What's new in the 3D Analyst toolbox

With the introduction of the LAS dataset and increased demand for additional 3D analytical operations, the 3D Analyst toolbox at 10.1 features eight new tools along with numerous performance and functionality improvements to existing tools.

Toolset changes

Several new toolsets have been introduced at 10.1 to accommodate new tools and reorganize existing ones into logical groupings that emphasize their utility.

• 3D Features toolset: two new tools were added and several tools that previously resided in this toolset were moved to the newly created Visibility toolset.
• Conversion toolset: includes the new From LAS Dataset toolset that contains the LAS Dataset To TIN tool.
• Data Management toolset: contains tools for creating and managing terrain, TIN, and LAS datasets.
• Functional Surface toolset: includes the new Intersect 3D Line With Surface and Stack Profile tools.
• Triangulated Surface toolset: renamed from Terrain and TIN Surface due to the LAS dataset support provided by the Locate Outliers tool.
• Visibility toolset: contains the new Sun Shadow Volume tool along with several existing tools that previously resided in other toolsets:
  • Construct Sight Lines
  • Line Of Sight
  • Observer Points
  • Skyline
  • Skyline Barrier
  • Skyline Graph
  • Viewshed

New tools

Toolset	Tool	Description
3D Features toolset	Buffer 3D	Creates a 3D buffer around point or line features.
	Enclose Multipatch	Creates closed multipatch features in the output feature class using the features of the input multipatch.
Conversion > From LAS Dataset toolset	LAS Dataset to TIN	Exports a triangulated irregular network (TIN) from a LAS dataset.
Data Management > LAS Dataset toolset	Change LAS Class Codes	Modifies the class code values of LAS files referenced by a LAS dataset.
	Set LAS Class Codes Using Features	Classifies data points in LAS files referenced by a LAS dataset using point, line, and polygon features.
Functional Surface toolset	Intersect 3D Line With Surface	Computes the geometric intersection of 3D line features and one or more surfaces to return the intersection as segmented line features and points.
	Stack Profile	Creates a table and optional graph denoting the profile of line features over one or more multipatch, raster, TIN, or terrain surfaces.
Visibility toolset	Sun Shadow Volume	Creates closed volumes that model shadows cast by each feature using sunlight for a given date and time.

Improved tools

Several tools were enhanced to provide a more robust experience with airborne lidar data in the LAS format by supporting the LAS dataset as an input surface:

• Add Surface Information
• Interpolate Shape
• Locate Outliers
• Line of Sight
• Skyline

Additional tool changes include the following:

Tool	Improvement
Add Surface Information	Supports polygon as an input feature, thereby allowing the summary of surface characteristics by area.
Construct Sight Lines	OBSRVR_OID field added to the attribute table of the output feature class which helps identify the unique ID of the observer point used for constructing the sight lines.
Difference 3D	An optional output table can be created to establish the link between each feature in the difference output, the originating feature, and the subtraction feature used to create the output. This table could be used to establish a relationship class that maps to the attributes of each contributing feature class.
Import 3D Files	An optional anchor point feature can be provided to align the imported 3D models within a given coordinate system.
Intersect 3D (3D Analyst)	Provides for the specification of the output geometry, thereby offering a wider range of applications for the tool. The available options are: SOLID—Creates a closed multipatch representing the overlapping volumes between input features. This is the default. SURFACE—Creates a multipatch surface representing shared faces between input features. LINE—Creates a polyline feature class representing shared edges between input features.
LAS to Multipoint	A new option has been added for specifying that input folders will be recursively scanned to read LAS files in their subdirectories, thereby allowing one parent folder to be entered as an input in lieu of numerous child folders.
Line of Sight	OBSTR_MPID field added to the attribute table of the output feature class which identifies the unique ID of a multipatch obstruction.
Point File Information	A new option has been added that returns an improved point spacing estimate for LAS files.