【20090714-01】Saving a 3D document

Release 9.3
Last modified April 24, 2009

 

About saving a 3D document

Saving a 3D document allows you to preserve your work. A 3D document contains information about paths to your data and the 3D view's properties and layers. When you open an existing 3D document, it will appear as it did when you saved it. ArcGlobe documents have a .3dd extension, and ArcScene documents have a .sxd extension.

You can save 3D documents so you can open and work with them in previous versions of ArcGIS. This makes it easy to share those files with other ArcGlobe or ArcScene users who have not yet upgraded to ArcGIS 9.3.

Saving a 3D document to a previous version of ArcGIS

At ArcGIS 9.3, you can save ArcGlobe documents so they can be opened and used in the ArcGIS 9.0/9.1 versions of ArcGlobe. ArcScene documents can be saved to ArcGIS9.2, 9.0/9.1 or ArcGIS 8.3. All ArcGIS 9.1 documents are directly compatible with ArcGIS 9.0, so there is no need to save them separately for use in ArcGIS 9.1.

Saving 3D documents to a previous version of ArcGIS is similar to saving map documents to a previous version. When you save a 3D document to a previous version of the software, you are only saving that .3dd or .sxd file to the previous version, not the data referenced in it. The source data referenced in the .3dd or .sxd document is unchanged. In addition, older versions of the software won't be able to support some of the new functionality and properties that were added at ArcGIS 9. For example, any 3D symbols will be converted to 2D symbols when an ArcScene document is saved to the ArcGIS 8.3 version.

You can also save the layers in your 3D documents to previous versions of ArcGIS.

Learn more about saving to previous versions of ArcGIS

 

How to save a 3D document

Saving a 3D document

1. Click the Save button on the Standard toolbar.
   
2. Navigate to the location where you want to save the 3D document.
   
3. Type a name for the document.
   
4. Click Save.
   

 

Saving a 3D document to a previous version of ArcGIS

1. Click File and click Save a Copy.
   
2. Navigate to the location where you want to save the 3D document.
   
3. Type a name for the document.
   
4. Click the Save as type drop-down arrow and click the version of ArcGIS to which you want to save. For example, if you are working in ArcScene, you can choose to save it as an ArcScene 8.3 Document, ArcScene 9.0/9.1 Document, or ArcScene 9.2 Document. In ArcGlobe, you can choose an ArcGlobe 9.0/9.1 Document or ArcGlobe 9.2 Document.
   If you click ArcScene Document or ArcGlobe Document (the option without a version number), the document will be saved in the current version of the software.
   
5. Click Save. The 9.2, 9.0/9.1 or 8.3 document will be saved to disk, and the ArcGIS 9.3 document will remain open.
   
   You also can save ArcGlobe layers to previous releases. With ArcGlobe, you can save a layer only to releases that will support it. For example, terrain layers are supported starting with 9.2. So, when you save a terrain layer, you can only save it as 9.2 (or the regular 9.3); you will not be able to save it as 9.0/9.1 because terrain layers were not supported in those releases. In addition, if there are any layers in your group layers that the version of ArcGIS you chose won't be able to draw, a dialog box will appear listing them. You can then decide whether to continue with saving the copy in the format of that previous version.
   
   Keep in mind that previous versions of ArcGIS won't draw data from geodatabases that have been upgraded or data sources that are only supported in newer versions of ArcGIS. See Saving to previous versions of ArcGIS for more information.
   

http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.3/index.cfm?TopicName=Saving_a_3D_document