Latest Contributions by MatthiasBuehler1

‎03-18-2013

Hi vsfoote, Here's the answer from our main dev : We'll bee looking into this. Concerning 1) The problem ist that ArcGIS Administrator writes the .esriConfig file into the home dir and we go grab it there. As a workaround, you can copy this .esriConfig file into each Home via your login script. Concerning 2) You can also set the workspace in CityEngine.ini : -data <location> (OSGi) equivalent to setting osgi.instance.area to <location> osgi.instance.area {-data} the instance data location for this session. Plug-ins use this location to store their data. For example, the Resources plug-in uses this as the default location for projects (aka the workspace). See the section on locations for more details. Locations The Eclipse runtime defines a number of locations which give plug-in developers context for reading/storing data and Eclipse users a control over the scope of data sharing and visibility. Eclipse defines the following notions of location: User (-user) {osgi.user.area} [@none, @noDefault, @user.home, @user.dir, filepath, url] User locations are specific to, go figure, users. Typically the user location is based on the value of the Java user.home system property but this can be overridden. Information such as user scoped preferences and login information may be found in the user location. Install (-install) {osgi.install.area} [@user.home, @user.dir, filepath, url] An install location is where Eclipse itself is installed. In practice this location is the directory (typically "eclipse") which is the parent of the eclipse.exe being run or the plugins directory containing the org.eclipse.equinox.launcher bundle. This location should be considered read-only to normal users as an install may be shared by many users. It is possible to set the install location and decouple eclipse.exe from the rest of Eclipse. Configuration (-configuration) {osgi.configuration.area} [@none, @noDefault, @user.home, @user.dir, filepath, url] Configuration locations contain files which identify and manage the (sub)set of an install to run. As such, there may be many configurations per install. Installs may come with a default configuration area but typical startup scenarios involve the runtime attempting to find a more writable configuration location. Instance (-data) {osgi.instance.area} [@none, @noDefault, @user.home, @user.dir, filepath, url] Instance locations contain user-defined data artifacts. For example, the Resources plug-in uses the instance area as the workspace location and thus the default home for projects. Other plugins are free to write whatever files they like in this location. While users can set any of these locations, Eclipse will compute reasonable defaults if values are not given. The most common usecase for setting location is the instance area or, in the IDE context, the workspace. To run the default Eclipse configuration on a specific data set you can specify: eclipse -data c:\mydata More detail Locations are URLs. For simplicity, file paths are also accepted and automatically converted to file: URLs. For better control and convenience, there are also a number of predefined symbolic locations which can be used. Note that not all combinations of location type and symbolic value are valid. A table below details which combinations are possible. Since the default case is for all locations to be set, valid and writable, some plug-ins may fail in other setups even if they are listed as possible. For example, it is unreasonable to expect a plug-in focused on user data (e.g., the Eclipse Resources plug-in) to do much if the instance area is not defined. It is up to plug-in developers to choose the setups they support and design their functionality accordingly. @none Indicates that the corresponding location should never be set either explicitly or to its default value. For example, an RCP style application which has no user data may use osgi.instance.area=@none to prevent extraneous files being written to disk. @none must not be followed by any additional path segments. @noDefault Forces a location to be undefined or explicitly defined (i.e., Eclipse will not automatically compute a default value). This is useful where you want to allow for data in the corresponding location but the Eclipse default value is not appropriate. @noDefault must not be followed by any additional path segments. @user.home Directs Eclipse to compute a location value relative to the user's home directory. @user.home can be followed by additional path segments. In all cases, the string "@user.home" is simply replaced with the value of the Java "user.home" System property. For example, setting [email protected]/myWorkspace results in a value of file:/users/bob/myWorkspace @user.dir Directs Eclipse to compute a location value relative to the current working directory. @user.dir can be followed by additional path segments. In all cases, the string "@user.dir" is simply replaced with the value of the Java "user.dir" System property. For example, setting [email protected]/myWorkspace results in a value of file:/usr/share/eclipse/myWorkspace Does this help ? Matt

‎03-18-2013

Hi ! Do you have Skype ? Maybe it's best to talk via Skype to track this down. If you have Skype, please send me a PM here on the forum with your Skype address. Let me know. Matt

