Centering the view in the ArcCatalog 3D preview window

You can center the view direction inside the imbedded Globe View window in ArcCatalog to look at specific locations inside your 3D data.

By default, the center of the view is the center of the data. The Navigation tool Navigate, the Zoom In Zoom In and Zoom Out Zoom Out tools, and the Field Of View tool all change the view of the data relative to the current center of the view. If you want to zoom in to see a particular area, centering on it first will prevent it from zooming out of your field of view. Centering on a point also allows you to rotate the view around it.

Follow the steps to center the view direction inside the Globe View preview in ArcCatalog.

Be sure that you have already enabled the 3D Analyst extension and added the Globe View Tools toolbars.

Steps:
  1. In ArcCatalog, select the data source in the navigation tree.
  2. Click the Preview tab.
  3. Click the Preview drop-down arrow at the bottom of the view and click Globe View.
  4. Click the Center On Target button Center On Target.
  5. Click the part of the data that you want to occupy the center of the view.
  6. The target is updated and centers the view to the new location.
TipTip:
  • You can optionally choose the 3D View preview option for a view similar to using ArcScene. You will use 3D View Tools toolbar to interact with the 3D View preview.
  • The Globe View Tools and 3D View Tools toolbars can be added by clicking Customize > Toolbars and clicking the name of the toolbar.
  • You can open ArcGlobe directly from the Globe View Tools toolbar by clicking Launch ArcGlobe ArcGlobe.

6/11/2012