topic Re: Building Footprint Extrusion in ArcGIS CityEngine Questions

Building Footprint Extrusion

GarySchells — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 19:24:21 GMT

Hello there,
I am now trying to create a rule to extrude my building footprints based on an attribute in the table. My rule is as follows

/**
* File: BldgHeight.cga
* Created: 18 Oct 2013 19:30:10 GMT
* Author: gschells
*/

version "2012.1"

# this attribute will be sourced to the object attribute
attr RoofElevat = 0

@StartRule
Lot -->
extrude(RoofElevat)

I have assigned this rule file to my building footprints and set the Start Rule value to "Lot", but my buildings remain flat polygons. I would appreciate any feedback. My hope is that as I get through my project via baby steps I'll be qualified to actually answer some questions.

Thanks

Re: Building Footprint Extrusion

MatthiasBuehler1 — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 15:57:12 GMT

Hi Gary.

You may be the fastest if you first go through all the tutorials ( esp. 1 - 6 ) and the 1 hour video here:

http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/64843-CityEngine-Collection-RESOURCES-FAQ-HELP

Plus maybe this sticky thread tutorial, which explains exactly what you need:
http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/53008-GIS-Data-Mini-Tutorial-Building-Height-and-Floor-Splits

Ok ? 🙂

Re: Building Footprint Extrusion

GarySchells — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 12:53:56 GMT

Thank you Matt. I've viewed the one hour video but will look at those tutorials.

Can you explain why I see no files in the navigator window nor anything in my viewport when I open an existing workspace? When I try to import my CE project it says it is already in the existing workspace but I see no evidence of it.

Thank you

Re: Building Footprint Extrusion

MatthiasBuehler1 — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 13:21:51 GMT

hi,

the workspace metadata could be garbled.

just create a complete new workspace in CityEngine ( Switch workspace, then enter a new workspace name, that doesn's exist, in the dialog ). then move all projects from the old workspaces in this new one, then import them in the new workspace.

if it works, delete all the old workspaces.

ok ?

Re: Building Footprint Extrusion

GarySchells — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 14:02:07 GMT

OK, thank you. I'll try that today. Could the issue have anything to do with the workspace and files being located on a network drive and accessing it from two different machines?

Re: Building Footprint Extrusion

MatthiasBuehler1 — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 12:17:34 GMT

hi,

Theoretically not, but I've had 1 other customer had issue with loading stuff ( workspaces, projects ) from somewhere in the network. the poor girl had to create new workspaces quite often.

We've done some tests for this some time ago, where it worked. but as you know, there may be any number of possible issues else, which influence such endeavors. Plus, it's almost impossible to reproduce such issues if you don't have the exact same setup.

Good luck - let me know how it goes.

Anyway - I'd recommend to work on one 'beastly machine' anyway, with fast harddrive and graphics card.. avoiding any network latency, especially when working with big datasets.

Cheers !

matt

Re: Building Footprint Extrusion

GarySchells — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 17:07:46 GMT

Matt,
I am going through the video tutorials as well as your mini tutorial . I am still unable to get my buildings to extrude based on an attribute in my GIS data. They all exrtude to the same height. I have followed the steps to assign my extrude attribute to my GIS attribute. I selected Layer Attribute in the "Select Source for attribute". "Object attribute" is greyed out. Any input would be appreciated.

Thank you

Re: Building Footprint Extrusion

MatthiasBuehler1 — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 13:50:10 GMT

Hi,

The attribute must have EXACTLY the same name as the object attribute.

Can you post a screenshot of CityEngine with the code and obj attr tab open ?

m.

Re: Building Footprint Extrusion

GarySchells — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 14:52:38 GMT

matthiasbuehler;339847 wrote:
Hi,

The attribute must have EXACTLY the same name as the object attribute.

Can you post a screenshot of CityEngine with the code and obj attr tab open ?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the reply Matt. I believe the naming is OK. I've attached a screen capture.

Re: Building Footprint Extrusion

MatthiasBuehler1 — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 15:22:34 GMT

Then I assume the object attributes must all have the same value of 35.15 or so.

Can you check by selecting some shapes ?

The code looks ok so far, also the attr source link.

Maybe just reimport the GIS data. It could have happened that you have overridden the value with just 1 value while playing.

Lemme know.

m.

Re: Building Footprint Extrusion

GarySchells — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 15:45:36 GMT

Thanks again Matt. I re-imported and I think the buildings are extruding to correct height.