First and for most I love the idea of City Engine and its purpose. I have found this tool a great asset in the office and have followed it since its start at Siggraph 2008 or 2009 where I first saw it.
I am using the City Engine 2015 product. I have just ran the City Engine 2015 for the very first time and was compelled to write in this forum in hopes for a change. Unfortunately it opens up similar to the last program City Engine 2014.
I would like for this message to be sent to the UI designers / programmers.
There are few things that I dislike about this product:
1. It takes so much just to run the program. I would like to just get in and be able to work / play / test things out without always having to setup folders and other things I could actually do later. It seems like that process wastes time.
Solution: Study other 3D modeling program interfaces already on the market such as autodesk maya, modo, or presagis creator. These are more artist friendly tools aiding in content creation. The interface starts right up in these programs. I can start creating instantly. The program remembers that I am using feet and there is a grid with a set spacing at 0,0,0. The user should have a set default screen that one may immediately begin working, instead of trying to find out why there is "No Scene".
I actually had to load a generic scene and then erase all of the content in order to start working with in the scene.
2. I use some of those tools listed above, maya and creator. The programs incorporate the 3D mouse as a standard plugin. I was able to use the 3D mouse rarely in City Engine 2014 (not sure how that happened). It seems as though there is a plugin for the expensive version of City Engine and not the basic or standard version. It would be greatly appreciated if the 3D mouse functionality could be unlocked for the basic or standard version. This would speed up work flow since I use this in all the other programs. It would also cut back on wrist and finger fatigue.
3. I like the idea of the reading and the placement of the real world location upon import from openstreets tool, but for the work that is done in this office, the majority of the maps needs to be centered to 0,0,0 xyz axis as possible. The import / export functionality seems to be a bit cumbersome. It would be nice if the import / export could have a generic location of 0,0,0 even if the object has to be rotated later.
4. It makes no sense why I am not able to search my entire computer to find contents to import / use in this program. I am only restricted to the created folder at the start. There should be a function that allows the content to be copied / saved into a setup folder.
These are normal and basic functions / things I use all the time in my other 3d packages. They are quite easy to use. I have some difficulty doing what seemingly should be basic tasks here in City Engine.
