topic Re: CityEngine python commands in external IDE? in ArcGIS CityEngine Questions

CityEngine python commands in external IDE?

CarlBester1 — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 14:56:57 GMT

Hi guys,

Does anybody know if it is possible to import/use the CityEngine python commands in an external IDE, such as PyScriptor?

I've noticed that when you create a new Python module in CE it automatically imports all from scripting (from scripting import *).

However when I try to import scripting from PyScriptor it can't find it. Hopefully I'm just missing something small.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Carl

Re: CityEngine python commands in external IDE?

MatthewBaber — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 15:52:16 GMT

If you have a 3d analyst license then you should be able import certain rules packages from cityengine when using the command "import arcpy" at the beginning of the script.

I am unsure if this includes the full library of cityengine procedures, however, due to cityengine using jython not python.

example on importing rules: Features From CityEngine Rules—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

Re: CityEngine python commands in external IDE?

CarlBester1 — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 17:32:39 GMT

Hi Matthew thanks for the reply.

I was actually thinking more along the lines of the CE commands.

For example:

views = ce.getObjectsFrom(ce.get3DViews(), ce.isViewport)

views[0].setCameraPosition(0, 200, 0)

More examples of the CE commands can be seen at:

http://cehelp.esri.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.procedural.cityengine.help/html/manual/python/jscripting/jscripting_cat.html

Thanks,

Carl

Re: CityEngine python commands in external IDE?

CherylLau — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 17:59:20 GMT

No, sorry, it is currently not possible to call CE python scripts from outside of the GUI/externally. It's good to know that there's a demand for this though, so we appreciate your post.

Re: CityEngine python commands in external IDE?

ChristianShiel1 — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 21:23:40 GMT

Thanks for clearing this up. I would like to discuss the possibility of opening up this API to be externally accessible. How do I proceed?

Re: CityEngine python commands in external IDE?

ChristianShiel1 — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 21:29:20 GMT

PS I assume the same applies to the c++ SDK? (ie It can be used to extend the GUI but not make external calls).

Re: CityEngine python commands in external IDE?

ThomasFuchs — Fri, 05 Feb 2016 17:32:56 GMT

Could you please provide a use case for your feature request?
The CityEngine team knows some special use cases, where this can make sense, but we are still collecting more...

The C++ SDK can only provide a fraction of the CE python functionality, but here it is easier to open it up the externals IDEs.

Re: CityEngine python commands in external IDE?

ChristianShiel1 — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 01:12:11 GMT

I would like to create a tool that I can hook up cityengine with a games engine like Unity but without having to go through CityEngine GUI. For example I would want a web app that I can download an OSM file and this is put into CityEngine and then as a download comes a Unity project with the generated scene inside.

Re: CityEngine python commands in external IDE?

jsd_mvr — Sat, 24 Jan 2026 18:16:49 GMT

I was hoping it would be possible to use the python module in a continuous integration system to automatically generate updated rule packages whenever the source rules/assets are edited. We use the C++ SDK with rule packages for procedural content creation, so this is currently a manual step that requires using the City Engine UI