Expand Elevation Sources in ArcPro

[MPC_KineticGIS_Department]

Why are LAS, and Terrain Datasets not acceptable formats as an elevation source? Terrain Dataset is an ESRI elevation surface format??? Converting these high resolution datasets to other formats is such a waste of processing time.

Elevation sources

An elevation source contains the data that defines the elevation surface. An elevation surface can have more than one elevation source, and you can combine different types. Local elevation sources can be either a raster that contains elevation information or a TIN dataset. LAS datasets and terrain datasets cannot be used as an elevation source. You can also use an elevation image service as an elevation source or a portal web elevation layer. You can find elevation layers on ArcGIS Online by searching for the keyword elevation. If you use custom image services, make sure you have elevation defined as the service type.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

Not sure I follow since las and terrain datasets aren't exclusively rasters by nature, and a conversion to a raster format would still need to be done.  I suspect the number of options during the conversion process requires some human decision-making.

[MPC_KineticGIS_Department]

Yeah I don't want to convert them to rasters and aggregate the elevation sources. Terrain are great for their scalability and visualization but what is the point if they can't be the elevation source in a 3D scene or view.

The only reason you convert to rasters is for processing ease if you want an actual real representation of the elevation TIN's are much better but bad a scaling that's where the terrain format is great with it essentially being a TIN with Pyramid layers.