3d terrain from data in postgres

Question

I am quite new to arcgis and I would like to create a 3d terrain. Now I have a postgresSQL table containing a list of points with their geometry data and the Z value for each point.

What I would like is guidance on how to proceed in order to create this terrain in 3D in arcgis.

I might be taking the wrong approach so please can someone guide me on how I can create this 3D terrain from points data that I have taken with my gps.?

Thanks very much

Answer 1

A simple approach is to convert your points to a TIN. An alternative would be to convert the points to a raster. Either way you are going to need Arc Scene to view the results from inside Arc. To get ArcScene you need 3D Analyst as per Mapperz comment above.

There are plenty of alternatives if you don't have 3D Analyst, however, but much depends on what you intend to do with your 3D terrain after you have created it. You should be able to triangulate your points, using Delauany triangulation for instance, in MeshLab, SketchUp or Blender. There are plugins for SketchUp to do this, though offhand I don't recall if you need SketchUp Pro or not. If you have your data as a raster you could also import it into Terragen. All these products are free.