topic Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training in ArcGIS CityEngine Questions

Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

MatthiasBuehler1 — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:59:30 GMT

Dear all,

We're getting a lot of inquiries concerning training materials, tutorials and other resources, to learn the CityEngine most efficiently.

Here's the list of resources I usually recommend :

I highly recommend to browse through all the mentioned resources since they contain all the basic information to get started on a professional level CityEngine project.

1] Esri Educational Services Intro Video
Free training seminar video (60') : 'Getting Started with CityEngine'
http://training.esri.com/gateway/index.cfm?fa=catalog.webcoursedetail&courseid=2567

2] Esri Educational Services Essential Skills Videos
3 videos on:
- Installing Esri CityEngine
- Exploring the User Interface and Navigation Controls
- Managing CityEngine Projects

http://training.esri.com/gateway/index.cfm?fa=catalog.webCourseDetail&courseid=2794

3] Resource Center : Videos
http://video.arcgis.com/series/62/cityengine/date/desc

Recommended are all videos which were recorded on version 2012.1, as indicated in each description. [ Some of the videos are older, though we decided to keep them on the web. ]
These give a good overview over how the CityEngine works in it???s basics and what the common workflows are.

I recommend to go through all of them and try to follow the concepts, even though the user interface may have changed slightly between the versions.

Find the current list of Tutorial videos and 2012 Features here:
http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/64843-CityEngine-Collection-RESOURCES-FAQ-HELP

4] Quick Start Guide
Go to Help > Help Contents > Quick Start Guide

5] Manual
There???s a detailed manual inside the CityEngine. Go to Help > Help Contents

6] Example Cities
Have a look at the downloadable Example Cities. Download them via Help > Download Tutorials and Examples
Or via the Resource Center:
http://resources.arcgis.com/en/communities/city-engine/01w90000000r000000.htm#s=0&n=30&d=1&md=cte-ce-version:10

7] Written Tutorials
The written Tutorials (PDFs) are located within the downloadable tutorial project's 'scenes' folder.

8] CityEngine Workflows
http://resources.arcgis.com/en/communities/city-engine/01w90000000r000000.htm#s=0&n=30&d=1&md=cte-ce-version:10_cte-resource-type:0000010000

9] Dedicated Forums
http://forums.arcgis.com/forums/45-Solutions

These 5 dedicated forums already have a great traction and are a valuable resource for basic and advanced questions. I???m here a lot and answer most questions personally.

10] Matt's Youtube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNS4TLgToEDQiH9pi06ofOA

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

karelinjavakarelinjava — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 07:38:15 GMT

Thank you very much.It's really helpful for me.Resources Worth Spreading.:o

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

RamliJannatul_Alia — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 09:16:56 GMT

i ve something in my mind. is it possible for me to add some menu interface in city engine instead of run script to run a function? im totally new to this .. just browse some videos on it..and still trying to get city engine big picture ><. ty

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

MatthiasBuehler1 — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 05:51:40 GMT

I'd recommend to download the Trial download and read the Quick Start Guide for the very basics.

Concerning Interface :

Not sure on which level of complexity you need the interface, but many things can be done with Python scripting. Little GUIs with buttons are possible, but that's quite high-level, so you'll not have access to all CE functionality.

Welcome to the forum and have fun with CityEngine !

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

JoanneO_Brien — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 22:49:27 GMT

I found an online video of a cityengine tutorial for GIS mapping using version 2009.3. I was wondering if this tutorial was still available somewhere as it looked quite useful. It was labled tutorial 12, but that tutorial is now the scripted report export. In the tutorial video I was particually interested in the part about using an aerial photograph to generate the roof textures for the city which I'd like to be able to recreate myself.

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

RamliJannatul_Alia — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 07:18:15 GMT

i ve download the tutorials . and read quick start. now im trying to use Tkinter library in City Engine. Tutorial given is for arcGIs. do you have any tutorial link on city engine pythone GUI. thanks

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

RamliJannatul_Alia — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 01:08:46 GMT

one more question. can i create / customize city engine wizard accordingly to my requirement?

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

MatthiasBuehler1 — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 10:20:00 GMT

Hey !

@ Joanne :

That tutorial is no more available, but if you have questions, feel free to open an other thread, e.g. concerning the roof texturing, which btw. can be done quite easily.

