Performing viewshed analysys like in Google Earth

[JaimeGonzalez1]

Hi all

I am new to ArcGIS Pro. I was wondering if I can perform a viewshed analysys like one can do in Google Earth, i.e. by selecting a point on the basemap manually and clicking on some sort of 'perform viewshed' button.

From what I've seen so far on the app, in order to perform a viewshed I have to input databases and do all sorts of little things I don't yet understand, but I imagine there must be a simpler way.

Thanks for your time

Jaime

[DavidPike · Accepted solution]

I think you can do this in a Scene - Exploratory analysis tools—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

[JaimeGonzalez1]

Hi David

That seems to be what I'm looking for, but when I click on the 'Exploratory 3D Analysis' button in the 'Analysis' pane, I only get the 'Object Detection' option, but not the 'line of sight' or 'view dome' options.

Do you know how to fix this?

Thanks for your time

[DavidPike]

have you got an elevation source added in your Scene or 2D map? 

[JaimeGonzalez1]

I do not. Do you know how I can do that? My ultimate goal is to perform a viewshed analysis of a large area in Asturias, Spain. I would use Google Earth but it only allows for one observer.

[DavidPike]

I think you can add an elevation surface in Pro from ArcGISOnline, have you searched for any elevation data?

Elevation Surfaces in ArcGIS Pro 2.2 (esri.com)

Or I believe if you create a new scene, it's automagically added.

You could also download some data such as SRTM but I don't think it's necessary.

[JaimeGonzalez1]

Hi David

As you can see on the screen capture attached, I have created a viewshed using the layer "locate_feature_class_1" as the observer points. I created this layer by locating 5 points using the 'locate' tool and then right-clicking on each point and adding each point to "locate_feature_class_1". You can see the 5 purple points on the image.

When I carry out a viewshed however, the tool only seems to be performing the viewshed on one of these points. As you can see, the attribute table only shows one row, when in theory it should show at least 1 row for each observer point (so there should be at least 5 rows, and preferably many more which allow me to see what can be seen by different combinations of observer points)

Do you know what I may be doing wrong / how I can get a viewshed for 5 observer points?

If it is any use, I used this youtube video to guide me in creating the viewshed. For the guy in the video, the viewshed actually works with more than 1 observer point - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRqnRcZ-ajQ

Thanks for your time

[DavidPike]

Have you saved the edits on the input points? Seems to be a warning message on the tool.  Also not sure which viewshed tool you're using, I don't see similar tool parameters on my 2.7 version.

Also look at the help for 'Viewshed' and 'Observer Points' they are separate tools and both create a raster output.

I've not done any visibility analysis in quite some time so I'm a bit out-of-the-game, and I'm not sure of the polygon output from the tool you're using.  Try to find a demonstration for ArcGIS Pro, and specifically the 3D scene tool you're using - as that ArcMap video is relevant in some cases but a bit outdated really.

I'd also create a new post for this, the way the forum is at the moment is that new replies don't show in the 'recent' listings - greatly reducing the visibility of this post to those who are subscribed to it.