topic Re: FBX Export Issues / Unreal UDK in ArcGIS CityEngine Questions

FBX Export Issues / Unreal UDK

JonahAdkins — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:25:32 GMT

New to CityEngine and having fun! I have selected several buildings, and am exporting them to fbx with a 'write t3d' python script on the back end. The t3d script creates a name for each building (actor). The fbx exporter creates a seperate name for each fbx model. Therefore the models referenced in the t3d dont match.

Help!

Re: FBX Export Issues / Unreal UDK

MatthiasBuehler1 — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:35:26 GMT

Hi Jonah,

are you writing that python script yourself or did you find the old one we provided 1.5 years ago on the old procedural forum ?

Re: FBX Export Issues / Unreal UDK

JonahAdkins — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:47:01 GMT

Hi Jonah,

are you writing that python script yourself or did you find the old one we provided 1.5 years ago on the old procedural forum ?

I am editing the old script "write_instances_t3d.py" I was able to successfully edit the script to match the names assigned by the fbx exporter. It seems there should be a way to change the naming convention that is assigned by the fbx exporter.

Haven't figured out how to get the textures to come into the UDK on the fbx models..??

Re: FBX Export Issues / Unreal UDK

MatthiasBuehler1 — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:07:18 GMT

I am not really familiar with the script, but what I'd recommend is you adapt the fbx exporter settings to change the behavior ..

sorry to ask, but did you check the CE Help (F1) Python Scripting > Commands by Category > FBXExportModelSettings
?

class FBXExportModelSettings :
setGeneralName()

to also get the textures and copy them to the output dir, I'd use :
getMaterialsCollectTextures()

does this what you need ?

Re: FBX Export Issues / Unreal UDK

JonahAdkins — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:11:40 GMT

I ended up modifying the script to change the name of the paths in the t3d script to match the auto-naming of the fbx exporter.....i like your suggestion about the fbx name call, i will have to look into that...

Re: FBX Export Issues / Unreal UDK

MatthiasBuehler1 — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:47:23 GMT

ok, cool !

let me know how it works !

Re: FBX Export Issues / Unreal UDK

DavidBawel — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 22:32:09 GMT

Hi,

I was trying to contact Jonah as he appears to be the only person I've found with any question related to Unreal Engine. We are having issues exporting FBX files from City Engine in groups that we can use to remap and work with in Unreal 4 as well as Motionbuilder. If Jonah can respond to this post to describe the issue he was having as well as any info he can provide about FBX exporting from CE, this would be very valuable to us. Also, I cannot locate the write_instances_t3d.py script that is referenced in this post.
If anyone can respond with info on how we can have more control over the model and texture export as FBX file from City Engine, this would be great. Otherwise, the way they are currently grouped on export is useless for us in Unreal and Motionbuilder.

Thank you,

David Bawel

Re: FBX Export Issues / Unreal UDK

JonahAdkins — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 15:31:00 GMT

David,

Sad To Say I've Been Out Of The UnReal / City Engine Game For Awhile (1.5 yrs). Here Is The Link To The Older Forum Post That Includes The Download For The UnReal /UDK Workflow Sample http://forums.esri.com/CityEngine/forum-16088.html

Re: FBX Export Issues / Unreal UDK

ZorkoSostaric1 — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 00:30:42 GMT

David,

I am trying to get CE generated content in UE (time permitting) but I have issues with scale of my models in UE4 (FBX models). If you get them in UE properly let me know.

Thanks.

Zorko Sostaric

Re: FBX Export Issues / Unreal UDK

DanielWinkler2 — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 13:53:43 GMT

Unfortunately the links do not work anymore.

Is there any way to get the "write_t3d.py" script.

Kind regards,

Daniel

Re: FBX Export Issues / Unreal UDK

ZorkoSostaric1 — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 18:40:28 GMT

Daniel,

Did you try exporting to FBX from CE and importing those in Unreal Engine? I didn't try UnrealEngine 4.15 yet in this workflow but I did successfully use this workflow in past. FBXfrom CE can be easily imported to Unity and most of other modern game engines. GDC 2017 starts tomorrow so we can expect more news on state of game engines.

Re: FBX Export Issues / Unreal UDK

DanielWinkler2 — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 06:58:48 GMT

Dear Zorko,

thank you for your message.

I followed the Unity workflow and it works fine with Unreal Engine.

For anyone having similar problems here is a nice ESRI How To: Export textured models from CityEngine into Unity

http://support.esri.com/technical-article%5C000012449

New Link: How To: Export textured models from CityEngine into Unity

Kind regards,

Daniel