill. You can see from the image attached that when the AIX file is opened in Illustrator, it only has an Image layer as does an exported SVG.

Troubleshooting

As mentioned above, I made sure that the World Continents layer does not have any styling past a simple fill to ensure ArcGIS Pro wasn't going to rasterize it. I tried exporting in both SVG and AIX to see if that would alter the output, and it does not.

Question

How can I export 2D vector layers in a scene to SVG/AIX as vectors instead of an image? Does ArcGIS Pro currently support this functionality and if so, what is the best workflow?

Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

FrancisHourigan1 — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 23:25:45 GMT

I am having this same issue...

Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

Janus — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 04:18:06 GMT

Same issue

Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

GraceTortorici_ — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 23:12:32 GMT

@SarahBell tagging you since others are having the same issue/request.

Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

SarahBell — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 23:55:58 GMT

Exporting vector data layers from an ArcGIS Pro scene for use in a vector editor (Illustrator or otherwise) are flattened as image layers. This is the case for all exports, and not exclusive to AIX file types as far as I know. Tagging @JeremyWright to see if he has insight on this.

Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

JeremyWright — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 00:07:14 GMT

@SarahBell is correct - an ArcGIS Pro scene view isn't really "vector" anymore in the Adobe Illustrator sense. It's a picture of the scene. Can you give us more info about your use case or why you may want to receive the _scene_ view as an editable vector in a 2d vector editing environment like Adobe Illustrator?

Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

GraceTortorici_ — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 00:51:00 GMT

Hi Jeremy, I have been in contact with Sarah and provided them with my use case. For example, applications like Rhino can export their 3D features/layers to vectors that are editable in Illustrator.

Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

DanielMarkbreiter — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 17:20:18 GMT

@JeremyWright @SarahBell Is this something that should be submitted as an Idea? Certainly it's not technically unfeasible to convert a Scene of vector data to a "vector" in the Adobe Illustrator sense (or in any sense that involves an array of 3 dimensional points) as opposed to an export of an image?

Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

JeremyWright — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 19:54:52 GMT

It's a great idea conceptually, but getting it to work technically is the truly tricky part within the bounds of what is possible in a 2D vector graphics application like Adobe Illustrator. There's no Z in 2D vectors in this sense (it's only what's on top of other things on the page).

While it is possible to sketch over top of an image of a 3D scene (this is akin to "matte" overlays or background techniques used in the film industry) that technique has limitations in that it's not TRUE 3D - scenes which may have some interplay of depth between items will readily show this - imagine a street that passes behind a building, or trees on the nearer side of a street for example.

If you find that you frequently need to restyle 3d scenes, at this time I would suggest authoring these styling changes in ArcGIS Pro, and then outputting to AIX to finish the composition in the 2d space.

Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

GraceTortorici_ — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 00:32:17 GMT

Can you please offer suggestions on how to make these styling changes in ArcGIS Pro? I'm not even able to change the line weight. Example below of how I tried to change the line weight to 100:

Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

JeremyWright — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 00:54:48 GMT

Grace,

Unfortunately what you're requesting (make edges "thicker" on an extruded polygon) isn't possible in ArcGIS Pro. This is documented in https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/3.1/help/mapping/layer-properties/unsupported-symbol-drawing.htm though I believe you should receive a warning in the UI when this happens - I do not see the warning icon on the screenshot you sent.

Edges on a polygon extruded in a scene view are always drawn as 1 pixel wide at this time.

I'll make a note of this as one use case where a larger size is desired.

Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

GraceTortorici_ — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 01:02:11 GMT

Thanks for confirming that! The functionality is extremely limited in ArcGIS Pro to make 3D maps look decent. I would love to just stick to ArcGIS Pro to make nice 3D maps. I am sure there must be a way to be able to export line work from ArcGIS Pro's 3D scenes to AIX/Illustrator since Rhino, Revit, and Sketchup all have this functionality.

Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

JeremyWright — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 21:25:36 GMT

Hi Grace,

My colleague @SarahBell sent me a great example of the workflow involved in taking a drawing in sketchup and importing it into Illustrator for restyling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDCdl7yW_iM

This illustrates what I was saying earlier - the drawing is no longer 3d, it's converted into its 2d form. It also illustrates the volume of work involved after the fact to achieve even small changes in symbology - exporting the drawing multiple times to remove "blocking' features such as the glass, or features that overlap with others such as trees.

While we could consider ways to achieve this workflow in ArcGIS Pro/Maps for Creative Cloud, Pro scenes (unlike sketchup) contain many layer types which are not strictly vector that would greatly complicate even the manual version of the workflow from sketchup.

We will also take this as input in terms of future 3d symbolization requirements.

Thanks for bringing your workflows to our attention - we will definitely continue to take these requests into account for future versions of ArcGIS Pro and Maps for Creative Cloud.

Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

ChadSo1 — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 00:04:06 GMT

I also came here with the same issue. Per Sarah above, Rhino3D is able to flatten 3d vectors and output a 2d vector which I can then use in illustrator.

Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

ChrisWesson — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 00:13:23 GMT

@Jeremy1 so what Rhino3D does is the same as how Autodesk do it, that is to essentially project the 3D objects onto the view (or camera) plane as flattened outlines that can then be exported as 2D vectors.

Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

FrancesHamilton — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 03:36:55 GMT

2026
I used ArcGIS in 2015 and it was absolutely possible to export in vector. A raster image is essentially useless in designing and curating a map -- These complaints are 3 years old. In 2026 I'm working with Adobe Illustrator and with arcGIS Maps for Adobe Creative Cloud and still can't export a vector file for a neighborhood project using personal ArcGIS Pro.

Are there any answers to this?

Re: Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

GraceTortorici_ — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:41:30 GMT

I was told by Esri in 2023 that it isn't possible...Although I won't give up asking.