Esri CityEngine 2013 Brings Powerful Modelling to 3D Applications

Esri has released CityEngine 2013, the latest version of its 3D urban design software. A new software developer kit (SDK) enables CityEngine procedural modelling technology to be used in popular 3D software such as Autodesk Maya, 3ds Max and SketchUp.

With CityEngine, Esri aims to improve urban planning, architecture and the modelling of urban environments, helping professionals make quality decisions while saving time and money. CityEngine 2013 brings powerful procedural modelling technology in users' favourite applications such as Autodesk Maya, said Pascal Müller, director of Esri R&D Center in Zürich, Switzerland. He said at Esri they are excited about enabling their third-party developer community with the long-awaited CityEngine SDK, which provides developers with a rich set of tools to create smart 3D city applications.

Importing OpenStreetMap streets into a project can jump-start someone’s smart 3D city model. The new CityEngine OpenStreetMap importer improves the speed of that operation by converting free OpenStreetMap data in a few mouse clicks. Esri also enhanced CityEngine content with e-on software's prestigious plant library for exceptionally rich and realistic digital nature environments. E-on software is world renowned and has been used to create realistic vegetation and 3D visualisations in movies such as Avatar and The Hunger Games.

An exciting feature in the new CityEngine release is the ability to create rule packages to help work to be promoted and shared. Rule packages allow procedural rule files to be written and packaged for 3D models and other assets in CityEngine and shared with ArcGIS users.

Esri CityEngine is among the first 3D urban design software applications to include seamless export to the web via CityEngine web scenes. CityEngine 2013 continues that browser-based sharing experience. Once content has been exported to a web scene, it can be uploaded directly to ArcGIS Online or to a user's own server.

For more information and a free 30-day trial with full export capabilities, visit esri.com/CityEngine.