This article provides some general information to help you get started in TerraExplorer. For a quick overview of how to open, create and save a project in TerraExplorer, see our Quick Guide.
In this article:
Getting Started Tutorial - Learn how to download and install TerraExplorer, navigate, and use the Project Tree
This tutorial takes you through the steps involved in downloading and installing TerraExplorer, and logging in to SkylineGlobe Server. It then introduces you to the TEP GUI and basic navigation, using the Hurricane Michael Damage Management dataset to showcase some of TerraExplorer's abilities.
- Download TerraExplorer. (More about: Downloading)
- Install: On your computer, browse to the setup.exe file and double-click. Then follow the steps in the installation wizard to install. (More about: Installation)
- Start TerraExplorer: Click Start > Skyline TerraExplorer Pro > TerraExplorer Pro.
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Log in to SkylineGlobe Server: We need to log in to the SkylineGlobe Server that stores the Hurricane Michael demo project. On the top right of the application's Start page, click
. Then in the Login dialog, type https://cloud.skylineglobe.com/SG/Demos in the Server field, and click Log in. This is a public server, so there is no need to enter a user name and password. (More about: Logging in to SGS)
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Open Project: On the Start page, click Open Project from SGS. (More about: Creating and opening a project.) The SkylineGlobe Layer dialog is displayed, showing all projects on your SkylineGlobe server. Search for "mexico_beach_emergency_response", select the project in the Search Results, and click Open. (More about: Loading a Project from SGS)
Once you open the project, you will see in the 3D Window a map of the world, zoomed in on Mexico Beach, a city in Florida that suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Michael in 2018. On the left side of the screen is a Project Tree, which provides quick access to TerraExplorer Pro elements. Clicking once on a Project Tree item selects the item, whereas double-clicking performs its activation action. Click the item's show/hide checkboxto toggle an item's display.
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You can view a demo presentation demonstrating many of TerraExplorer's capabilities: In the Project Tree, expand the Presentation group and double-click the Mexico Beach presentation -
. TerraExplorer enables you to view a presentation that flies you through the 3D World, showing or hiding objects on the terrain, following dynamic objects, displaying messages, and performing different operations. You can easily record your own presentations too. (More about: Presentations)
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Now let's try out some of TerraExplorer's capabilities on our own. Let's start with flying to Mexico Beach: In the Project Tree, expand the Objects and Layers group and then expand the Locations group under that, and double-click
to fly to it. These Project Tree locations define the geographical coordinates of a point on the terrain, as well as the position from which the point is to be viewed, so that you can fly back to this spot at any time. (More about: Using the Project Tree)
On October 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 hurricane, slammed into the Florida Panhandle of the United States with 160-mile-per-hour winds and a 17-and-a-half-foot storm surge, making it one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the United States. One of the hardest-hit locations was Mexico Beach. The hurricane was responsible for 25 deaths in Florida, destroyed or damaged over 300,000 homes and businesses, left more than 400,000 without power, and even blew a train off its tracks. In the aftermath of the hurricane, Skyline's partner, WaldoAir, worked with aircrews to conduct multiple imagery flights of the affected areas using aircraft specially equipped with WaldoAir’s advanced aerial imaging systems. What you are viewing now is the high-quality imagery that was collected at the time and then processed using Skyline's PhotoMesh into 2D True Orthophotos and 3D models of the affected areas. (More about: Mesh layers.) -
If you zoom in and navigate around, you can see some of the damage that was caused. Use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out of the view in the 3D Window. Click and hold the mouse button on a location in the terrain. Drag the mouse to the sides, forward, and backward. The terrain location on which you clicked is dragged along with the cursor. (More about: Navigation options)
The scene is one of horrifying devastation: piles of rubble everywhere from buildings flattened to the ground. Among the wreckage, there are homes that seem to be somewhat intact but were ripped from their foundations and blown in their entirety to different locations. -
Let's fly to one spot where we can see this: In the Project Tree, expand the Objects and Layers group, and select the House checkbox so that its objects display in the 3D Window. Expand the House group, and double-click the Address Search location to fly to it. Zoom in, hold down CTRL on the keyboard, and click and hold the mouse button on the terrain. Rotate it until you have the view shown in the screen captures below.
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If we want to know the coordinates of these houses so that we can pass this information to the correct disaster response personnel, zoom in to the location in the 3D Window. Then, on the Analysis tab, select Query and click the house. The query results give the precise coordinates of the house.
- There are piles of debris all over that need to be collected. We can make it easier to manage debris removal by creating Project Tree locations for each of them. First we'll create a Project Tree folder: Right-click
in the Project Tree, and select Create Group. A new group is created in the Project Tree:
. Type in the highlighted blue rectangle to rename the group. Then create a location: Navigate to a debris pile in the 3D Window and right-click the Debris folder in the Project Tree > New > Location. Then type a name for the new location.
The comprehensive community-wide view that this visualization provided was extremely valuable in identifying imminent dangers and assessing overall damage, helping emergency responders work faster and more efficiently to restore order. - See the resources below for more information on getting started.
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