Design a 3D local scene

You can use illumination in both maps and scenes to achieve different effects. In maps, you use illumination mainly to make them look more three-dimensional by applying shaded relief or hillshades. A scene, however, needs a light source to illuminate it, and you can configure this light source to achieve different effects within the scene. Having a good understanding of these settings will allow you to add an extra level of quality to your 3D scenes. In this tutorial, you'll use illumination settings, including sun position, shadows, and atmospheric effects; enable the north arrow and on-screen Navigator control; view content in a local and global scene; and work with parallel view mode to display features differently and more effectively.

This tutorial was last tested on November 19, 2025, using ArcGIS Pro 3.6. If you're using a different version of ArcGIS Pro, you may encounter different functionality and results.

Requirements

• ArcGIS Pro (see options for software access)

Design a 3D local scene

Create a project

First, you'll create a project in ArcGIS Pro based on a local scene.

1. Start ArcGIS Pro. If prompted, sign in using your licensed ArcGIS organizational account.

   Note:

   If you don't have access to ArcGIS Pro or an ArcGIS organizational account, see options for software access.

2. Under New Projects, click Local Scene.

   

3. In the Create a New Project window, for Name, type Scene Level Properties.
4. Click OK.

   Now that you have a project and a local scene, you'll add content that is published to ArcGIS Online.

5. In the Catalog pane, click the Portal tab. Click the ArcGIS Online button.

   

6. In the search bar, type Boston 911 and press Enter.
7. In the list of search results, right-click Boston 911 Calls (Simulated) and choose Add And Open.

   

   The published scene opens and displays 3D layers representing buildings, 911 call locations, and the estimated x,y,z accuracy of the location from which a 911 call was made.

   

Add illumination

Nothing has a bigger visual impact on a scene than the illumination settings. The illumination settings define the location of the light source for the scene, whether shadows are cast from features, how the sky displays, and whether the terrain surface is shaded. You can set the illumination settings to a specific moment to match the purpose of the scene, such as the time of day when a plane is landing, or purely for aesthetic reasons. You'll experiment with several lighting settings to see what looks best for your scene.

1. On the ribbon, click the Map tab. Click Bookmarks and choose Area of interest.

   

2. On the keyboard, press the B key while clicking the screen to tilt the camera viewpoint to see the horizon.

   

   Next, you'll set some illumination properties.

3. In the Contents pane, double-click Boston 911 Calls (Simulated).

   

   The Map Properties: Boston 911 Calls (Simulated) window appears.

4. Click the Illumination tab. In the Illumination defined by section, for Date and time, make the following changes:
   • For the date and time, type 4/15/2017 6:00:00 AM.
   • For the time zone, choose (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada).
   • Confirm that Adjust for Daylight Saving is checked.

   

5. Click OK.

   The scene updates, showing the sun is just coming up over the horizon. While this looks good, the uniformity of the face shading for the building faces pointed away from the sun causes them to blend in a single blob of color.

   

   To better differentiate between features and faces of buildings, you'll add edge rendering to the buildings.

6. In the Contents pane, expand the Buildings layer and click its symbol.

   

   The Symbology pane appears. In this pane, you can modify the properties of the layer's symbol so it displays differently. You'll choose a texture that has edges so the buildings are displayed more clearly.

7. In the Symbology pane, on the Gallery tab, click the White (use textures) with Edges item.

   

   By rendering lines on the sharp boundaries of building edges, they can be visually separated.

   

   The current display does not allow for the reddish tinge the atmosphere adds when the sun is low in the sky. For a more realistic understanding of the morning light, you'll adjust the atmospheric settings.

8. In the Contents pane, double-click Boston 911 Calls (Simulated). In the Map Properties window, on the Illumination tab, under Atmospheric Lighting, check Show atmospheric effects.

   

9. Click OK.

   The scene updates. The tinting effect is very pronounced.

   

10. In the Contents pane, double-click Boston 911 Calls (Simulated). In the Map Properties window, on the Illumination tab, change Date and time to 4/15/2017 6:30:00 AM.

    

11. Click Apply.

    The scene updates and the tinting effect has softened significantly.

    

    Next, you'll add shadows to the scene to produce a more realistic result.

12. In the Map Properties window, check Display shadows in 3D. For Date and time, change the time to 4/15/2017 8:30:00 AM.

    

13. Click OK.

    The scene updates. You can now observe shadows cast by the buildings. The shadows are based on the current illumination settings.

    

    Note:

    Shadows can reduce display performance, and they are automatically dropped from the display for longer viewing distances. While you've only viewed the atmospheric effect in a small, localized view extent, keep in mind that it is also calculated and applied for the entire planet in a scene.

14. On the ribbon, on the Map tab, in the Navigate group, click the Full Extent button.

    

15. Click the scene and move the cursor to pan around the planet and North America.

    As expected, Boston has recently emerged into the morning sun. You can also see what other parts of the planet are experiencing at sunrise at the same time. If you continue to pan around the planet, you can see the sun and the moon off in the distance, both modeled correctly for the date and time.

    

    Many scenes do not require these kinds of effects. For simple scenes, you just want to be sure the scene is well illuminated, regardless of where you navigate. In these cases, you can set the illumination for the scene to be based on the current camera location.

16. Open the Map Properties window for Boston 911 Calls (Simulated).
17. On the Illumination tab, perform the following actions:
    • Uncheck Show atmospheric effects.
    • Uncheck Display shadows in 3D.
    • Click the Noon at camera position option to enable it.

    

18. Click OK. On the ribbon, click Bookmarks and choose Area of interest.

    

    Regardless of where you zoom or pan, the lighting is now consistently shown as from above.

