I'm looking to create a more informative 3D Profile than appears possible with vanilla Arc tools. Honestly I'm kinda surprised that this doesn't exist, maybe I'm searching the wrong terms.
Situation: I have a Pipeline made up of sections, there are many sections, topology is touching, but it's not a network. At intervals along the pipeline there are fittings (stored as 3D points, snapped to the polylines).
Outcome: I'd like a image showing the elevation profile of the pipeline selected, the fittings along the pipeline, any intersecting polylines and various attributes (ID, elevation, chainage).
Something like this:
Currently I'm doing this manually using GlobalMapper (which displays lines crossing the input on it's 3D profile) and PowerPoint (labels).
I'd like a way to do this within Arc, or with python, in such a way it can be incorporated into data driven pages, or at least automated to the point I can give a script a whole network and have it dump out sanely-named jpegs.
Environment:
- ArcMap 10.6, basic and standard licences, 3D Analyst, Spatial Analyst
- 1m DEM
- 3D polylines and points in a FGDB
- Reasonably strict IT system - additional python libraries are okay, a full software package is okay, adding VBA to Arc is a PITA
Things I've tried:
- Asking ESRI
- Searching here and on Google
- Searching ESRI's community pages
- QGIS plug-ins
I found:
- Xacto Cross Section Tool (a possibility, but requires VB libraries)
- https://crossviewgis.com/ (a possibility, but I have to exhaust other avenues first)
- https://geogeek.xyz/how-to-make-a-fancy-elevation-profile-including-xy-points.html - very, very close to what I want, but as manual as my current workflow
I'm not scared of python, but I'll need a little more than the name of a library and some pseudo code to get a result.
We have QGIS, again I'd need a reasonably detailed run down of ant proposed process.
I wondered if there was a way to fake things by adding an XY plot to the profile?
Anything considered, even "that's too hard, don't bother"
