Get started with 3D Analyst in ArcGIS Pro

Available with 3D Analyst license.

The ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension in ArcGIS Pro provides tools for creating, visualizing, and analyzing GIS data in a three-dimensional (3D) context.

Geoprocessing tools

The ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension toolbox provides a collection of geoprocessing tools that enable a wide variety of analytical, data management, and data conversion operations on surface models and three-dimensional vector data. The toolbox is conveniently organized into toolsets that define the scope of tasks accomplished by the tools they contain.

Surfaces

A 3D surface model is a digital representation of features, either real or hypothetical, in three-dimensional space. Some simple examples of 3D surfaces are a landscape, an urban corridor, gas deposits under the earth, and a network of well depths to determine water table depth. These are all examples of real features, but surfaces could be derived or imaginary.

Raster, TIN, terrain dataset, and LAS datasets are all types of a functional surface. A functional surface is a continuous field of values that may vary over an infinite number of points. For example, points in an area on the earth's surface may vary in elevation, proximity to a feature, or concentration of a particular chemical. Any of these values may be represented on the z-axis in a three-dimensional x,y,z coordinate system, so they are often referred to as z-values.

Enable the ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension

You must enable the ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension before you can work with it in ArcGIS Pro. ArcGIS Pro requires that an administrator of an organization assign software licenses and extensions. Once you have been assigned the ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension, you gain access to the 3D Analyst tools. For more information on ArcGIS Pro licences, see ArcGIS Desktop licensing.

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