Geoprocessing tools for TIN surfaces

Geoprocessing tools allow you to create, conduct surface analysis on, modify, and convert TIN surfaces. The following lists the tools that are available through the ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension for use with TIN surface models.

3D Features tools

One tool in the 3D Features toolset accepts TIN surfaces as input.

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

3D Features tool

TIN Conversion toolset overview

The TIN Conversion tools allow you to convert TIN surfaces to raster surface models or to the vector features that they are composed of. These conversions allow different types of analysis, show different interpretations, or extract features from TINs that you can use to enhance your analysis results or visualization in 3D.

Converting between raster and TIN formats allows you to employ the benefits of each while modeling the same surface. For example, use a TIN to model a surface if you have features, such as lines or polygons, that you want to use to enforce natural features, such as ridges or valleys, or clip a TIN to a study area. Convert this TIN to a raster using the natural neighbors interpolation option to preserve the linear features in the output raster. You'll now be able to use spatial operators on the raster that may not have been available for the TIN. In addition, the TIN-to-raster conversion is a smoothing process, so contours you generate on the raster are smoother than they would be as a TIN.

Geoprocessing Tool	Description
TIN Domain	Creates a line or polygon feature class representing the interpolation zone of a triangulated irregular network (TIN) dataset.
TIN Edge	Creates 3D line features using the triangle edges of a triangulated irregular network (TIN) dataset.
TIN Line	Exports breaklines from a triangulated irregular network (TIN) dataset to a 3D line feature class.
TIN Node	Exports the nodes of a triangulated irregular network (TIN) dataset to a point feature class.
TIN Polygon Tag	Creates polygon features using tag values in a triangulated irregular network (TIN) dataset.
TIN To Raster	Creates a raster by interpolating its cell values from the elevation of the input TIN at the specified sampling distance.
TIN Triangle	Exports triangle faces from a triangulated irregular network (TIN) dataset to a polygon feature class and provides slope, aspect, and optional attributes of hillshade and tag value for each triangle.

TIN Conversion tools

TIN Management toolset overview

Tool	Description
Copy TIN	Creates a copy of a triangulated irregular network (TIN) dataset.
Create TIN	Creates a triangulated irregular network (TIN) dataset.
Delineate TIN Data Area	Redefines the data area, or interpolation zone, of a triangulated irregular network (TIN) based on its triangle edge length.
Edit TIN	Adds features from one or more input feature classes that define the surface area of a triangulated irregular network (TIN).

TIN Management tools

Triangulated Surface toolset

Triangulated Surface toolset tools allow you to create feature classes that extract 3D information from triangulated surfaces. Using the Triangulated 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.

Triangulated Surface tools