Repair a mesh with correction geometries

As a geospatial strategist working for the city of Frankfurt, you provide foundational content for the city's emergency response, planning, and maintenance efforts in the form of digital surface models (DSMs), True Orthos, and a 3D mesh. The city's quality standards state that 3D mesh buildings must be complete, with no holes.

ArcGIS Reality Studio is used to generate outputs such as DSMs, True Orthos, and meshes from aerial imagery data. To learn more about the basic reality mapping workflow with ArcGIS Reality Studio, see Get started with ArcGIS Reality Studio.

In general, this highly automated process creates high-quality products that can be shared with stakeholders or used in other workflows. You may need to manually correct small deficiencies in reality mapping products. In this tutorial, you'll define correction geometries to repair a mesh.

This tutorial was last tested on August 22, 2025, using ArcGIS Reality Studio 2025.1.1. If you're using a different version of ArcGIS Reality Studio, you may encounter different functionality and results.

Requirements

• ArcGIS Reality Studio 2025.1.1
• ArcGIS Reality Desktop license
• ArcGIS coordinate systems data (installed separately from ArcGIS Pro)
• Windows 10 or 11 operating system, with a minimum of 64 GB RAM

Repair a mesh with correction geometries

Download and open the project

Mesh outputs sometimes have errors on tall buildings with large reflective surfaces. Reflective and very smooth surfaces can cause problems for the reconstruction process because the lack of texture prevents accurate point matching between images. This results in sections of building facade where the mesh is incomplete. These defects can be repaired by creating and applying correction geometries.

First, you'll download and open a project to repair a missing segment of mesh on a tall reflective building.

1. Download the Reality_TrainingData03.zip file and locate the downloaded file on your computer.

   Note:

   This file has a size of 11.7 GB, so it may take several minutes to download. Most web browsers download files to your computer's Downloads folder by default.

2. Extract the zipped data to your C:\ drive.

   Note:

   Most extraction programs enable you to choose the output location of the extracted file. Ensure your output location is C:\ before running the program.

   

   The folder is extracted. Its path is C:\Reality_TrainingData03.

   Caution:

   The path for the data should be exactly C:\Reality_TrainingData03.

3. Open the extracted Reality_TrainingData03 folder and open the RS_FRA_part3 folder, then double-click the RS_FRA_Part3 project file.

   

4. If you are prompted to stop contributing to the previous project, click OK.

   The project opens. The Globe pane shows a region of interest with two tall buildings. The shorter of the two has a missing section of facade.

   

5. Expand the Navigator.

   

6. Click and drag the interior ring to tilt and rotate the view to explore the defective surface.

   

   To fix this defect, you'll draw correction geometries, which indicate the true shape of the building for the reconstruction process.

Create a correction geometry

Now you'll create a correction geometry to repair the defect in the mesh on the building facade.

1. On the ribbon, click the Home tab. In the Input group, click Geometries and choose Create Geometry.

   

   The Create tool appears.

2. For Geometry Name, type Mesh_Edit_Fra.

   

3. For Geometry Type, choose Correction.

   

4. For Spatial Reference, choose Frankfurt_Part3.

   

5. Click Create.

   The new correction geometry layer is added to the Project Tree pane.

   

   The new layer is automatically selected. While it is selected, the Edit tab becomes visible on the ribbon.

Add a correction polygon

You'll digitize a polygon in the correction layer, forming a vertical plane that fits the edges of the building to patch the defect.

1. Use the Navigator to position the building so its western side is facing you.

   

   The taller building will be behind the building with the defect. In the following image, the yellow rectangle shows where you'll add the polygon.

   

2. On the ribbon, on the Edit tab, in the Features group, click Create Polygon.

   

3. Move the pointer to the lower left edge of the building.

   

   The pointer snaps to the mesh at a vertex on the lower left edge.

4. Click the edge of the building mesh to add a vertex.

   Note:

   You can use the Undo button to delete a vertex if it is not correctly placed.

5. Move the pointer to the upper left edge of the building and click it to add a vertex.

   

6. Move the pointer to the upper right edge of the building and click it to add a vertex.

   

   As you move the pointer to the upper right edge, a red highlight color shows the plane that you are defining.

7. Move the pointer to the lower right edge of the building and double-click it to add a vertex.

   

   Double-clicking closes the polygon.

   

   Note:

   You can use the Discard button to delete the polygon if it is not correctly placed.

8. Click Finish.

   

   You've created a correction geometry for this side of the building facade. Next, you'll use the same technique to add a second correction polygon for the other facade.

Add a second correction polygon

The building has a second facade not properly reconstructed. You'll add another correction polygon to repair it.

1. Rotate the view to make the other defective side face you.

   

2. On the ribbon, on the Edit tab, in the Features group, click Create Polygon.
3. Add a vertex on the lower left edge of this face of the building.

   

4. Add a vertex at the upper left edge.

   

5. Add a vertex at the upper right edge.

   

6. Double-click the lower right edge of this face to add a vertex and finish the polygon.

   

7. Click Finish.

   The second correction polygon is finished.

   

8. On the ribbon, click Save. Click Yes.

   

   The correction geometries have been added. Next, you'll repair the mesh.

Update the reconstruction

To incorporate the edits into the mesh, the existing reconstruction must be updated with the correction geometry.

1. In the Project Tree pane, in the Reconstructions section, right-click REC_3D_FRA_Part3 and choose Settings.

   

   The Reconstruction pane opens.

2. Scroll down the Reconstruction pane to the Optional section.
3. For Correction Geometries, choose Mesh_Edit_Fra.

   

4. Click Save.
5. In the Reprocess Reconstruction warning, click OK.
6. On the ribbon, on the Reconstruction tab, click Start Contribution.

   

   The Process Manager pane shows the current task. Reprocessing the mesh will take about 15 minutes on recommended hardware.

7. When the processing is complete, in the Project Tree pane, on the Visualization tab, in the Reconstructions section, turn on the Mesh layer.
8. On the Visualization tab, in the Geometries section, turn off the Mesh_Edit_Fra layer.
9. Rotate the view and examine the repaired building.

   

10. Click Save project.

In this tutorial, you learned how to add correction geometries to patch reconstruction errors in a mesh layer. You also learned how to reprocess the reconstruction to repair the mesh.

You can find more tutorials in the tutorial gallery.

Acknowledgements

• Frankfurt digital aerial imagery: Nadir and oblique images captured and provided by AeroWest GmbH.
• Dark Gray Canvas map sources: Esri, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community