How to size a shape based on world location?

Question

I am creating a number of shapes that represent buildings.  (See attached.)

I want to have the buildings facing south to be shorter, and progressively taller as you go north.

How would I capture that using shape grammar?  Suggestions appreciated!

-Robert

Screen Shot 2017-03-16 at 9.56.30 PM.png

RobertYu · Answer

Thanks for the information.  Perhaps I can import the JTS geometry library into CityEngine to extend the jython functionality.

Update: Getting JTS into cityengine worked, using this article pyright: jython + the JTS geometry library.  Note I had to be

careful with the coordinate system:  CityEngine -z is JTS y.

CherylLau · Answer

Knowledge about neighboring shapes in CityEngine is really difficult and limited.  It's currently limited to the occlusion queries in CGA.  If you figure out a way to do it with Python, it's probably the only way to do it.

RobertYu · Answer

The next step is for the height of the buildings to respond to the sun location.  For example,

I want the buildings along the southern edge of the lot to be low, and the neighboring ones

progressively taller.  I haven't figured out how to get the heights of neighboring buildings, so I am

using the python export to get building locations and calculating the height using python.

Unfortunately, with Jython, I cannot import modules like "numpy" so it's becoming a bit

of kluge, doing a system call to a python script from within Cityengine's jython.

I feel I am approaching this problem the wrong way.  Suggestions?