ArcGIS CityEngine Blog

Nvidia has announced that it will be transitioning Omniverse to a dedicated Developer SDK and is stopping development of connectors effective October 1st, 2025. In response to this change, Esri will also be retiring the Omniverse Connector integration in ArcGIS CityEngine.

ArcGIS CityEngine 2024.1 is the final release to support the Omniverse Connector (version 1.0.6). The Connector will no longer be available for download after October 1, 2025.

While the connector is being deprecated, the built-in USD exporter of ArcGIS CityEngine provides an alternative workflow to export city models to Omniverse. This is done by manually uploading your exported USD files to the Omniverse Nucleus server. This approach provides similar results to the connector, though without automated network transfer and live sync capabilities:

1. Use the CityEngine "Universal Scene Description (USD)" exporter to write the desired scene to USD files.
2. Use the Content Browser of an Omniverse-Kit Application (e.g. Composer) to open or upload the files to an Omniverse Nucleus server.
   

    

Additionally, we will also retire "Serlio", the CityEngine plugin for Autodesk Maya at the same date. Release 2.3.0 for CityEngine 2023.1 is the final release.

Serlio was originally developed for the M&E sector to help ingesting complex procedural building models into asset management systems. With the advent of USD (Universal Scene Description), this workflow is now considered obsolete.

We recommend users of the "Serlio" plugin to consider an USD based workflow:

We are happy to announce the release of version 2.2.0 of ArcGIS CityEngine for Houdini (formerly known as Palladio)!

Download the release from our Github page and see the manual for detailed installation instructions.

Notable changes include:

• Updated Procedural Runtime (PRT) to 3.2.10650 (corresponds to CityEngine 2024.1).
• Added support for Houdini 20.5.
• Added support for polygon holes when converting Houdini geometry into PRT initial shapes.
• Re-branding from "Palladio" to "ArcGIS CityEngine for Houdini".

Please see the release notes for complete set of changes.

We are happy to announce the release of PyPRT 1.11! Please find information about what PyPRT is here.

The PyPRT packages are available on PyPI (https://pypi.org/project/pyprt) and on Anaconda Cloud (https://anaconda.org/esri/pyprt). Please see the README for installation instructions and example scripts.

Main changes compared to 1.10 (see changelog for all changes):

• Added support for Rule Packages (RPK) created with ArcGIS CityEngine 2024.1.
• Added support for Python 3.12, including pre-built wheels and conda packages.
• PyPRT and the underlying PRT library are now initialized and shutdown automatically.

We are happy to announce the release of version 1.3.0 of ArcGIS CityEngine for Rhino!

To get the latest release, please use the built-in Package Manager of Rhino (Tools -> Package Manager) and search for "CityEngine". Or download and run the installer manually. Please find detailed instructions the manual.

The one notable change compared to version 1.2 is support for Rule Packages (RPK) created with ArcGIS CityEngine 2024.1.

We are excited to announce the release of the Omniverse Connector 1.0.6 for CityEngine 2024.1!

Please download the installer from our github page: https://github.com/Esri/cityengine/releases/tag/omni-1.0.6

It’s always inspiring to see how the ArcGIS CityEngine community tackles real-world challenges. It is especially exciting when they share their work! In this new case study, learn how a team at UC Louvain in Brussels used CityEngine for a Python automated viewshed analysis to assess potential locations for Small Urban Wind Turbines (SUWTs) in downtown Brussels.

We are happy to announce the release of version 1.2.0 of ArcGIS CityEngine for Rhino (formerly known as "Puma")!

To get the latest release use the built-in Package Manager of Rhino (Tools -> Package Manager). Or download and run the installer manually. Detailed instructions are available in the manual.

Notable changes compared to version 1.1.0 include:

• Added a new bulk component for Grasshopper which accepts CGA attributes as a list of key:value pairs.
• Added support for rule packages (RPK) created with ArcGIS CityEngine 2024.0.
• Added support for Rhino 8 and removed support for Rhino 6.
• Small restructuring of the Grasshopper component toolbar to make it more accessible for new users.

We are happy to release another beta version of ArcGIS CityEngine for Rhino (Puma)!

Please find the download in the "assets" section on our GitHub release page: https://github.com/Esri/puma/releases/tag/v1.2.0b2

Notable changes in version 1.2.0 include:

• New "bulk" component which accepts CGA attributes as a list of key:value pairs.
• Support for CityEngine 2024.0.
• Support for Rhino 8 (and removal of Rhino 6).

We are excited to announce the release of the Omniverse Connector for CityEngine 2024.0 on our GitHub: https://esri.github.io/cityengine/omniverse

Scroll down and see the Download link on the bottom left.

Thanks for your interest in CityEngine and Omniverse/USD.

In this Blogpost we will show you how you can get the best out of your graphics card and improve visual fidelity in CityEngine with the proper settings. We also help you identify what graphics card you are using and how you can make CityEngine use the correct one.