{"id":575,"date":"2012-05-13T12:29:35","date_gmt":"2012-05-13T12:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/?p=575"},"modified":"2012-05-13T12:35:17","modified_gmt":"2012-05-13T12:35:17","slug":"will-you-sketchup-your-cityengine-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/?p=575","title":{"rendered":"Will you SketchUp your CityEngine, please?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/sketchup.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-577 alignleft\" title=\"sketchup\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/sketchup.png?resize=260%2C157\" alt=\"\" width=\"260\" height=\"157\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nYou\u2019ll see my recent blog posts have been mainly about CityEngine and more recently Lumion3D. \u00a0\u00a0Exciting stuff is being done by the people at Digital Urban (UCL) as well! \u00a0\u00a0Both have been talked about as being \u2018game changers\u2019 but why?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Is it there advanced capabilities?<\/li>\n<li>Or is it because of their 3D visualisation possibilities?<\/li>\n<li>Perhaps it\u2019s because they work nicely with other file formats?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The answer is in part yes to all of the above, but there is something more fundamental going on and it is in part due to a tool called SketchUp.<\/p>\n<p>When you work in three dimensions everything becomes a little more complicated, yes you can visualise your buildings nicely and see what you are designing, but there is an added layer of complication, for myself it is viewpoints.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/ce_multicore.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-315 alignright\" title=\"Mulitcore Rule File in action\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/ce_multicore.jpg?resize=180%2C138\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"138\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/ce_multicore.jpg?resize=300%2C230&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/ce_multicore.jpg?resize=1024%2C787&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/ce_multicore.jpg?resize=1%2C1&amp;ssl=1 1w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/ce_multicore.jpg?w=1179&amp;ssl=1 1179w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"color: #0000ee;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span>I know what a building should look like and all its component parts but you have to be able to view how everything interacts behind other features. \u00a0\u00a0Understanding how a building will look from a 3D model is easier, but understanding how all the component parts fit together (services, floor levels etc..) can be harder to understand.<\/p>\n<p>Working in an architectural practice two dimensional black and white drawings provide a good snapshot of how things fit together and work. \u00a0\u00a0Now that virtually every client wants a 3D model and to walk around it like a computer game, has given us a problematic transition. \u00a0\u00a0UK planning departments still want properly measured 2D black and white drawings, whereas clients would often prefer 3D models.<\/p>\n<p>Historically we have worked with AutoCAD LT, as we\u2019re too small to require AutoCAD (and wouldn\u2019t use many of the advanced features) as well as the various Building Information Modelling (BIM) solutions. \u00a0\u00a0However our clients do want 3D models so we have been creating models for a while now using SketchUp (even prior to it being purchased by Google and now Trimble).<\/p>\n<p>SketchUp is amazing, no that\u2019s not correct, it\u2019s an incredible piece of software. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In fact I regard its development as being one of the most important things to have ever happened to our industry (architecture and urban design). \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There are two main reasons for me giving such importance:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It fits into our existing software\/workflows <strong>nicely<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It is <strong>easy<\/strong> to use<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That\u2019s it, no really! \u00a0\u00a0The learning curve as anyone who has used SketchUp will know, is very small. \u00a0\u00a0I can guarantee most first time computer literate professional users (with no reading of a manual) can produce a good looking useful 3D model with ease.<\/p>\n<p>Lumion3D is also not the most powerful of visualisation packages but after a couple of minutes of using it I realised I could with relative ease create beautifully rendered models and all within my existing workflows. Like SketchUp the real utility of this tool is how easy it is to create a good looking <strong><em>useful<\/em><\/strong> product with minimal training.<\/p>\n<p>But what about CityEngine? It certainly is very powerful and the learning curve is quite steep for anyone without a background in programming. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0However it does fit in with my existing workflows just like SketchUp and Lumion3D. \u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m certain that the ESRI CityEngine team is working on usability <strong>so I\u2019m asking nicely ESRI, will you please SketchUp your software too?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ll see my recent blog posts have been mainly about CityEngine and more recently Lumion3D. \u00a0\u00a0Exciting stuff is being done by the people at Digital Urban (UCL) as well! \u00a0\u00a0Both have been talked about as being \u2018game changers\u2019 but why? Is it there advanced capabilities? Or is it because of their 3D visualisation possibilities? Perhaps [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,12,116,145,64,157,11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-3d","category-arcgis","category-city-creation","category-cityengine","category-esri","category-lumion3d","category-sketchup","category-workflow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=575"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":578,"href":"https:\/\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions\/578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.geoplanit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}