🆕Adding additional vector data

Whilst you might be happy to simply view integrated meshes within ArcGIS Pro, it’s more likely that you’ll want to add additional contextual data, either from standard mapping products or your own project-specific resources. ArcGIS Pro is well-equipped to support this.

Before getting started, should you be new to using the 3D ‘Scene’ mode, it’s important to understand the differences between the ‘2D Layers’ and ‘3D Layers’ sections that are found within the Contents pane of Scene projects. Although their titles initially appear obvious, their actual function isn’t quite what you might expect.

2D/3D Data

All spatial data used with ArcGIS Pro will have a dimensionality – either 2D or 3D. This is exclusively defined by format of geometry column. As such:

• If a feature has only ‘X’ and ‘Y’ ordinates within its geometry, but has a ‘Z’ ordinate included as a separate attribute, then this is still considered to be a ‘2D layer’ by ArcGIS Pro.

• In contrast, if a geometry includes ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ ordinates, but ‘Z’ values are all set to zero, then ArcGIS Pro still treats this as being a 3D layer.

The '2D Layers' section

The ‘2D Layers’ section of the contents pane is used when you wish to drape vector data over a surface (which may be an integrated mesh). This is something that you’d typically wish to accomplish when working with 2D data. However, 3D data dragged into ‘2D Layers’ will be treated as if it were 2D and will thus be draped in the same way.

The '3D Layers' section

The ‘3D Layers’ section of the Contents pane is used when you want to render data in 3D space in accordance with its 3D geometry. In fact, both 3D and 2D layers are accepted here, with 2D layers assigned zero-value ‘Z’ ordinates.