Verified User in Higher Education

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

3/22/2017

"City Engine For Campus Modeling "

4/5

What do you like best about ArcGIS CityEngine?

CGA is straight forward and extremely logical. You can easily incorporate higher level algorithms for colors based on 3D properties. If you have a Adobe CS textures can be easily customized. Although some of the desired capabilities arent quite what I would like them to be, data can be easily manipulated in ArcMap to work around the existing constraints. Ex: Vector derived BaseMaps as Terrains. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ArcGIS CityEngine?

Hardware requirements, many of my friend work for various companies/municipalities who's budgets wont support the hardware requirements. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering ArcGIS CityEngine:

Depending on your current needs ArcGIS Pro may be a better more straight forward option. City Engine is easier to customize but Pro has a much smaller learning curve and many 3D GP Tools. Plus if you find you need a more robust modeling software in the future you can easily move your work from Pro to CityEngine. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is ArcGIS CityEngine solving and how is that benefiting you?

We are using it for below grade modeling of pipe networks and tunnel systems. In the future we hope to integrate project plans from the Planning Office with the existing campus. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Higher Education

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

5/16/2016

"3D modeling and GIS integration"

5/5

What do you like best about ArcGIS CityEngine?

If you are familiar with ESRI's flagship product, ArcGIS, CityEngine will feel somewhat familiar. However, it also adds a lot more, not the least of which is a 3D component, which can be done to some degree with ArcScene, but CityEngine takes this much, much further.

Using CGA scripting, CityEngine allows you to further customize your data layers using "rule" files. You can save these rules to use on other projects, or share with others. This made it really easy for me to jump in and start using CityEngine right away, using rule files from templates to begin visualizing our data in a new way.

It also integrates with other 3D software. I could easily pull in Sketchup models and AutoCAD models and have them working with our ArcMap layers flawlessly.

I also love that it runs on Mac. I don't typically use Macs, but the computer with the best specs where I work just happens to be a Mac. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about ArcGIS CityEngine?

Personally, I'm not someone with a ton of coding experience, and learning CGA script was a bit of a surprise. However, I'm familiar with this approach, as a similar thing happens with Python in higher-level ArcMap applications.

CGA script isn't particularly difficult to dissect and get running, but sometimes I wish there were more toolbars and built-in commands to get it going. Someone entirely without coding experience or understanding would likely have a difficult time.

Also, which is to be expected, it uses a lot of the computer's resources to run. I was almost at a risk of not being able to use the program, but, luckily, we had a spare Mac with more powerful specs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering ArcGIS CityEngine:

CityEngine is perfect if you have someone with an understanding of GIS (especially ArcGIS) as well as an understanding of 3D modeling (and several pipelines for moving models around).

It does require some understanding of coding.

It also does require a fairly powerful machine to run. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is ArcGIS CityEngine solving and how is that benefiting you?

I was assigned the task of creating a 3D visualization using existing GIS data and SketchUp models as a base. CityEngine made this extremely easy, and the visualization already looks better just a few days in than anything that could be created in a 3D program or a GIS program in the same time frame.

Terrain is especially powerful. You have a few options for how the buildings sit on the terrain, but, that's right, they'll be bumped up on the terrain (using a DEM or whatever you have) and create a truly 3D view. This is also great for roads, which can hug the terrain. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.