3D analyst Enclose Multipatch

Question

I have a point file with elevation data. Some of the points are elevations relating to soil horizons.

I've created a TIN surface for each soil horizon then used the "extrude between" tool to create a 3D polygon of the area between each surface, basically creating a set of blocks stacked on each other representing the different soil horizons.

I now want to select points that fall within each soil profile. However, my multipatch is not closed so using the tool "inside 3D" does not give me all the points that fall inside each soil profile. I have about 5 different profiles, one of which is closed and the others are not. I've tried the "enclose 3D" tool but it adds volume in the z direction, misrepresenting the soil profile.

Why is the extrude between tool not enclosing all multi-patches and how can I fix this?

Answer 1

It appears as others experience similar issues with Multipatches and Extrude between. Unfortunately, without 3D Analyst license, I can only add comment to this question, not specifically provide an answer. From ESRI Geonet Nov. 2013:

the enclose multipatch tool unfortunately yields bad results. I have a multipatch FC created from an extrusion between two TIN surfaces for the area of building footprints. The Is Closed tool shows that a lot of Multipatch Features are not properly closed. Now I used the Enclose Tool to close these polygons, but this results in most shapes being distorted or looking damaged, some are also missing. Furtheron, how does the grid parameter affect the results? I often get the error message "use larger grid size", but using a larger grid size, ArcScene crashes. Using a grid size of 0.4 was the only handable value, but results in the mentioned distorted shapes. Any idea how I can close my multipatches and continue calculating surface area and volume?

Also, Can I create, union and intersect 3D multipatch features using 3D Analyst extension (ArcGIS 10)? is a previous question with a well-rounded accepted answer discussing 3D Multipatch and problems and issues.