Procedural Inc. has developed a new innovative software program called CityEngine, for Mac, Windows and Linux. The program is a specialized piece of software aimed at the efficient creation of 3D models of cities. With CityEngine, urban models of both real and imaginary cities can be created 10 times faster than with existing 3D modeling solutions.
The company is a spin-off of ETH Zurich, Switzerland’s most esteemed technical university. The underlying procedural modeling technology was researched and invented there.
CityEngine Features
CityEngine software helps professionals in architecture, urban design and planning, and general entertainment 3D content creation visualize and pre-visualize urban 3D environments.
CityEngine by Procedural Inc. - New 3D Urban Modeling Program for Mac and other platforms.
The program can uniquely “grow” urban street layouts in quick patterns such as grid, organic or circular and have these adapt to 3D topography in the terrain. It can also, and more valuably, import real street networks of any city in the world by importing OpenStreetMap (OSM) files. This allows for quick generation of existing urban surroundings. Additionally you can import DXF-based 3D urban models into the program.
In terms of building volumes, CityEngine can import and utilize volumes in .OBJ format, interpreting each group in an .OBJ file as a ShapeSymbol. The program features parametric modeling of 3D buildings and streets.
World’s First Shape Grammar
CityEngine features the world’s first shape grammar implementation. This is at the core of CityEngine and the specialized scripting language allows unlimited 3D architectural modeling possibilities to control mass, elements, proportions, rhythms and materials.
CityEngine has the world's first shape grammar implementation, allowing unlimited control of architectural forms using shape, mass, elements, materials, colors, et cetera - to produce an infinite variety of possible building forms. Rules can be setup within the application to predetermine large groups of buildings.
System Requirements, Cost and Trial
Systems requirements for CityEngine are steep. 2GHz dual core or better CPU with 2GB of RAM or more for the application. 500 MB of free disk space. Graphics card requirements include Nvidia GeForce 6xxx, Quadro or better; ATI Radeon X1600 or better. You need ethernet and Internet access for OpenStreetMap.
Support for Mac OS X Leopard (10.5), 32-bit, Intel only. 32-bit Linux is supported as well as 32 and 64-bit Windows XP and Vista.
OpenGL 2.0 driver support is required. For Autodesk Maya or Max integration the Autodesk FBX plugin for 2009.3 is required.
The program costs $3950.USD. There are academic licenses available. The software is already owned by design schools such as ETH, Standford, Brown University, NYU, Boston Architectural College and more.
The 30-day free trial is here.
To learn more go to: www.procedural.com
Reader Comments
Comments for this story are closed