2D polygons with height attribute to 3D features for ArcGIS Online

Question

I have a 2D shapefile made of many polygons representing buildings. Each polygon has a height attribute. The goal is to get these into ArcGIS Online's "Scene" feature, showing extruded buildings, sitting on one of the default 3D base map terrains.

Things I have tried that were very close to working properly:

Method 1:

Inserting the 2D shapefile into ArcScene, extruding by height in the Properties, using the 3D Analyst "Layer 3D to Feature Class" to save as a shapefile, zipping up the file, importing into ArcGIS Online, adding to my ArcGIS Online scene, and configuring the layer to sit on the terrain.

Result:

Buildings appear to be triangles with a height value. I tried the same method again to see if it was just a fluke, and the triangles were in a different configuration the second time around.

Method 2:

Inserting the 2D shapefile into ArcMap, using the 3D Analyst's "Feature to 3D by Attribute" tool, selecting the height attribute as the height field, it saves as a shapefile, zipping up the file, adding to my ArcGIS Online content, adding the content to my scene, and configuring the layer to sit on the terrain.

Result:

Much better, the buildings look right - they appear to have accurate roofs and footprints - but there are no walls. I tried again with the same method in ArcScene and it did the same thing - roofs and footprints, but no walls.

SO...

How do I turn my 2D polygons with a height attribute into 3D features (you know, boxes) that I can put into an ArcGIS Online scene?

I can't use the simple extrusion feature in ArcGIS Online's extrusion property in the "Configure Layer" section of the scene, because all of the polygons are different heights.

I have access to ArcMap, ArcScene, ArcGlobe, City Engine, ArcGIS Online, and probably lots of other things. We have 3D Analyst and most other extensions.

I don't understand coding much at all so can you give me steps to accomplish this, or things to try?

Answer 1

Currently extruded polygons from Pro are not supported in the web scene viewer. The scene viewer allows you to extrude polygons on feature layers but only by a set number not an attribute value. If you want extruded buildings from an attribute value then you will have to publish them to your Portal and create a scene service.

Here is a tutorial covering that publishing workflow. http://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/help/sharing/overview/author-and-share-a-local-scene.htm