Note : More new official CityEngine training materials are currently being produced.

@ Ramli :

I've made a simple little GUI some time ago, but I currently don't remember which way I did it. Please just open a new thread in the CityEngine Python Forum. I'll try to find the example, so I can post it there.

The GUI in CityEngine itself can sadly not be changed at the moment, but we've had this request before, so this may be something which will be possible sometime in future.

matt

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

KieranMurphy_GISP — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 11:39:36 GMT

Good Morning All -

Q: As I am trying to load the Philadelphia Example, I
keep getting the message that my Memory is low, and would
I like to Purge. How can I set the Memory parameters higher,
I have a new workstation, and memory should not be a problem,
thanks.

Another Question:
Who created the Philadelphia Example, someone at ESRI,
or someone in Philadelphia ? Thank you.

Have an excellent day !

Peace.

Kieran

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

MatthiasBuehler1 — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 11:03:48 GMT

Hi !

In the CityEngine.ini file which you find in the program's directory, edit the line
-Xmx2048M

to a bigger value .. e.g.

-Xmx4096M ( does not have to be a power of 2 value )

This will increase the RAM amount which is reserved for the Java side of CityEngine. Note this RAM is locked for CE only and cannot be accessed by other applications or OS. This is a Java thing. So play with this very carefully.

Cheers !

Matt

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

KieranMurphy_GISP — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 12:55:15 GMT

Matthias-

Thank you so much for your quick response !

I will give this a try later today, and let you know how it worked, thanks.

Have an excellent day !

Peace.

Kieran

Hi !

In the CityEngine.ini file which you find in the program's directory, edit the line
-Xmx2048M

to a bigger value .. e.g.

-Xmx4096M ( does not have to be a power of 2 value )

This will increase the RAM amount which is reserved for the Java side of CityEngine. Note this RAM is locked for CE only and cannot be accessed by other applications or OS. This is a Java thing. So play with this very carefully.

Cheers !

Matt

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

DavidKossowsky — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 01:37:57 GMT

Hello,

I am trying to follow the 3DCity workflows, however they are very unclear. The Building Analysis workflow refers to Part 1 and 2 of the series, however I can't find this anywhere on the workflow site. It also says that we should start CityEngine and load the "3D City Creation" project from parts 2 and 4! If somebody could please direct me to whatever this tutorial is referring to I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

MatthiasBuehler1 — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:11:07 GMT

Hi !

the workflow packages are now numbered accordingly.

click on each link and you'll find parts 1-6.

m.

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

henkkramer — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 08:22:55 GMT

Hello,

I've dowloaded the first 3DCity Data preparation workflow to get started with cityengine. This works fine except for the 3D Urban Information Model. The 3DUIM Data Import toolbox does not contain any model (the size on disk is 156 kb so it's not completely empty). can you make these models available?

thanks,
Henk

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

MatthiasBuehler1 — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:58:30 GMT

Hi !

The data is in part 3 (not 1000% sure though) .. This is a little odd, but download all parts, then you get all data for sure.

Cheers !

M.

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

henkkramer — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 10:46:44 GMT

Hi !

The data is in part 3 (not 1000% sure though) .. This is a little odd, but download all parts, then you get all data for sure.

Cheers !

M.

Hi Matthias,

I've checked all the parts but it is only available in part 1.
I've attachted the tbx file (zipped), when I open this in ArcCatalog it does not contain any models. Can you check this?

Thanks

Henk

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

MatthiasBuehler1 — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:53:42 GMT

Hi ..

I got some feedback :

The toolbox relies on the Data Interoperability extension from Safe software.

Do you have that installed?

Matt

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

LIUCIJAPAGIRYTE — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 10:52:05 GMT

Hello,
Where could I find the 3DUIM decription?
Thanks
Lucia

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

MatthiasBuehler1 — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:11:04 GMT

Hi ..

The '3DCIM' ( the UIM got renamed to CIM ) is not yet available.

PM me if you're interested to joing the beta program.

Cheers !

Matt

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

henkkramer — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:29:11 GMT

Hi ..

I got some feedback :

The toolbox relies on the Data Interoperability extension from Safe software.

Do you have that installed?

Matt

Hi,

this solves the problem, after installing the Data Interoperability extension the toolbox is available.
Thanks
Henk