19. In the Contents pane, right-click Call Locations and choose Zoom To Layer.

    

    The scene updates to the extent of the features in the Call Locations layer.

    

Explore a scene

Next, you'll experiment with 3D navigation tools. Navigating in 3D, and knowing which direction is north, can be difficult. You can use an on-screen control (Navigator) to help with both.

Note:

If the Navigator does not appear at the bottom of your scene, right-click anywhere in the scene and click Navigator to enable it.

1. On the Navigator control, click the North arrow to orient the scene north.

   

   Now the scene is oriented to the north.

   

2. On the Navigator control, click the outer ring and pan in the direction of your pointer.

   

   You can expand the Navigator control for more advanced 3D navigation options.

3. On the Navigator control, click the Show full control button.

   

4. Using the inner ring, tilt and rotate the scene.

   

5. Use the Move up and Move down buttons to move the camera vertically up and down.

   

6. Use the Zoom forward and Zoom backward buttons to zoom forward and backward.

   

7. Click the inner ball on the navigator to look around the scene.

   

Import a map

So far, you've worked with a global scene. It rendered its content on a spherical globe, and its lighting model was physically based on an orbit around the sun. You can also work with your data in a local scene, where the content is rendered in a projected or flat-world space, often referred to as a fish-tank view.

Local scenes are best suited to content in a small extent, such as a campus or a mining site, as well as scientific visualizations. The other advantage of a local scene is that it can render in the native coordinate system of your data, making it the recommended view type when editing 3D GIS features.

1. Download the PortBuilding_WithCage.zip compressed folder. Extract the data to a preferred location on your computer.
2. In ArcGIS Pro, on the ribbon, click the Insert tab. In the Project group, click Import Map.

   

3. In the Import window, browse to where you extracted PortBuilding_WithCage.zip. Choose PortBuilding_WithCage.mpkx and click OK.

   A local scene named PortBuilding opens and displays a 3D model of a building in the Port of Long Beach, California.

   

   The basemap covers a large extent that is not needed. You can clip this content down to your area of interest by setting an extent for the scene.

4. On the ribbon, click the Map tab. Click Bookmarks and choose Set the Extent.

   

   The clip extent is a rectangle, oriented north, which this bookmark matches. When setting your own custom extent, you can use the N (north) and P (perpendicular) shortcut keys to correctly preview the clipping view extent.

   

5. In the Contents pane, double-click PortBuilding.
6. In the Map Properties window, on the Extent tab, click Use a custom extent.
7. For Get extent from, choose Current visible extent.

   

8. Click OK.
9. Use the wheel button and drag to rotate the camera to a different viewpoint.

   

   The local scene is now more visually useful, as the extent no longer covers a large area. The scene is clipped to the area around the building, which is the focus of this scene.

   In some local scenes, it is useful to have a height reference grid around the data. There is a procedural cage symbol in ArcGIS Pro that can help with this requirement. It has two default settings, one for regional extents and one for parcel extents. The symbol has been configured for this scene.

10. In the Contents pane, check the Cage layer to turn it on.

    

    The scene updates to display a cage or framework around the building. If you choose, you can click the Cage layer symbol in the Contents pane and adjust properties in the Symbology pane for the feature.

Use parallel view mode

A parallel view is a technique often used in architecture and scientific visualizations and is usually presented as a set of static images taken from specific viewpoints (rather than an interactive scene or a video). In general, you observe the world as a perspective view. That is, the light rays disappear to a vanishing point off in the distance, which is why features appear smaller as they move away from us. In contrast, parallel view mode forces light rays to be parallel. This means that features appear to have the same visual size regardless of how far away they are from the camera.

You'll change from perspective to parallel mode and observe the differences.

1. On the ribbon, on the Map tab, click Bookmarks and choose Bld Top View.

   

2. On the ribbon, click the View tab. In the Scene group, click the Perspective Drawing Mode button and choose Parallel Drawing Mode.

   

   The scene updates to display the building in parallel drawing mode. The stacked cage bars are now visually aligned.

   

3. On the ribbon, click the Map tab. Click Bookmarks and choose Front View.
4. If necessary, zoom out until you can see the full front of the building.

   

5. Click Bookmarks and choose Oblique.

   The scene updates to display the building at an oblique angle in parallel mode.

   

   Parallel view mode has a small but crucial role in 3D mapping. It should be used when a visual effect is needed and avoided when it is not. Parallel view mode can appear unnatural because people naturally observe things in perspective, and it can be extremely difficult to do even simple tasks when in parallel view mode, especially editing and navigating.

6. On the ribbon, click the View tab. In the Scene group, change Parallel Drawing Mode to Perspective Drawing Mode.

   The scene updates and displays the building at an oblique angle in perspective mode. In this mode, the building appears more squared, whereas in parallel mode, it appears to be higher in the back and lower in front.

   

   You've experimented with several ways that you can display features in a 3D scene, including changing the illumination properties, navigating the scene, and setting a custom extent.

7. On the Quick Access Toolbar, click the Save Project button.

   

Authoring an effective and attractive 3D view doesn't end with layer properties. You also need to consider scene-level display properties to enhance and improve your scene.

The way a scene is illuminated can add to or distract from your message. The use of shadows can enhance realism, as well as provide information about the impact of buildings and other features on the world around them. When working with limited-extent data, it can be more effective to clip the display extent to your area of interest, and working in your data's native coordinate system is always recommended for GIS work. Consider the use of parallel view mode for presenting content without the visual distortion of perspective viewing.

You can find more tutorials in the tutorial gallery.

Acknowledgements

• Boston 911 Call (Simulated) layer sources: City of Boston, Esri
• Topographic map sources: Esri, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community