Create multipatch or 3D Object features

In the Create Features features pane, templates for multipatch and 3D Object feature layers include tools for creating features by adding and modifying 3D faces or starting with predefined geometry and editing them. The tools and workflow are the same for both geometry types.

Tip:

Paste Special automatically converts a z-aware polygon to a 3D face when you paste it from a polygon feature layer into a multipatch or 3D object feature layer. To convert an existing multipatch feature, copy and paste it into a 3D Object feature layer.

To edit a multipatch or 3D object feature use the Edit Vertices tool . The workflow is the same as the following steps.

Draw a face and extrude it

To start creating a multipatch or 3D object feature, sketch a face using the tools on the multipatch construction toolbar and extrude it by dragging the 3D handle. To enter numeric values, turn on On-screen Constraints on the status bar at the bottom of the scene view.

1. If the current map does not contain a multipatch or 3D object feature layer, add it.
   1. On the View tab, click Catalog Pane , and expand Databases .
   2. Expand the default database or the database containing your data.

      To create a multipatch or 3D object feature class, right-click the database, click New, Feature Class, and choose Multipatch or 3D Object.

   3. Drag the feature class onto the map.

      Tip:

      To verify if the geometry type is a multipatch or a 3D Object, right-click the feature class, and click Properties .

      A feature template with default settings is autogenerated for the new layer.

2. On the Edit tab, set your snapping preferences and show the Create Features pane.
   1. In the Snapping group, enable your snapping preferences.

      Tip:

      You can press and hold Spacebar to temporarily turn snapping off as you sketch a feature.

   2. In the Features group, click Create .
3. In the Create Features pane, choose a feature template and set your attributes values.
   1. Click a multipatch or 3D object feature template.
   2. Click the active template button and type the attributes values you want to apply to the feature.
4. On the feature template toolbar, click Create 3D Geometry .
5. Sketch a 3D face using one of the tools on the multipatch construction toolbar.

   

   • To draw a polygon, click Create 3D Geometry and click the scene to create vertices. To close a polygon face, click the first vertex.

     

     Note:

     Press A to switch between drawing a line and a circular arc. To increase or decrease the number of segments for an arc, press + or - respectively.

   • To draw a circle, click Circle and click once to set the center of the circle. Move the pointer to specify the radius, and click again to finish. To specify a numeric distance, press D and type the value.

     

   • To draw a square or a rectangle, click Rectangle and click to start drawing. Click again to define the first edge, drag the rectangle to specify size, and click to finish. The rectangle is constrained to the line perpendicular to the first edge.

     

     Note:

     When you drag the pointer for the second perpendicular edge, the snapping extension line highlights when its length equals the first edge and forms a square.

   After the first click, multipatch snapping is enabled automatically. An orange square appears near the pointer when a snap agent is active. Line extensions appear as orange dashed lines and actively combine to snap to inferred intersections.

   The following table illustrates how multipatch snapping works.

   Multipatch snap agents

   Global axis or line extension	90 degree	Parallel
   Combined	Midpoint	Vertex

6. Drag the 3D handle vertically and extrude the face.
   • To specify a numeric value, turn on On-screen Constraints, drag the 3D handle along an axis, press the Tab key, and enter the value in the on-screen text box.

   

7. To add additional 3D volumes to the feature, use the same tools to draw a polygon, circle, or rectangle on an existing face and extrude it.

   For example:

   

   Example workflow showing basic multipatch construction techniques

Move a face

To move a face, hover over the face and drag its 3D handle. You can drag a face along a global axis, face normal, face normal projected on the ground plane, and special directions from adjacent faces.

Remove a face

To remove the current face from the feature and create an opening, press Delete. To create a opening in an existing face, draw a face on the existing face and delete it.

Move an edge

To move an edge, hover over the edge and drag its 3D handle. To create a roof, split the face by drawing a split line and dragging the resulting edge. The connected faces update automatically.

Note:

Multipatch feature classes contain the vector geometry of a feature and its descriptive attributes. When you create multipatch features, consider the following:

• A multipatch feature comprises regions (or patches) defining the boundary of a 3D object in a single row in a geodatabase. Patches store texture, color, transparency, and geometric information representing parts of a feature.
• A 3D object feature comprises a defined geographic location with a referenced 3D geometry mesh that can be stored in one or more formats. High-level materials known as physically based rendering (PBR) materials are stored in associated tables.