The document discusses the capabilities of ArcView's 3D Analyst extension. It can create and visualize 3D shapes and surfaces through tools like grids, TINs, and perspective viewing. Grids partition space into cells with numeric values, while TINs represent surfaces with triangles. The extension supports analyzing elevation, slope, aspect and other continuous spatial phenomena. It also provides instructions for an assignment involving preparing elevation point data and contours to model a terrain surface.