Workflow
Treetop walkway in CityEngine
Inspired by the treetop walkway in Kew gardens I thought I’d make a quick rule file to change a road network into one. Here is a screen capture of the result.
Treetop Walkway, plus trees controlled by elevation and soil type.
It is really quite simple and small as rule files go, and I still need to make proper handrails and of course an access point (stairs and lift). I used SketchUp to model the pylon and then adjusted the road width to a walkway width and the sidewalks are used as railings. Instead of junctions I used roundabouts and placed the SketchUp pylon model in the centre of the roundabout.
Different rule file from above similar result….
I hope to put this example and others up online in the near future….
CityEngine is changing how we work…
As part of a new urban renewal project we obtained the previous master plan as a PDF (naturally). Reading through it we felt that we needed to understand what was proposed and how the proposals would look in 3D.
My First Animated GIF on this blog, apologies to all those living in the present…
It’s a largish urban area and previously we would never even dream of modelling it at such an early stage of the project. Too much work to model in SketchUp and certainly not to just understand part of a report. Things have changed and now we are aware of what CityEngine can do we’re starting to modify how we approach jobs.
You wonder why I’m interested in CityEngine? Well I can see how it is changing our work and what it will change for us in the future. Less than a month into a project and we’ve modelled an entire urban area in less than 1/2 a day, just to understand something better.
Pre-CityEngine we would never have done this.
Posted in 3D, ArcGIS, ArcMAP, City Creation, CityEngine, esri, GIS, planning, Workflow | No Comments »
Using CityEngine to model Lego…
UPDATE : You can view the model in CityEngine’s webscene webviewer here.
I’m often told that when I’m modelling in 3D I might as well be playing with Lego, so I’ve been working on a rule file that actually models Lego…. Ha! That will show them!
Early Lego/CityEngine model
The serious side to the rule file is that it is teaching me some proper techniques for later use.
Yes but what would it look like in Lego?
Notice how the height of the Lego block varies and so to does each individual piece…. My next modification is to make the lego height jump in brick heights not actual numbers.
Mobile CityEngine Web Viewer (WebGL on Android)
This is interesting, I was looking at viewing CityEngine web scenes on my iPad and apparently it is capable (webGL is supported in adverts) but only if you jailbreak it. I’m not really prepared to go down that route, I might break it and then my 3.5 year old daughter would be mad at me.
So I looked at weather my new Samsung Galaxy S3 could view webGL content. Well no it can’t by default except when you download the beta version of Chrome Beta for Android! What you do is install Chrome Beta and type into the address bar Chrome://flags and then enable webGL, of course then you point your Chrome Beta browser at your favourite CityEngine webscene. So far it seems ok, there are times when the 3D is a bit sluggish, the big issue is that you can’t navigate the model by touch, so you have to really on the bookmarks. Also the slider for moving between two scenes doesn’t work. My guess is this can be programmed in, as soon as one of ESRI’s nice CityEngine developers (who read this blog?) feel like a quick side project for me….. ? 
Don’t believe me? Here are some screen shots (not got a 3D view as the screen capture software won’t let me… I’ll try again later)
Top Tip for CityEngine – Detailed to Simple Model Toggle
Just a quick tip this one, and it starts to help you when you make very large city/urban models. When you are starting to add more detail to your rule file buildings like nice windows or doors (or in my case balconies and air conditioning units) it’s always best to create a simplified model at the same time. That way you can create a mechanism to speed up CityEngine, remember the more detail it has to draw the more PC resources it needs.
Guess what 3D modeller I use…
Once you’ve done this you can use the following rule syntax to enable easy switching off and on of the detail without losing the feel of your model. Remember your urban model maybe small now, but because you will inevitably reuse this rule file and asset, it’s best to ‘front load’ some of the work.
attr toggledetail = false asset_balcony = case toggledetail == true : "assets/detailedBuildings/BuildingFeatures/balcony.obj" else : "assets/detailedBuildings/BuildingFeatures/balcony_simple.obj"
Video : “The Instant City—Geodesign and Urban Planning” at the GeoDesign Summit 2013, Redlands
I know you’re probably all fed up of this by now…. You can view my presentation at the GeoDesign summit here, or at the ESRI video site (you can download it for offline viewing too!) or eventually on ESRI’s Youtube site
Translating text for ArcGIS – Google Translate + Excel – A quick guide
This is a useful tip that has been pointed out to me by a colleague, so useful in fact I have to make sure I note it down somewhere. Until my idea is incorporated into ArcGIS this is a quick and dirty workaround for translating Arabic labels in ArcGIS.
Yes, but what does it mean?
We have received some GIS data from a client, it’s landuse in a geodatabase with Arabic labels. Trouble is our maps are needed in English! In the past we’ve tested the Microsoft translation tools (for office) against Google’s online translate tool and found that Google does a much better translation.
So how do we translate this large landuse table quickly and easily? Use Excel of course! Please note that this bullet point list assumes you know ArcGIS and Excel quite well, to instruct from a beginners point of view would be a bit to long winded for me.
- First create a field name for the English Translation in ArcGIS
- Open a new Excel document
- Copy (using this method) the table from ArcGIS into Excel.
- Create a PivotTable that lists the row labels (in this case Arabic Landuse)
- Copy and paste this list out (so the text is static, you probably don’t have to)
- Copy the Arabic text into the text box at translate.google.com
Google Translate
- Now Copy that English translation text list back adjacent to your Arabic landuse list into Excel
Pasted back into Excel
- Now you have to use some Excel magic, select the English and Arabic text and under the Formulas tab (in Excel 2007) define a name ( in this case I called it English Translate)
- Once you have done this go to the English Landuse field name column and type in code like this “=VLOOKUP(E7,EnglishTranslate,2)”. E7 is the Arabic landuse in your original table in Excel, EnglishTranslate is that Name you defined above and the number 2 is the column number of the EnglishTranslate you need to use if matched.
- Then click and drag copy this down your English translation field to check it works.
- Now copy back this data into ArcGIS or Join/Link it.
Well that’s it if you have any improvements/questions/suggestions please add them in the comments section below!
The emergence of true Geodesign
This is part 7 of a larger blog post, you can read the introduction here.
It’s still a difficult concept for me, I have to admit, when it’s explained to me it seems to stupidly obvious that it hardly needs pointing out or given a name. Yet it’s useful to give what is coming a name, I say what is coming because I believe true ‘geodesign’ has not been done yet.
I regard ‘geodesign’ as the term we will use to explain how we will manage, create and plan things in the future by taking into account as much of the knowledge we have at our disposal from sensors, theories and analytical tools. When I say “as much of the knowledge we have“, I don’t mean how we do it now. For instance when planning a new city I don’t actually design by taking into account the sum of all human knowledge about that area and all the data current, historical and projected that relate to it. Nor do I take into account all the theories new, old and emerging that might be of relevance to urban form or planning or environment. Shocking isn’t it? Well, of course not really, no one can do that and if they say they can I’m pretty sure they’re lying.
We are starting to see the emergence of true Geodesign, all the technological pieces are lining up, ubiquitous sensors, internet, communications infrastructure, social networks, computing power. Now all we need is someone ( a Geodesigner?) to piece it all together into a unified global framework or system. So perhaps the last piece in the puzzle is probably that transactional database of the world that Jack has talked of.
Like driverless cars, the technology has been there for a while it just needs someone to fit it all together into a complete package.
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Did you attend the GeoDesign Summit 2013?