Understanding 3D illumination in ArcScene

Every 3D view needs a light source to illuminate it. You can configure this light source to achieve different effects within the view.

For 3D faces, such as multipatches or extruded polygons, sun lighting will apply shading to the surfaces of the 3D shape.

In ArcScene, only spot lighting is available. You can set the azimuth and altitude of the light source, as well as the amount of contrast, used in rendering the illumination of the scene. The illumination properties for a scene will apply shading to all the areal features, including 3D faces and surface data. You can control whether individual layers are shaded by turning shading on or off on the Rendering tab of the Layer Properties dialog box.

Shading for TINs is a hillshade illumination option on the Layer Properties dialog box, Symbology tab. Shading can be enabled individually for each layer in the ArcScene document.

Shown here is the ArcScene Scene Properties dialog box and the Illumination tab settings.