Scenario-specific elevation layers in ArcGIS Urban

[JakobEngvall]

It would be great if you could use different elevation layers for different scenarios of an project/plan. While editing terrain might be a bit too complex for ArcGIS Urban, different terrain is something normal in scenarios in CityEngine.  As an user it would be expected that different scenarios would be able to contain different terrains/elevation layers in ArcGIS Urban as well, but the editing of the elevation layer might take place in ArcGIS Pro or CityEngine. It would be very useful for a city planner. 

[Till_Schmid]

Thank you for this idea, @JakobEngvall!

I'd like to point out that projects already support custom elevation layers per scenario. In more detail, this is possible by uploading a "scenario design visualization" or "scenario design context" web scene. Those layers can be defined in the scenario settings. If the web scene contains a terrain layer, the terrain in Urban is automatically adjusted. 

This is currently only possible for projects, not for plans.

[JakobEngvall]

OK thank you! This does not seem to be mentioned in the resources about ArcGIS Urban so if this information could be added it would be helpful. Is there a reason for it to only be available with projects and not plans? 

[Till_Schmid]

Thank you for this note, we will add more information to the documentation.

I am not sure about the reasons why this feature is currently only available for projects. I will keep this idea open and will discuss this request internally. Thanks!

[Till_Schmid]

I quickly checked within our team and there are technical limitations with the procedural building generation that currently prevents us from allowing scenario specific elevation layers for plans.

[JakobEngvall]

OK, thank you @Till_Schmid for the help! This is important info for the user. 

[DominikAllemann]

With the latest June 2024 release, it's now possible to configure scenario-specific elevation layers not only for projects but also for plans.

For projects:

• Add the elevation layer to a web scene.
• Configure that web scene as project scenario context. See the Urban documentation about configuring project scenarios to learn more. 

For plans (new with Urban's June 2024 release): 

• Open the plan scenario settings. 
• Configure a scenario elevation layer for any of the plan's scenarios. See the Configure scenario settings section in the Urban product documentation.