topic Importing WMS elevation data in ArcGIS CityEngine Questions

Importing WMS elevation data

AndrewBasile — Wed, 09 May 2012 17:57:03 GMT

Being new to Esri, I am just starting to learn CityEngine. Our project was provided with a KMZ file from an external source, modeling a proposed structure in a US city, and successfully imported it into CityEngine where can view the model.

Now I'd like to incorporate elevation data. In ArcGlobe, I was able to connect to a WMS server hosted by USGS, obtain 1/9 arc second National Elevation Dataset data for the relevant locality, and view the elevation data, imagery of the area, and the structure model as draped layers.

However, I don't see an easy way to import WMS-hosted elevation data into a CityEngine project. Can anyone offer suggestions? Thanks!

Re: Importing WMS elevation data

MatthiasBuehler1 — Thu, 10 May 2012 07:30:07 GMT

Hi,

CityEngine currently only supports raster/texture based terrains, such as GeoTIF.

Check the Manual ( Help Menu ) on Map Layers.

Make sure that the heightmap file ( DEM ) and the colormap ( e.g. Satellite image ) have a matching extent.

This thread will help you additionally : http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/54072-textures-raster-files-concepts-in-CityEngine-ArcGIS

I hope this helps you further.

Matt

Re: Importing elevation data

AndrewBasile — Fri, 11 May 2012 22:19:57 GMT

Unfortunately I'm still having trouble importing elevation data when using a coordinate system (NAD1983 UTM18 in my case). I used ArcGIS to project USGS elevation data onto UTM 18, in a GeoTIFF file, and created a scene in CityEngine with the same coordinate system. For testing purposes, I tried loading only elevation data and no texture, and also tried using the elevation TIF as the texture as well.

However, through the Viewport, the altitude appears to be zero everywhere, suggesting that the elevation data isn't getting employed.

By the way, one point of confusion was the use of X and Z rather than X and Y for the coordinates. So Y apparently corresponds with elevation.

Is anyone aware of any "canned" examples of importing DEM data into CityEngine? I'd love to be able to carefully follow one such example and thus get something to work. Can anyone share a DEM file that you imported along with the exact steps that you employed? Please accept my apologies if this has already been answered somewhere. Thanks!

Re: Importing WMS elevation data

MatthiasBuehler1 — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:18:03 GMT

hi ..

are you absolute positive there's elevation data in that file ? can you check it maybe in ArcScene or similar ?

just to be sure : you need 2 raster files, 1 for the height info, 1 for the satellite pic. you can not use e.g. the alpha channel for the height.

it'd be helpful for testing if you could post (or via PM exchange) the GeoTIF with which you have issues.

what you could also try is to get the min/max value range from ArcMap's raster properties and use those values as min/max values in the terrain layer's min max values in the Inspector.

let me know.