Uploading a 3D building file in ArcGIS Online

[Jason_Huntowski_USAHuntowski]

Hello,

I am brand new to ArcGIS overall. I am currently using ArcGIS Online to create maps and scenes for a project I am working on. I am trying to upload a 3D building file, but cannot seem to figure out where to do this in ArcGIS Online. I have read a lot of articles and blog posts and it seems like I may need ArcGIS Pro to do this? Is this the case? Or is there a way to upload 3D buildings into ArcGIS Online directly?

The files I have the option to use include Cesium, OBJ, DSM, Orthophoto, Pointcloud and SLPK. They are all sample files of a particular area. They seem to be downloaded in ZIP format. I am not sure if the file needs to be downloaded locally to my machine or if the URL on the AWS site can be used and the upload can be picked up from there.

Sorry for the very basic question, I am new and still trying to get used to the community features. Thanks for any info!

Jason

[KellyGerrow · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You can publish an SLPK directly to ArcGIS Online without ArcGIS Pro. This article has details on different ways of publishing scene layers.

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-online/3d-gis/how-to-publish-scene-layers-in-arcgis...

Also tagging, the famous Russell Roberts‌

-Kelly

[Jason_Huntowski_USAHuntowski]

Kelly,

Thank you so much for your reply. I have gone through the article you linked and I guess I am missing something. I did read the section titled "Publishing Scene Layers in ArcGIS Online" but in that instruction set, it talks about uploading a zipped GDB or Shapefile. I attempted to follow the instructions using the zipped SLPK I had, but it gave me a format error. I am guessing the GDB and Shapefile are not the same format as the SLPK? As I mentioned in the original post, the only file options I have for download are Cesium, OBJ, DSM, Orthophoto, Pointcloud and SLPK. It could be my ignorance on file types here. Are any of those that I just listed considered a gdb or shapefile?

Sorry if these seem like very basic questions. I am really new to ArcGIS and it seems like if you are making a map or a scene showing map features or points, it is relatively intuitive, but adding 3D building seems to be a bit more involved and there doesn't seem to be a load of instruction around it. Unless I am just struggling with the lingo which is baring my search for relevant reading.

Thanks again,

Jason

[RussRoberts]

Hey Jason,

You wont need to zip the slpk, that is the a scene layer package similar to tile layer package(tpk) you can upload these file types directly to Online through My Content Add Item or you can use ArcGIS Pro Share Package tool which will as well upload the scene layer package to Online. 

Russ

[Jason_Huntowski_USAHuntowski]

Hi Russ,

Thank you for the response. I found out that the file I was attempting to upload, that said it was an SLPK was not. Not sure why they had it tagged that way, but anyway. I found a real SLPK file and uploaded it without issue. Although, it took pretty long to upload as it was a 3d model of part of Seattle.

I was wondering if I could ask you one more question. Could you tell me what the advantage of ArcGIS Pro is over just uploading directly into ArcGIS Online? I am guessing Pro has a host of features for building that Online does not?

Thanks,

Jason

[RussRoberts]

Both ArcGIS Online and Pro support both support large uploads which came in this recent release

• ArcGIS Online has improved how files are uploaded through your browser, significantly decreasing the time it takes to add or update files in your organization. Additionally, the 1 GB file upload size limit has been removed. You can now upload files up to 200 GB in size.

When using ArcGIS Online you will be uploading individual layers and using Scene Viewer to build the web scene. With Pro 2.1 and up you can create your web scene, scene layers and other supported layers with the one click publishing from Pro and sharing a web scene and have all of your layers configured to Online. The web scene and layers your publish can still be further configured and viewed in Scene Viewer. Then you can take your web scenes authored in Pro or Scene Viewer and go ahead and create an out of the box 3D web app with our templates or WAB apps or use that scene in the 4.x JSAPI.

*Pro 2.2 also just released and created hosted elevation layers is also easier now when publishing to Online.

[Jason_Huntowski_USAHuntowski]

Kelly and Russ,

Thank you so much for the information and your time and patience answering my newbie questions. I am very new to ESRI and ArcGIS, but plan on eventually becoming as much of an SME as possible. I appreciate that my low level questions were taken seriously and answered with such professionalism. I am happy to see that ESRI has a great community forum with great people. It is going to help me get to where I want to be with the tool.

Thanks,

Jason

[RobinDiSalvo1]

I would like to add one additional question to this.  Can a Creator user type role create 2D and 3D maps?

Thanks,

Robin