Scene Viewer New Functionality- How to Edit to Upload 3D models in Web Scene?

[Amanda__Huber]

Hello Scene Viewer Team, 

We're very excited for the new capability to upload 3D Models into the scene viewer. We have lots of OBJ files and are excited to test it out. 

I watched your video tutorial in the the ArcGIS Online June 2023 Update announcement but it's uncear how you got to this setting/functionality: 
https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-online/3d-gis/whats-new-in-scene-viewer-june-2023/ 

It seems you need to have an editable scene layer to start(?) 

When we try to create a scene layer from AGOL > Create Item> Scene layer it appears OBJ files aren't supported: 

That being said, we're trying to understand how to get started/set up a layer like to to add our OBJ files too. (Apologies if this is an obvious answer, we're just dabbling into the world of 3D GIS now)

Thanks in advance!

Amanda Huber

[VeronikaLanders]

Hi Bernard,

it is also supported in local scenes for projected coordinate systems. Depending what you would like to do, a local scene is actually the best path during the beta phase as we are aware of some issues with geographical coordinate systems in our beta release.

For larger or more complex models we would be happy if you could share those with us together with their use cases - we are currently evaluating the technical and user experience limits of what we can fully support in terms of size and complexity on the web when moving out of beta while not limiting our users arbitrarily based on file size only.

I would love to hear more about your use case, especially around your requirement for switching planes. Please feel free to send me a direct message to continue this conversation or if you happen to go to the User Conference I'm sure @ArnoFiva will be happy to meet with you.

Best,
Veronika

[JoeEastman1]

For those of us without Pro, we are kind of stuck and not able to use this new functionality. The process for getting a 3D Object enabled feature class out of Pro seems straight forward. But without that .zip file of the FGDB those without Pro are helpless.

Because the process of creating a blank 3D Object enabled feature class is so trivial, it seems that at the least perhaps Esri could share a sample .zip file of the FGDB with everything we need to upload to AGOL. Then we could publish the scene layer no problem and start using this functionality. Is it possible to get a very simple file we can use to upload and get started? I've scoured the internet for something like this but came up empty handed.

[VeronikaLanders]

Hi Joe,

thanks for reaching out.

Support for a ready to use workflow through ArcGIS Online is on our roadmap this year. However, we are happy to support you exploring this topic already while it is still in beta. Please send me a direct message to discuss your requirements and we can provide an appropriate workaround until the full workflow is possible.

Best,
Veronika

[RossFindlayCOC]

Is this still available in AGO? Since Upgrade, I can't edit my scene layer.

[VeronikaLanders]

Hi Ross, and all others following this new functionality

with the latest release we continue in beta for editing scene layers and are working on improving spatial reference support. This means we recommend using WGS84 when working on the globe (in global scenes) and only local scenes for editing in a projected coordinate system (including WebMercator). We currently do not plan to support Web Mercator for editing in global scenes but note that WGS84 scene layers work well together with WebMercator basemaps on the globe.

Please send me a direct message to investigate your specific case together and ensure a good way forward for your project.

Best,
Veronika

[dkutkevicius_hb]

Hello everyone,

I have noticed that post ArcGIS Online update this functionality is no longer working, at least for me. Can anyone confirm that this is still working?

Just now I have recreated GDB using provided guide. Published feature layer can not be added to the scene, no error appears, but the layer never completes loading. I have tried global and local scenes, I have also tried to create 3D-OFL's in projected (web mercator) and geographic (wgs84) coordinate systems, but they both did not work.

@VeronikaLanders, any ideas what might be wrong? I am attaching my zip file for anyone to test this. 

[VeronikaLanders]

Sounds unexpected. I'll direct message you and we'll take a look. Thanks for letting us know.

[kristian_inCitu]

Hello!
I noticed this also. When I try to add the Feature Layer the loading never completes. It has this error message in browser console:
details : undefined message : "Unsupported geometry type mesh" name : "feature layer view 3d:unsupported-geometry-type"
Tried with different models but the error is the same.
@VeronikaLanders 

Thanks

[VeronikaLanders]

Hi Kristian

This looks like you are trying to load the associated feature layer directly, rather than its scene layer. The new functionality is based on the 3D object scene layer with additional editing capabilities (through its associated feature layer).

Unfortunately, there is currently a bug that it seems like you could add the feature layer from the item browser in Scene Viewer which is not supported. This has been fixed in the upcoming release.

Please let me me know if that resolves your problem.

Best,
Veronika

[JoeEastman1]

One enhancement I'd like to suggest is this. When viewing a 3D model with features from a feature layer placed inside that 3D model, you cannot select the features if you are clicking "through" the 3D model. Say for example you scan a room (floors, walls, ceiling etc) and you place features inside that room. You can see the features, because you can see through the backside of the mesh (3D dollhouse effect). But, you can't select the features because the 3D model is "in the way", if that makes sense. I'd like the user's click to be able to select any active features like we typically can on a map where all features under the click are selected.