Style buildings

With smart mapping styles, you can apply styles to your building (3D object) scene layers that emphasize texture and coloring uniformly across the layer. Additionally, you can focus on the attributes and either apply a continuous color ramp to the buildings or style the buildings by category types. For example, you can show occupancy rates of buildings in a color ramp with lower rates in lighter colors and higher rates in darker colors.

Change building styles

Open Configure Layer to start styling your layer.

1. For Choose main attribute to visualize, select <none> from the drop-down menu.
2. For Choose a drawing style, choose from the suggested style.
   • Color
3. Click Select to apply the style to the layer in the scene.
4. Click Options to configure the style.

Color

Use the Color style when you want to display all your buildings with the same coloring and texturing.

1. For Texture, configure how building textures display.

   Textures are images that represent the facades of buildings. You have the following options for modifying textures:

   • Original texture—Use the existing texture with its original coloring.
   • Grayscale texture—Turn the existing texture into grayscale texturing.
   • Colored texture—Apply a chosen color to an existing texture.
   • Color only—Apply only a color.

     Note:

     Color will be unavailable when Original texture or Greyscale texture is chosen. If your buildings don't have textures, you will only see the Color option.

2. For Color, apply colors to your buildings by clicking the color picker, selecting a color, and adjusting the transparency.

See the Additional building style options section below to further stylize your layer.

Change building styles using attributes

Open Configure Layer to start styling your layer.

1. For Choose main attribute to visualize, select an attribute from the drop-down menu.
2. For Choose a drawing style, choose from the following styles:
   • Counts and Amounts
   • Types

   Note:

   Not all styles are available for each attribute. In many cases, Scene Viewer will select one of the drawing styles by default based on the nature of the data in the layer, and the style will automatically be applied in the scene.

3. Click Select to apply the style to the layer in the scene.
4. Click Options to configure the style.

Counts and Amounts

Use the Counts and Amounts style when you have a building layer with numeric attributes and want to visualize the layer along a color ramp. For example, you can display the energy consumption of buildings in a color ramp, with lower energy buildings having a lighter color and higher energy buildings having a darker color.

1. Move the upper and lower slider handles to adjust the color distribution based on the main attribute chosen.
   • Values between the bounding handles are drawn with a sequence of colors. You can modify the color distribution by dragging the upper and lower handles of the slider. The default will show values below the lower handle with the same lighter color and values above the upper handle with the same darker color. You can choose different color ramps or invert the ramp and flip the colors. Experiment with the position of the handles and how they affect the visualization of your data.
   • is the average value for the main attribute chosen.
2. For Texture, configure how building textures display.

   Textures are images that represent the facades of buildings. You have the following options for textures:

   • Colored texture—Apply a chosen color to an existing texture.
   • Color only—Apply only a color.

     Note:

     If your buildings don't have textures, you will only see the Color option.

3. For Color, choose from a selection of color ramps. You can invert the ramps to flip the colors.

See the Additional building style options section below to further stylize your layer.

Types

Use the Types style for a building layer with either text or numeric attributes. Similar to the 2D Types and 3D Types styles, use the Types style when you want to color buildings uniquely based on an attribute, such as zoning.

1. Modify the Types categories.

   When you open the Types style, you will see categories listed based on the chosen attribute. Across the top of the list are Label, Counts, and Action headings.

   • Label—Lists the names of the most common unique categories for the chosen attribute. The remaining categories are automatically grouped into Other. Ideally, your layer should show fewer than ten categories; more than ten are difficult for users to distinguish.
   • Counts—Shows the number of features per category. By default, the categories are listed in descending order by number of features. You can customize the order in Legend by dragging categories up or down the list.
   • Action—Allows you to move categories out of Other into the main list by clicking Move value out or Move all values out . You can also drag any category from the main list to Other.
   • Rename a category by selecting it and clicking the name.
2. Click select all at the top of the list to modify all categories.

   To return to modifying an individual category, click a category or click select one at the top of the list.

3. For Texture, configure how building textures display.

   Textures are images that represent the facades of buildings. You have the following options for modifying textures:

   • Original texture—Use an existing texture with its original coloring.
   • Grayscale texture—Turn an existing texture into grayscale texturing.
   • Colored texture—Apply a chosen color to an existing texture.
   • Color only—Apply only a color.

     Note:

     Color will be unavailable when Original texture or Greyscale texture is chosen. If your buildings don't have textures, you will only see the Color option.

4. For Color, change the colors for the buildings.
   • Click the color picker, select a color, and adjust the transparency.
   • To add a color ramp to all the categories, click select all. The solid color becomes a color ramp.
     1. Click a color ramp. You can invert the ramp and flip the colors.
     2. Click Solid color to return to selecting a single color for the category.

See the Additional building style options section below to further stylize your layer.

Additional building style options

There are additional style options available to help make your building visualizations more compelling.

Designate elevation offset

Under Elevation Mode, enter a positive or negative value in meters to offset the layer higher or lower, respectively, for Offset. Absolute height is automatically set for Elevation Mode.

Adjust transparency

You can adjust the transparency of your layers by sliding the Transparency slider to increase or decrease the transparency. The percentage is indicated above the slider.

Emphasize edges

Click the Edges toggle key to emphasize and define the important sides and edges of structures associated with a building layer, such as substructures, exterior walls, roofs, and mechanical and electrical systems.

Display pop-ups

You can click the Pop-ups toggle key to activate pop-ups in your layer. Features are highlighted and display in-depth information about the features when you click them.

View the legend

A legend displays the meaning of the symbols used to represent features in your scene. Legends consist of 2D and 3D symbols in your scene with explanatory text. You can modify the legend by changing the visibility of layers, symbology, and the naming of the layers.

1. Click the Legend toggle key to show or hide the layer in the Layers/Legend tool .
2. To view the legend, click the Layers/Legend tool and click Legend.

   Note:

   Legend hides layers that are not in the current extent.