In ArcGIS Online, an integrated mesh will - by design - override or superseed a ground elevation layer in the Scene Viewer. This is a problem for displaying data that does not have a z-value. ArcGIS Pro has a property to exlude the mesh, but ArcGIS Online's scene viewer does not have this option.
The idea
The idea is to add an 'Exclude From Integrated Mesh' property in Scene Viewer to prevent the integrated mesh from overriding the ground elevation layer.
The problem
The problem this idea solves is the display of features that do not have a z-value. Three basic examples:
- 2D tree data displayed 'on the ground' by a basic 3D model are displayed way in the air instead of on the ground.
- 2D features that should be on the ground, but are below trees, buildings or other objects in the integrated mesh are displayed on top of the mesh.
- 2D polygon features like heat maps are draped over facades of buildings or not shown at all.
And so on. Please find attached three images explaining these examples.
Possible workaround
A possible workaround would be to convert the features without a z-value to features wíth a z-value and then publishing that data. However, that requires the data to be periodically updated. Which not only is more data to keep up-to-date, this also means storing the same data multiple times. Which could all be avoided by adding a property to exclude the integrated mesh as a ground layer.
