Calculating lines of sight

You’ve learned several ways to create new 3D features. Now it is time to investigate some analyses you can perform with these features that you cannot do with 2D data. A common analysis is to determine lines of sight. This has many uses. It can be used by property appraisers to determine whether a property has a good line of sight to a key feature, such as a river or ocean, which might increase its value. It is used by the police to establish security perimeters for special events. It might be used to help plan a parade route. So, as you can see, there are many uses for such an analysis.

In this recipe, you will use the observation points you created in the Creating 3D features recipe to determine whether there are lines of sight to Washington Park or whether the proposed building will block the view of the park entirely. This will be one of the determining factors the Planning Director will use when deciding whether to approve the new building...