Scene exporting to image instead of vectors in SVG/AIX

[DanielMarkbreiter]

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?

[JeremyWright]

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. 

[GraceTortorici_]

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.

[JeremyWright]

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.

[ChadSo1]

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. 

[ChrisWesson]

@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.