topic CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling in ArcGIS CityEngine Questions

CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

AmitKokje2 — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 20:43:43 GMT

I am aware that CityEngine is not yet supporting LiDAR (LAS/ ASCII/ XYZ etc.) data directly, I managed to import a small set of LiDAR data as File GDB into CityEngine with attributes (elevation)

I have building polygons footprints data available and imported simultaneously with LiDAR GDB. (image attached ).

With standard arcGIS procedure (spatial join) it is easy to calculate and join the Avg. building height derived from LiDAR data to building polygons. But that will give very flat roofs for all the buildings.

Is it possible to model exact roofs façades (shape, orientation, aspect and slope) based on LiDAR information available?

Existing methods and rules in CityEngine are great to generate roofs at random, but what if we want to replicate existing city

using the available information?.

Is there any method to achieve this using LiDAR information available?

I am more interested in replicating roofs.

Thanks.

CityEngine usage level: Beginner

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

MatthiasBuehler1 — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 12:53:52 GMT

Hi !

CityEngine seems to have converted all the LIDAR points into little point markers, but that's not a proper way to work with LIDAR. Actually, LIDAR is not supported at all.

To derive proper Roofs from LIDAR, you'd have to use ArcGIS or better contact a company who is specified in that type of processing.

CityEngine is a procedural modeling application, thus it's specialty is to create geometries based on rule sets you define. CityEngine is not meant to be an application which lets you get 3d buildings from LIDAR data.

Let me know if you have more questions..

matt

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

AidaAfrooz — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 23:25:43 GMT

Hello Matt,

I read your reply to @Amit which goes back to 2012... just want to double check if the same is true for CE 2015.

I have similar problem and want to use Lidar data to capture roof details of buildings beside the average height.

Best,

Aida

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

ChristianShiel1 — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 00:48:13 GMT

I am also trying to do the same thing. Can you point me to the features in ArcGIS that could help me do this?

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

Gert_van_Maren — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 07:53:49 GMT

Hi guys,

We recently released the Local Government Schematic Scene solution. This solution allows you to create LOD2 buildings (roof forms) out of building footprints and lidar. We use 3D and Spatial Analyst to extract information from the lidar such as eaveHeight, Building Height, roof form, roof direction and then use CityEngine rule packages to create the LOD2 buildings.

You can download the solution here:

Local Government Scenes | ArcGIS for Local Government

Web scene:

Local Government Schematic Scene

Cheers Gert

Gert van Maren

Esri software solutions

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

KennethLindhardt — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 07:57:00 GMT

Hi, yes, CityEgnine don’t support LIDAR. If you want to create the most accurate building geometry from LIDAR, you could create multipatches from the LIDAR Surface with ArcGIS. This will create a static geometry, that contains a lot of polygons and therefor it’s not recommended for larger areas, also the building will get very edged.

What I normally do, is that I’m creating a slope raster from the LIDAR, and assign the majority of that slope to each building, with control points on each building footprint, I can get close to which rooftype that will match. Ex. If 3 control points in the center of a building, from gable to gable has the same height , but the facades has a lower height, then you have a gable roof, and so on.

The control points are created in CityEngine, and imported into ArcGIS, for adding the information. As soon as you got the information, then you can use CityEngine to automatically generate low polygon smart models.

It’s not 100 % accurate all the time, but simple roofs will get very close to the real thing. As soon as you have multiply roof geometries inside the same footprint, I see no other way than to split the polygon matching the different geometries, or use the LIDAR to multipatch, If you want the automated process.

Esri Netherland has created an comparison scene, where you can see a couple of procedural workflows VS. Direct from LIDAR, and the hand modelled city model.

http://esrinederland.maps.arcgis.com/apps/CEWebViewer/viewer.html?3dWebScene=303cc1648cb944e8bd36a854e921bed4

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

KennethLindhardt — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 09:17:17 GMT

Thanks for sharing Gert 🙂

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

JavadSalimi — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 17:30:39 GMT

Hi Gert,

First, thank you for the solution.

I downloaded it but noticed that there aren't any instructions. Would you mind describing the recommended workflow? I don't need step by step details but I believe a description of the general process would be very helpful.

Thank you,

Javad

GIS Specialist

Township of Langley

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

Gert_van_Maren — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 17:46:11 GMT

Hi Javad,

The instructions are on those Local Government pages as well under the Get Started tab.

Get started overview - Local Government Scenes | ArcGIS for Local Government

Just pick the scene you would like to start with on the left - Basic or Schematic. Keep in mind that the quality of the roof forms that created in the Schematic workflow, greatly depend on the resolution of the Lidar data and building footprints. We recommend 3 feet or less point spacing for the Schematic Scene workflow.

For the refinement of the roof forms, there is also a helpful video on the Roof Form Extraction page.

Cheers Gert

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

JavadSalimi — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 17:38:38 GMT

Hi Gert,

Thank you for the lead. I see also that the real workflow is spelled out in the ArcGIS Pro "tasks" area. It's brilliant.

Javad

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

deleted-user-OlpHy1NoMNug — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 13:55:55 GMT

Javad,

What's the location for the ArcGIS Pro "tasks" area you're referencing?

Scott

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

JavadSalimi — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 17:08:34 GMT

Hi Scott,

When using the specified ArcGIS Pro project, which in my case was the SchematicLocalGovernmentScene.aprx, it's located in Projects>Tasks, as shown below:

Cheers

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

JavadSalimi — Wed, 11 May 2016 00:00:51 GMT

Hi again, Gert,

Would you be able to help me overcome the following error message? I get it when running the extract roof form tool...

Thank you!

Javad

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

MicahTaylor — Wed, 11 May 2016 16:04:52 GMT

If I follow the Local Government workflow (mentioned above) and create building models from LIDAR in ArcGIS Pro....Those buildings are "multipatch" correct???

And if they are multipatch....I cannot use them in an ArcGIS online Scene without ArcGIS Portal?

But I can import those multipatch buildings to CityEngine or create a .3ws web scene?

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

EmiliaGodlewska — Fri, 13 May 2016 08:45:00 GMT

Gert,

I try to apply the tasks from your Local Government Schematic Scene solution to my project. All worked fine for sample data, but for the data I use there is a following error while trying to run Extract Roof Form tool. Would you be able to help me fix this problem?

Thank you,

Emilia

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

MeganWirth — Mon, 16 May 2016 02:06:30 GMT

Same exact error here. Have no idea whats happening.

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

JavadSalimi — Tue, 17 May 2016 23:53:04 GMT

Resolved

Thanks to ESRI support, was able to determine that my parameters were too high for min flat roof area and min slope roof area, which were 1000 and 300 respectively. Lesson learned - stick to guidelines described in the information icon in the tool itself.

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

Derekharbaugh — Mon, 04 Jul 2016 02:48:28 GMT

Has anyone figured this out? Im gettimg the same error as well.

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

MeganWirth — Mon, 04 Jul 2016 12:08:42 GMT

In my case Derek my building footprint data had an ObjectID field and an additional field ObjectID_1 which was generating the error. I deleted the second Object ID field and it worked like a charm. Hope that helps

Re: CityEngine, LiDAR, building footprints and roof modelling

Gert_van_Maren — Mon, 04 Jul 2016 22:12:38 GMT

Hi Emilia,

This error is possibly due to incorrect values for minimum flat or slope roof areas. Keep in mind that the default values are in square feet. If your base data is in meters, you will need to convert these values to square meters.

Otherwise if you can send me some sample data, I am happy to see what is going on.

Gert