CityEngine by Procedural

Procedural Inc., an innovative software company located in Zurich, is home to the world’s foremost procedural modelling technology. With the CityEngine, Procedural Inc.’s graphics experts have created a radically different 3D application that allows professional users in entertainment, architecture and urban planning to efficiently model 3D cities.

“We are happy that our Mac friends are now able to benefit from the huge advantages of the CityEngine,” says Pascal Mueller, CEO Procedural Inc. “To celebrate it, we created Apple City consisting of thousands of Cupertino headquarters. So in case Mr. Jobs intends to rebuild Cupertino, he has now the tool to plan it on his new MacBook.”
The CityEngine software provides professional users in entertainment, architecture, urban planning and general 3D content creation with a unique early design and modeling solution for the efficient vizualisation of urban 3D environments.

The capabilities of the CityEngine include:

Procedural Street Network Construction

The CityEngine offers unique street grow tools to quickly design and construct urban layouts. Street patterns such as grid, organic or circular are available and the topography of the terrain is taken into account.

Real street networks of any city in the world can be imported from OpenStreetMap. This allows for a quick generation of existing urban surroundings. Furthermore street networks or lots designed in other programs can be imported via the DXF file format. Watch movie…

Scripting 3D Buildings

The world’s first shape grammar implementation is the core of the CityEngine. The simple scripting language is specialised for architectural 3D content and offers unlimited modeling possibilities to control or vary mass, elements, proportions, rythms or materials.

Parametric Modeling of 3D Buildings

A convenient interface to control specific building parameters such as the height or age is provided. Parameter modifications invoke the automatic regeneration of the 3D model with all architectural elements correctly aligned.

Parametric Modeling of 3D Streets

Similar to the buildings, street appearances can be controlled via a parametric interface, resulting in immediate visual feedback. For example, the profiles of streets can be quickly edited.

Map-Controlled City Modeling

The parameters of the many buildings and streets can be controlled globally via image maps (for example the building heights or the landuse-mix). This allows for intuitive city modeling and quick changes.

Batch Export of 3D Models

The CityEngine has very advanced functionalities to export generated models to any kind of production pipeline. Supported file formats include Collada, FBX, OBJ, RIB and mental images’ MI.

Procedural’s website: http://www.procedural.com/