Creating 3D trees

[KaitlinONeill]

Hi all!

I'm trying to create 3D trees with known heights and canopy radiuses in ArcGIS Pro, but have been running into some issues. 

So far I have my 2D points plotted, height and radiuses in my data table, and buffered polygons based on my radius values. Someone suggested I convert the polygons to rasters to give them z values but I would ideally like to maintain the 3D tree symbology, as I am converting it to a global scene and it would be more representationally accurate. 

Surely there's an easier way to go about it, but I haven't been able to figure it out yet. Any help or advice is much appreciated!

Thanks!

Kaitlin

[Anonymous User · Accepted solution]

Hi Kaitlin,

Does the Preset Layer for Realistic Trees sound like what you're looking for? Generally, it's looking for a field with genus and species as well as what you already have (height and radius), but it may work without that. Here's the documentation on the Preset Layers:

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/help/mapping/layer-properties/preset-layers.htm

To add the points as a Preset Layers, click the "Add Preset" dropdown from the Map tab and select Realistic or Thematic Trees.

I'm hoping that works!

Best,

Lauren

[KaitlinONeill]

Hi Lauren, 

That's worked perfectly, thanks so much! I didn't realise it was an option at first, as I was working with the 2D map and it only shows up once you're in the 3D map.

 Thanks again,

Kaitlin

[Ed_]

@Anonymous User,  In the link provided, it requires width, is that the same as radius, also does it require the height and radius to be in specific units?

[Ed_]

@Anonymous User  Also height = ZTOP right?

[Ed_]

@Anonymous User also how do you define radius/width? Because width or radius (or whatever one may call) of a tree it is not perfectly circular?

[ArthurCrawford01]

To get an average width, the Trees From Lidar tool in ArcGIS Online measures the pixels that the tree has.   It uses the pixel size and number to estimate the crown area size and then estimate the crown diameter from that, if it was a perfect circle.   It's not perfect, but reasonable way to get the est. crown diameter.

Arthur Crawford - Esri

[DougBrowning]

Has any one tied this to USDA plant codes instead?  That would be cool.

My other issue is we do transects.  We log the start and end GPS of the transect and then we take heights every 250 cm.  Anyone ever tried to convert something like this?  Liner or something.

Thanks for any ideas.

[DougBrowning]

Bump on adding plant codes to this.  Common names are too subjective.  Also finding Ponderosa Pine is not on the list which is super common.

thanks

[ArthurCrawford01]

In the 3D Basemap Solution there is several tree extraction processes and instructions to make 3D that is updated on a regular basis.  In ArcGIS Online, there is a tool called Trees from Lidar that uses NAIP and Lidar to extract trees with Crown Diameter and Tree Height.   There is also a Tree Detection Deep Learning model to detect trees (https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=4af356858b1044908d9204f8b79ced99).