Geoprocessing tools for terrain datasets

Geoprocessing tools allow you to create, conduct surface analysis on, modify, and convert terrain datasets.

Conversion tools

There are three geoprocessing tools associated with conversion of terrain datasets. The following table describes the geoprocessing tools designed for converting a terrain dataset to either araster, TIN dataset, or point feature class.

Tool	Description
Terrain To Points	Converts a terrain dataset to a point or multipoint feature class
Terrain To Raster	Converts a terrain to a raster
Terrain To TIN	Converts a terrain to a TIN

Conversion tools

Functional Surface tools

There are four geoprocessing tools associated with functional surface analysis using terrain datasets. The following table describes the geoprocessing tools designed to work directly with a terrain dataset.

Tool	Description
Add Surface Information	Adds surface-related information to a given feature class
Interpolate Shape	Interpolates z-values for features based on a surface
Line Of Sight	Creates a line feature class containing visibility information
Surface Volume	Calculates the area and volume of a surface above or below a given reference plane

Functional Surface tools

Triangulated Surface tools

Triangulated Surface tools allow you to create feature classes that extract 3D information from terrain or TIN surfaces. Using the Terrain and TIN Surface toolset, you can determine patterns that are not readily apparent in the original surface, such as slope and aspect.

Tool	Description
Interpolate Polygon To Multipatch	Creates surface-conforming multipatch features from a polygon feature class using a raster, terrain, or TIN surface.
Locate Outliers	Identifies anomalous elevation measurements from terrain, TIN, or LAS datasets that are beyond a defined range of elevation values or are inconsistent with the surrounding surface.
Polygon Volume	Calculates the volume and surface area between a polygon and terrain or TIN surface.
Surface Aspect	Calculates the aspect, or direction of the steepest downhill slope, of each triangle in a TIN or terrain dataset and writes the output as a polygon feature class.
Surface Contour	Creates contour lines derived using a terrain or TIN surface.
Surface Difference	Calculates the volumetric difference between two surface models stored as either a triangulated irregular networks (TIN) or terrain dataset.
Surface Slope	Creates polygon features from the triangle slope values of a TIN or terrain dataset.

Terrain and TIN Surface tools

Visibility tools

One tool in the Visibility toolset accepts Terrain datasets as input.

Tool	Description
Skyline	Generates a line or multipatch feature class containing the results from a skyline silhouette analysis.

3D Features tool