Create round buildings or buildings with curved walls

[DavidKenley]

Hello,

I'm fairly new to CityEngine, I've checked the help pages but I'm not seeing the information I might need. I understand CityEngine has built in L-Shapes, O-Shapes and U-shapes, but what is the easiest way to procedurally generate more unusual building shapes?

I suppose for a specific example, on a square lot, what's the best way to extrude a triangular or rounded building shape?

Thanks,

David

[JonathonLentine]

I don't know about triangles, but the mass modeling tutorial shows you how to do round buildings.

[DavidKenley]

Hello,

Apologies for the late reply. I see in the tutorial to create cylindrical towers they just import a premade cylindrical asset:

Tower -->
case geometry.isRectangular(20):
  20% : i("cyl.obj") RecursiveSetbacks
  else: RecursiveSetbacks
else: RecursiveSetbacks

I was hoping there was a way to create a round object from shapes similar to the L-shapes. Importing whole premade assets is a possibility but not how I was hoping to solve this problem. I can make triangular buildings on triangular lots by doing a simple offset then extrude operation, but not on a rectangular lot unfortunately.

I think it's probably impossible sadly. Thanks again for the response.

- David

[MatthiasBuehler1]

Hi David,

Can you post some reference images of what you imagine ?

Let me know..

m.

[DavidKenley]

Hello,

Certainly! Here's a building that would be a good example, a few different views. Nothing too complex but an interesting shape.

http://www.calypso.net.au/static/tsg/supub/S/images/H/YVR/SHW/Sheraton_Wall_Centre_-_Exterior_with_g...
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8453/8054997244_05ba6cc464_o.jpg
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3069/2730296503_57816da258_b.jpg
http://boardingarea.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/loyaltytraveler/files/2008/11/vancouver-sheraton-wall-ce...

Maybe this building would also be a good very simple example.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Smith_Tower_Vancouver_Washington_2010.JPG

Hope this helps visualise what I'm looking to build procedurally.

Thanks,

David

[MatthiasBuehler1]

Hi !


The easiest to start with this is to take any flat polygon with an interesting form, insert this via i() as building footprint, then extrude. Using recursions, you can create quite interesting forms !

Check the attachment ..


Ok ?

[DavidKenley]

Hello,

I'll try starting with a custom footprint, that's something that may work for us. You cga file makes very interesting buildings, I'll start trying to incorporate some rotations into my building designs too.

Thanks!

David

[MatthiasBuehler1]

Hi,

Playing with it is the best thing.

Not everything is possible of course, but if you need specific forms, post an image of them and I can tell you precisely if and how they can be built in CGA. I just need an input image to check.

Matt