topic Create an elevation profile to scale? in 3D Questions

Create an elevation profile to scale?

AdamInglis — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 05:06:26 GMT

I'm trying to create an elevation profile in 3D Analyst to scale (1:500 to be specific). The profile graph function does almost everything I need, except export a profile to scale. I can eye ball it and get the x/y porportions almost the same, but that is not good enough for my purposes.

I'm generating 10-20 of these profiles and they need to overlay accurately on top of one another. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

-Adam

Re: Create an elevation profile to scale?

TimothyHales — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:19:29 GMT

Adam,

Currently you cannot create a profile graph to scale. There is an enhancement request currently logged with support. You might look to post this idea on the Ideas page - http://ideas.arcgis.com That might help bring some additional support from the community concerning this functionality.

I did find some additional resources that may be help. Check these out:

http://mappingcenter.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=ask.answers&q=37
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2005/1428/thoms/index.html

-Timothy

Re: Create an elevation profile to scale?

JakubSisak — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:22:53 GMT

I'm trying to create an elevation profile in 3D Analyst to scale (1:500 to be specific). The profile graph function does almost everything I need, except export a profile to scale. I can eye ball it and get the x/y porportions almost the same, but that is not good enough for my purposes.

I'm generating 10-20 of these profiles and they need to overlay accurately on top of one another. Any suggestions?
-Adam

Its not difficult to do this programatically but I am not sure if anyone is sharing an add-in that can do this. (I made one but have no manual written for it as well as no intention to share anything without the MVP structure in place)

There is an inexpensive extension by A-Prime software for ArcGIS (around $400- $500) that does this well. They offer a free full-featured trial. http://www.aprimesoftware.com/

There are other 3rd party extensions that are extremely sophisticated and offer the functionality to create geological cross sections including inclined, slices, etc. etc. but those are 1000s of $ and might be an overkill for what you need.

Re: Create an elevation profile to scale?

JakubSisak — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:25:12 GMT

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2005/1428/thoms/index.html

Timothy, I could not make this work in the past... Has anyone else tried?

Re: Create an elevation profile to scale?

AdamInglis — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 18:20:20 GMT

I contacted Evan Thoms directly ethoms@usgs.gov and he sent me a new toolbox he's building for ArcGIS10. I was able to use the Create surface profiles script he wrote to generate multiple profiles in batch. In conjunction with Data Driven pages I pumped out everything with very little manual work. Thanks Evan.

Re: Create an elevation profile to scale?

MatthewGerber1 — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:42:34 GMT

I have a work around i have used in the past.

Where i:

1)create a linear line
2)split it up into point every 10 meters
3)Calc Z value on points
4) Linear reference points to line to get M value
5) Take the event table an plot it in a projected data frame. except instead of using X and Y use M and Z

And there you have it, a to scale long section. You can overlay a number of lines on top of each other.

To add vertical exageration add a step in between 3 & 4. Where you multiply the Z value by the vertical exageration you want.

Re: Create an elevation profile to scale?

ColinGillies — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:33:57 GMT

Im trying to follow your steps in order to create a profile that is to scale. I am having problems linear referencing the point file to the line in order to get the M value. This may be an easy thing to do but I have never used the function. How should I go about that?

Re: Create an elevation profile to scale?

CarrieDavis — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:45:19 GMT

Hi,

You may try adapting this KB article for this purpose.
http://support.esri.com/en/knowledgebase/techarticles/detail/39229

Re: Create an elevation profile to scale?

PONSSylvain — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 21:11:41 GMT

Hi,

As anyone figure out a way to do profile graphs to scale directly in Arcgis, or, with a toolbox in Arcgis 10.2?

I'll be very interested in something like this.