Big things are happening in CityEngine this June, and the 2025.0 release brings some seriously cool updates that make designing cities feel more like play and less like wrestling with code.

Anyone who has used CityEngine for more than a project or two knows that Streets have been its weakness and so has been long overdue an upgrade.

Streets, Your Way

Street Designer is therefore the headline feature and a new way to build streets directly in the 3D viewport which will take some getting used too. You can now add, move, or delete lanes with just a few clicks. Whether it’s bike lanes, bus routes, or just a better pedestrian vibe, you can snap together street layouts like LEGO bricks. Just drag and drop, assign rules, and your vision comes to life.

Prebuilt lane setups are included, or you can create your own and reuse them across your city model. Fast design iterations? Yes, please.

CGA Improvements

If you’re a CGA pro (or on your way there), you’ll love what’s new in version 2.8:

• Boolean operations like union and subtract now use cleaner syntax, no more ambiguity.
• A brand new =: operator lets you separate connected mesh components with ease.
• The comp() operation has smarter options, like noAlign to keep scope orientation as-is.
• Vertex normals behave better, and there’s tighter control over what happens when you split or trim geometry.

Basically, your rules will now behave more predictably, especially when dealing with tricky shapes or sequential steps.

Visual CGA: Now Less of a Headache

The Visual CGA Editor got some love too:

• Search for nodes with the new Find tool.
• Cleaner layout, better annotation handling, and easier navigation.
• You can even tweak the InitialShapes node name (finally!).

Lookin’ Sharp

Rendering gets a boost with antialiasing and anisotropic filtering turned on by default. Translation: your streets look crisp, your textures pop, and your GPU thanks you.

Easier Learning, Better Docs

New and refreshed tutorials make it way easier to dive in, whether you’re learning how to manipulate 2D/3D shapes or creating facades from scratch. The docs got reorganized too, so it should mean less scrolling, more clarity (I am still not keen on the online help but there is still the offline help for now!).

Python API: Scripting Streets Got Better

If you’re automating your workflows or building tools around CityEngine, this release adds a bunch of new Python powers, especially and naturally around street configurations something I am keen about!

New Street Configuration Tools

You can now fully manage street layouts via Python with new commands like:

• CE.addLane(), CE.moveLane(), and CE.removeLane() build and adjust lane layouts on the fly.
• Create, duplicate, delete, and apply StreetConfigurations with functions like CE.createStreetConfiguration() and CE.applyStreetConfigurationToSegment().
• Inspect lanes and configurations with helpers like CE.isLane() and CE.getStreetConfigurations().

It’s everything you need to define reusable street templates and push them across your models, perfect for scripting mass updates or exploring design scenarios programmatically.

Other Noteworthy Tweaks

• CE.createGraphSegments() now supports a streetConfig argument, giving you more precise control when generating networks.
• The new WebSceneShareSettings.get/setAccess() makes it easier to script sharing behavior with organization-wide or public visibility options.
• Deprecated: The old street width attributes (/ce/street/streetWidth, sidewalkWidthLeft, etc.) are now read-only, use the new lane-specific parameters instead.

Worth updating

So, whether you’re crafting cityscapes for real-world planning or just geeking out with procedural magic, CityEngine 2025.0 is worth the update. It’s all about giving you more control, cleaner visuals, and faster workflows.  Download from your my.esri.com account, or talk to your IT people! Remember you can have multiple versions installed alongside each other. Also remember to do testing and only copy projects (backup projects!) over just in case!

• Read more at the official Esri blog here: What’s New in ArcGIS CityEngine 2025.0
• Read more about how the Street Designer works here: An introduction to Street Designer