topic Re: This forum needs more attention in ArcGIS CityEngine Questions

This forum needs more attention

JafarNajafli — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 07:55:39 GMT

This forum is a big part of our CityEngine learning process but unfortunately most of the questions are being kept unanswered by the professional staff. It is understandable that they have a small team but I believe CityEngine has a great potential and therefore deserves better attention.

And of course, people can say that there are learning documentations but they can help us only to a certain degree. However when you want to do specific projects with specific challenges, it is difficult to find answers in those documentations.

Just wanted to rant and voice my concerns:)

Re: This forum needs more attention

DanPatterson_Retired — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 11:58:28 GMT

Michelle Mathias‌ might flag the owners of the space to draw this to their attention

Re: This forum needs more attention

MichelleMathias — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 12:00:29 GMT

Thank you Jafar for your feedback and Dan for bringing to my attention, we will investigate further who might be able to help with questions in this space.

Re: This forum needs more attention

JafarNajafli — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 13:45:07 GMT

Thanks Michelle.

I can see that the questions have started getting answered after my post. But a lot of recent questions still remain unanswered. I think this issue needs to be resolved asap for the future of CityEngine.

Re: This forum needs more attention

DevinLavigne — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 01:08:04 GMT

I know how you feel and I know learning CityEngine is tough. I try and make a point to visit this forum once a week and blast through as many answers as I can give in 30 mins to an hour. If you read through the forums there are a few really awesome and active users - like Thomas Fuchs Elliot Hartley David Wasserman Geoff Taylor Chris Wilkins L R Cheryl Lau - I'm sure there others - like Matthias Buehler but this is what came to mind. Some are Esri staff, some are power users. You can usually figure out their specialty is and try tagging them in a post to get a response. Like I just did

Re: This forum needs more attention

ElliotHartley — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 10:00:09 GMT

I agree with Devin Lavigne (thanks for tagging us in Devin!) #CityEngine can be tough to learn so I understand your frustration. I'm sure I am not alone here but those of us who do work with CityEngine professionally like myself (I do training and consultancy around CityEngine) and I guess Esri staff, often struggle to maintain a consistent presence on all these different channels. I, for example, focus on social media like Twitter, LinkedIn and my blog GeoPlanIT, rather than geonet as I (rightly or wrongly) assume that geonet is where Esri staff should provide most response to support/questions. Happy to answer questions when I see them but it has to managed against work commitments. If you reach out to me with questions on CityEngine directly I will respond I just don't check Geonet that much.. Great advice from Devin, find people's specialities and tag us into questions would be more effective...

Re: This forum needs more attention

JafarNajafli — Fri, 03 May 2019 13:19:55 GMT

thanks for your understanding. Tagging people sounds like a good idea, indeed. But yeah, it is obvious that Cityengine is growing and it needs more staff.

Re: This forum needs more attention

Anonymous User — Fri, 03 May 2019 13:35:13 GMT

You can tag me if you want. Here's the stuff I can help with:

- CGA questions in general.

- Using RPKs in ArcGIS Pro (rule packages written in CityEngine)

- Using the GP Tool Features From CityEngine Rules for creating multi-patch features from RPKs.

- Writing python scripts in Pro that use RPKs (for example: Power Transmission using CGA towers)

I don't know some of the newer features of the CityEngine application (scenarios, dashboards, etc.)

For Streets, tag David Wasserman‌.

I'll put it on my calendar to check the forum on a weekly basis.

Chris Wilkins

Re: This forum needs more attention

JafarNajafli — Mon, 06 May 2019 07:00:40 GMT

appreciate your commitment Chris, will do!

Re: This forum needs more attention

DavidWasserman — Mon, 13 May 2019 22:49:23 GMT

If you add David Wasserman‌, I typically try to answer within the week.

I echo your frustrations, and I realize it is not enough to just say go through the tutorials. A lot of learning comes from experimentation I found, but a lot can be found from the original tutorials.

A lot of us want you to succeed in your efforts, just tag us, and we will collectively build up the knowledge base one article at a time.