Basemap to CityEngine best practice

[KennethLindhardt]

I haven’t found a solution, on how to get basemaps into CityEngine smart! I don’t know if it’s not normal to export a basemap from ArcGIS, since I haven’t found a solution yet. What I do at this point.

Create my AOI, and cut my DTM to match. Then I’m not able to cut the basemap, so I’m actually using my AOI frame, to create a screenshot. That can not be the best way, and is defiantly not a great result.

[deleted-user-1T_bOHag6M8d · Accepted solution]

Hi Kenneth,

I turn off all other layers in ArcMap then export the basemap to a JPEG with the "Create World File" option checked. This creates a pretty decent georeferenced basemap image under 1MB that I can import into CityEngine.

[KennethLindhardt]

Thank you for that Nicholas. That was very useful. Much easier to actually create my AOI, than to clip in my layers from a polygon

[deleted-user-1T_bOHag6M8d]

Hi Kenneth,

Good to hear. I actually just posted a whole "getting started" tutorial that you might find interesting. It's geared towards my local users but the instructions can be modified for use by anyone/anywhere. Esri-CityEngine-tutorial/index.org at master · SJCGIS/Esri-CityEngine-tutorial · GitHub

[KennethLindhardt]

Thank you for sharing Nicholas!

[awei]

Hi Nicholas,

I used the same method but it's not georeferenced in CE. Any idea why?

[deleted-user-1T_bOHag6M8d]

Hi A Wei,

Make sure the ArcMap data frame you export the basemap from is in the same coordinate system that is used in CityEngine.

[awei]

Yes they are in the same coordinate system. Weird!!

[awei]

Did you add the basemap to CE in the same way as adding aerial image?

[deleted-user-1T_bOHag6M8d]

Does the exported JPG reference correctly when added to ArcMap? Maybe try creating a TIF or PNG with a world file instead.