Create terrain surface from a local raster

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Sample viewer app

Set the terrain surface with elevation described by a raster file.

Create terrain from a local raster

Use case

In a scene view, the terrain surface is what the basemap, operational layers, and graphics are draped onto. For example, when viewing a scene in a mountainous region, applying a terrain surface to the scene will help in recognizing the slopes, valleys, and elevated areas.

How to use the sample

When opened, this sample displays a scene that was rendered using a local raster file. Pan and zoom to explore the scene and observe how the terrain surface allows visualizing elevation differences.

How it works

Create an AGSScene and add it to a AGSSceneView.
Create a AGSRasterElevationSource with an array of raster file URLs.
Add this source to the scene's base surface.

Relevant API

AGSRasterElevationSource
AGSSurface

Offline data

This sample uses the MontereyElevation raster. It is downloaded from ArcGIS Online automatically.

About the data

This raster data comes from Monterey, California.

Additional information

Supported raster formats include:

ASRP/USRP
CIB1, 5, 10
DTED0, 1, 2
GeoTIFF
HFA
HRE
IMG
JPEG
JPEG 2000
NITF
PNG
RPF
SRTM1, 2

Sample Code

CreateTerrainSurfaceFromLocalRasterViewController.swift
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// Copyright 2019 Esri.
//
// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
// You may obtain a copy of the License at
//
//   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
//
// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.

import UIKit
import ArcGIS

class CreateTerrainSurfaceFromLocalRasterViewController: UIViewController {
    @IBOutlet weak var sceneView: AGSSceneView! {
        didSet {
            // Initialize a scene.
            sceneView.scene = makeScene()

            // Set scene's viewpoint.
            let camera = AGSCamera(latitude: 36.525, longitude: -121.80, altitude: 300.0, heading: 180, pitch: 80, roll: 0)
            sceneView.setViewpointCamera(camera)
        }
    }

    func makeScene() -> AGSScene {
        let scene = AGSScene(basemapStyle: .arcGISImagery)

        let surface = AGSSurface()
        // Create raster elevation source.
        let rasterURL = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "MontereyElevation", withExtension: "dt2")!
        let rasterElevationSource = AGSRasterElevationSource(fileURLs: [rasterURL])

        // Add a raster source to the surface.
        surface.elevationSources.append(rasterElevationSource)
        scene.baseSurface = surface

        return scene
    }

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        // Add the source code button item to the right of navigation bar.
        (self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem as! SourceCodeBarButtonItem).filenames = ["CreateTerrainSurfaceFromLocalRasterViewController"]
    }
}