Add a viewshed layer to a scene

You can use the Viewsheds tool to perform 3D visibility analysis from an observer to an area in a scene. Viewsheds determine the visible area from an observer point and are often used in urban planning. For example, you can see which areas will be visible from an office in a building. The green areas are visible from the observer; the red areas are occluded.

The visibility between the observer and an area is calculated using the currently displayed content in the view, including ground, meshes, and 3D objects, such as buildings or trees.

Create a viewshed layer

To create a viewshed layer, complete the following steps:

1. Click Add Layers on the Designer toolbar.

2. Click Viewsheds to open the Viewsheds pane.

3. Click in the scene to place an observer point and click again to set the distance and direction of the viewshed.

4. Optionally, click Settings and click the Enable tooltips toggle button to turn on tooltips and use then to place the observer point. Press Tab to manually enter tooltip values for the observer.

   The Longitude/X, Latitude/Y, and Z values and Elevation mode display.

   • Longitude–X or longitude coordinate value

   • Latitude–Y or latitude coordinate value

   • Z–Elevation value

   • Elevation mode–Determines how the Z value is interpreted. Choose one of the following modes:

     • Absolute–Observer is placed at an absolute elevation above sea level (default).

     • On the ground–Observer is aligned to the ground and elevation value is ignored.

     • Relative to ground–Observer is placed at an elevation relative to the ground or mesh layer.

     • Relative to scene–Observer is aligned to extruded polygons, 3D object layers, or building layers.

5. Do any of the following:

   1. Drag any of the handles to move, resize, or rotate the selected viewshed.

   2. Press Delete to remove the selected viewshed.

   3. Edit or delete another viewshed by clicking to select it.

   4. Click Add to add more viewsheds.

   5. Click Stop anytime to stop adding viewsheds.

   6. Click Clear all to remove all viewsheds in the layer.

6. Click Cancel to close the Viewsheds pane without applying the changes.

7. Click Done to apply the changes.

   A new layer with the newly created viewsheds is added to the layer list in the Layer Manager pane.

Modify an existing viewshed layer

To modify an existing viewshed layer, complete the following steps:

1. Click Layer Manager to open the Layer Manager pane.

2. Select the viewshed layer or click Options and click Edit Viewsheds to open the Viewsheds pane.

3. Do any of the following:

   1. Turn on the Enable tootips toggle button and press Tab to manually enter tooltip values.

   2. Click the handles of a viewshed to select it and drag any of the them to move, resize, or rotate the viewshed.

   3. Click a viewshed to select it and press Delete to remove it.

   4. Click Add to add more viewsheds.

   5. Click Stop to stop adding viewsheds.

   6. Click Clear all to remove all viewsheds in the layer.

4. Click Cancel to close the Viewsheds pane without applying the changes.

5. Click Done to apply the changes.

Tip:

Press the Ctrl key to temporarily disable snapping to the orange visual cues. Release the Ctrl key to enable snapping again.