‎03-18-2013

Hi, The difference seems to be that 'B' is better than 'A' ( or nothing ). See here : http://glcf.umd.edu/data/srtm/ You you always want to go for something like 'Filled Finished-B'. The version with the holes seems also to have a slight different projection than the 'B' version. [there's about 4'000 projections, so it's a real mess to understand] * * * Do you know http://www.openstreetmap.org ? That's a free source of footprints, road center lines and such. You can import this too into your scene. OSM data is unprojected ( has big coordinate values ), so you can import them directly into a georeferenced scene. My coworker got me this link where you can find all osm data for greece : http://download.geofabrik.de/europe.html In this link, you also find the .shp equivalent, which I used to test if the DEMs are properly aligned. * * * I played around with all the files: I put all the files in ArcMap, see map_1.png to map_4.png. Note that I see the basic raw data in ArcMap, so GlobalMapper itself makes these wrong-color-ramps to display the values, that's not the actual information in the file. Indeed, your ASTER DEM is better quality, since it's extent is much smaller, with a bit more resolution than the SRTM files. So what I did is RE-project your ASTER dem in ArcMap to 'WGS-84 UTM 34 N', which is a widely used projection system and also of course supported in CityEngine. This new GeoTif file comes with the .tfw 'world' file and since we know the projection, we can set the SCS directly in a new scene in CityEngine. > means that you either have a .prj file or you set the projection in CityEngine. The result's the same. Again, CE can not reproject images ( raster files ), so this has to be done manually. Importing the osm data to check the position in CityEngine is also done easily. NOW : I've seen that 1 spike gets created in CityEngine (see Spike.JPG), most probably due to a reprojection error (if I import your file without georeferencing info, there's no spike). Not sure how to isolate that sucker. Also, the center of the 'most important city' in the area is off the edge of your DEM. So I'm not sure if you're happy with that DEM tile or want to choose 1 tile further south. Let me know and I can send you the reprojected DEM and upload to your ftp. (maybe send me the access details via PM) Cheers ! Matt

‎03-18-2013

Hi. Related tables and other 'data matrices' are not yet supported in CityEngine (CGA). Thus, you can only work with attributes which have 1 value. E.g. attribute 'height', value '15'. Those will then also show up in a web scene ( depending on the export settings ). Ok ? Matt

‎03-17-2013

I'm no expert in GIS, but maybe there's a PRO here who can help with this specifically. I'd try to track this down and check what the coordinates are which you write out. E.g. open a test shp file in a text editor. If the values are between 0 and 90 ( e.g. 20.234234 / 42.234234), they're in degrees, so not projected. If the values are very large ( e.g. 534'034.892348 / 5'038'474.83473764 ), they're in cartesian coordinates, so projected ( in a specific projection ). Mathematically seen, the geolocation is 'equal'. Maybe it's best to export all your data the same way and build the scene file from scratch. That way you don't have to think about how to export different datasets each time. m.

‎03-17-2013

hmm.. maybe: - delete the .CityEngine folder in your user home ( while CE is closed ) - create a new workspace - reinstall CE if the upper do not help.

‎03-15-2013

Hi Nicole. Then I assume that your shapefile data contains large coordinate values ( xy values with z height component ) and not (lat / long values). That way, the huge values are interpreted as lat / long coordinates, which is indeed far away. Thus, export your data specifically unprojected ( non-cartesian lat / long values ) for import in CE. in most cases, a shape file contains projected xyz coordinates, with the .prj file just indicating from which projection system the data was exported from. Hope this help... M.

‎03-15-2013

Hi, this is hard to say without access to the data. really step through each element and export it individually. e.g. select only the green areas and export them to 3ws, then export only the walls and so on. you then should find the actual issue and be able to reproduce it. if there's really a bug, I'll then have to be able to reproduce the issue here on my machine anyway. if you cannot track it down, post the data here. ok ? Matt

