Newbie: Exporting Shapefiles / Accessing Arcscene from Arcmap

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02-09-2012 02:29 PM
RobertThomson1
New Contributor
Hello, all

I am a student and just recently was asked to use ArcMap 10 to create a DEM model using point data. I am currently using the toolbox command "convert point to raster" and want to export a shape file but do not see the option under this menu, it only gives me a Raster Dataset option. Can anyone help me out with this? It is back on the layer menu?

Also, I seem to have some problems accessing ArcScene from ArcMap (i want to import my files there). There is an icon on the 3D Analyst toolbar for it but it seems to be inaccessible.

Thank you
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AlexeyTereshenkov
Regular Contributor III
Hi,

Depending on what data you have and what results you expect to get you'd need to use different tools.

What is the source point data you have? Is it LIDAR? If not, you do not have to use the Point to Raster geoprocessing tool (which you find under the Conversion Tools > To Raster). In case it is LIDAR, then your workflows will be like what you read here:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00q80000006m000000

If you have just some points with Z-data (i.e., elevation attribute for each point feature which is stored in shapefile or maybe a geodatabase), then you can start by taking a look at: 3D Analyst Tools > Raster Interpolation > Natural Neighbor or Topo To Raster tools. In this case, you would get a raster output of your elevation surface.

Another alternative is to use Terrain datasets. You can read more about them here: http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Exercise_8_Creating_and_using_a_terrai...


In order to enable the 3D Analyst toolbar, you have to enable the 3D Analyst extension: Customize > Extensions and select 3D Analyst. This is applied to any extension you are supposed to use later on (including tools from the ArcToolbox).
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