Surface Volume (3D Analyst)

ArcGIS Pro 3.4 | | Help archive

Summary

Calculates the area and volume of the region between a surface and a reference plane.

Illustration

Reference Plane Above; Plane Height intersects surface
Reference Plane Below; Plane Height intersects surface

Usage

  • Apply a Z Factor to ensure the accuracy of volume calculations when the surface Z values are expressed in a different unit of measure than the XY units. Using a Z Factor will not modify the original data. The tool will automatically determine the appropriate Z-factor when the XY and Z coordinate systems are defined.

  • The output text file will store the full path to the surface, the parameters used to generate results, and the calculated area and volume measurements. If the same output file is specified in multiple runs of the tool, the pre-existing records are maintained and the results are appended to the table.

    DatasetPlane HeightReferenceZ FactorArea 2DArea 3DVolume

    C:\data\tin

    100.00

    Above

    1

    15984467.82

    16354331.40

    1886012931.05

    C:\data\raster.tif

    250.5

    Below

    3.28084

    0

    0

    0

    C:\data.gdb\fd\terrain

    1250

    Above

    0.3048

    1854238.36

    1970550.88

    1099221466.89

  • If the region for which surface area and volumetric calculations are desired is defined by a non-rectangular extent, consider creating a polygon to delineate the boundary of the area of interest, then use the Polygon Volume tool to determine the calculations for the region between the plane defined by the polygon and a given surface.

  • A raster surface is evaluated using the extent of the center point of each cell, as opposed to the extent of the entire cell area. The resulting analysis will decrease the data area of the raster by half a cell relative to the data area displayed for the raster.

Parameters

LabelExplanationData Type
Input Surface

The raster, TIN, or terrain surface that will be processed.

Mosaic Layer; Raster Layer; Terrain Layer; TIN Layer
Output Text File
(Optional)

A comma-delimited ASCII text file containing the area and volume calculations. If the file already exists, the new results will be appended to the file.

File
Reference Plane
(Optional)

The direction from the reference plane for which to calculate the results.

  • Above the PlaneVolume and area calculations will represent the region of space between the specified plane height and the portions of the surface that are above the plane. This is the default.
  • Below the PlaneVolume and area calculations will represent the region of space between the specified plane height and portions of the surface that are below the plane.
String
Plane Height
(Optional)

The Z value of the plane that will be used to calculate area and volume.

Double
Z Factor
(Optional)

The factor by which z-values will be multiplied. This is typically used to convert z linear units to match x,y linear units. The default is 1, which leaves elevation values unchanged. This parameter is not available if the spatial reference of the input surface has a z-datum with a specified linear unit.

Double
Pyramid Level Resolution
(Optional)

The z-tolerance or window-size resolution of the terrain pyramid level that will be used. The default is 0, or full resolution.

Double

Environments

Licensing information

  • Basic: Requires 3D Analyst
  • Standard: Requires 3D Analyst
  • Advanced: Requires 3D Analyst

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