‎03-15-2013

Hi .. Here's the steps for use in ArcMap ( a part of ArcGIS ). I'll mention more things below. Ok ? Matt 1] - http://glcfapp.glcf.umd.edu:8080/esdi/index.jsp - > Map Search - Left : Elevation Data : check 'SRTM, WRS2 Tiles' - zoom in, use mouse cursor with the arrow and a '+' icon to select a tile ( gets red ) - preview & download - choose under attr list, the best ID : -- 'filled finished' ( filled missing data, processed data, not raw data ) -- 1 or 3 arcseconds precision -- note that the dems are projected in UTM - click on id, download - download files (get the tif file) 2] unzip file 3] - Open ArcMap, load image (create pyramids) - RMB on layer - Export Data > Downsample or clip, [leave default extent usually unless it's bigger than 6K on sides] - Export to new GeoTif file - > gives .tfw 'world' file ( writes a file of metadata which is GeoTif) 3] - Open new empty CE scene - Find UTM zone, e.g. http://www.okono.com/art/maps/utmZones.gif - Set UTM zone in preferences/scene : Scene Coordinate System (SCS) ( use wild card search *UTM*34*, WGS 84, North ) - drag-n-drop file into viewport - check correct position by finding some footprints of the city. Notes : ---------- 1] both 'NaN' and '0' values of a GeoTif are mapped (in CE 2012) to the elevation range max of the terrain, producing a spike. Processed data should have no spikes, otherwise, you'll need to fix the 16bit or 32bit dem file. (There's tools for this in ArcGIS too.) 2] The reason why you can not use that DEM directly is that CityEngine needs 2 things for each GeoTif : - it's .tfw file which defines the terrain's extens. This is actually in the GeoTif, but CityEngine only reads .tfw files and does not check the metadata of the file. - it's .prj file. Though this is actually ONLY used if it's the first georeferenced data you import in a blank scene: To set the SCS. If the SCS is already set, you don't need the .prj file. 3] CityEngine can only RE-PROJECT vector data such as polygonal shapes (e.g. footprints) and polylines ( street center lines ) on import if the imported data's projection is different than the SCS. CityEngine CAN NOT reproject 'raster files' ( textures, such as GeoTifs ) on import. ==> Thus I highly recommend to project all data to your target SCS projection prior to importing. This way, it will not depend on which file you import first in CityEngine in a blank scene. 4] Editing Dems in Photoshop or such will most probably fuck up the float values, especially if you're resizing images or going from bit level to bit level. imageJ gives you a simple way to sample precise float values, even on 32 bit images : http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/ For now, I guess I can help you out with producing e.g. the tfw files if you can not do that withing Globemapper so you don't have to buy ArcMap now. Let me know if this all makes sense to you ! 😮 Matt

‎03-15-2013

Hi ! To avoid those nullpointer errors, just drag and drop the texture directly onto the shape in the viewport. Seems to be an update issue. Let me know if this works. Thanks for the screenshots ! Matt

‎03-15-2013

hi .. I can not log on there .. it seems. I can log onto ArcGIS.com, but not this site .. weird .. is this a special account of yours ? Concerning visibility : Check the visibility buttons in the web viewer when open. Maybe post also a screenshot of the web scene since I cannot access this one. Otherwise, try to track the issue down one by one, e.g. only exporting 1 building, then 2, then 3, .. Ok ? M.

‎03-14-2013

Hi .. Edit the rule named Floor(textureOffset) should be on line 491 ( CE 2012 Paris Example, paris.cga ) : Edit from : Floor(textureOffset) --> case !LOD_HIGH : Floor. # lores floor case comp.sel == "back": Floor. # lores floor on the back case textureOffset == 0: GroundFloor. # no hires for groundfloors else : split(y){~Floor_Height : FloorDetails(floorindex(textureOffset))}* # split repeated mid floors again for High LOD To : Floor(textureOffset) --> case !LOD_HIGH : Floor. # lores floor case comp.sel == "back": split(y){~Floor_Height : FloorDetails(floorindex(textureOffset))}* # split repeated mid floors again for High LOD # lores floor on the back case textureOffset == 0: GroundFloor. # no hires for groundfloors else : split(y){~Floor_Height : FloorDetails(floorindex(textureOffset))}* # split repeated mid floors again for High LOD It's been a bit trickier than I thought. Matt

‎03-14-2013

Hi .. Only bitmap based terrains are supported, no mesh based terrains. Sorry .. m.

‎03-14-2013

Hi .. The '3DCIM' ( the UIM got renamed to CIM ) is not yet available. PM me if you're interested to joing the beta program. Cheers ! Matt

‎03-14-2013

Hey Greg. What's the specific reason you're going for ASTER data ? Additional precision ? Note that in CityEngine it's recommended not to use textures ( e.g. such dem 'raster files' ) bigger than 4K. Somewhere between 6 and 8 K they'll not even be displayed since the files get too big. I've seen that the necessary metadata is not available on the website you mentioned. I have an other site, recommended by my coworker. I also have a workflow how to process the data afterwards to bring it to CE. Do you have a copy of ArcGIS ( ArcMap ? ) accessible ? Let me know .. Matt

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My Ideas

Latest Contributions by MatthiasBuehler1

Re: CityEngine 2012.1 Advanced - network license w/ Desktop 10.1 installs, AD Domain

Re: City Engine color

Re: Aster Data

Re: Relationship classes

Re: Import problem (Coordinates)

Re: Display Error

Re: Import problem (Coordinates)

Re: City Engine color

Re: Aster Data

Re: Jave errors when using Shape Texturing Tool.

Re: City Engine color

Re: Choose facade to apply "high" level of detail ?

Re: Import problem (Coordinates)

Re: Learning CityEngine, Tutorials and other Training

Re: Aster Data

Bringing Models from SketchUp into CityEngine : Re...

Re: Different setbacks in the same building

Re: Access Scene Light values using python?

Re: Import 3D models error

Re: LotInner and LotCorner??