To import ground imagery

Import raster data from a file-based or database source to add ground imagery to your model. Ground imagery is a surface layer and is draped over the terrain layer. If you import raster imagery from the Bing Maps database connection, you can specify a tile level.

Common sources of raster imagery are aerial photographs, satellite imagery, or scanned maps.

1. Click Manage Content (Data Sources) to open the Data Sources panel.

2. Import data:

   • Click to connect to a file-based data source.

     Raster imagery can be imported from .ADF, .ASC, .BT, .DDF, .DEM, .DT0, .DT1, .DT2, .GRD, .HGT, .DOQ, .ECW, .IMG, .JP2, .JPG, .JPEG, .PNG, .SID, .TIF, .TIFF, .WMS, .XML, .VRT, .ZIP, or .GZ files.

   • Click to connect to a database source.

     Select a Connection type. If you choose Bing Maps, specify a tile level. By default, all Bing Maps raster ground imagery is set to Tile Level 17. Setting a higher Tile Level, such as Level 18 or Level 19, will provide higher resolution ground imagery if higher resolution data is available for that location. However, be forewarned, this may increase the size of the model exponentially.

3. Configure the raster data .

4. Click Close & Refresh in the Data Configuration dialog box to update the model with the new data configuration.

   Note: If the model does not update, regenerate the model from its data sources.