Wikipedia

CityEngine

ArcGIS CityEngine is a commercial 3D modeling program. Developed by Esri R&D Center Zurich (formerly Procedural Inc.), it specializes in the generation of 3D urban environments to support the creation of detailed large-scale 3D city models. Unlike traditional 3D modeling methodology, which uses computer-aided design (CAD) tools and techniques, CityEngine takes a procedural modeling approach which shapes generation via a rules-based system. Due to its integration with the wider ArcGIS platform, CityEngine can also be used with geographic information system (GIS) datasets.

ArcGIS CityEngine
Original authorsPascal Mueller, Simon Haegler, Andreas Ulmer, Simon Schubiger, Matthias Specht, Stefan Müller Arisona, Basil Weber
DevelopersEsri R&D Center Zurich
Initial releaseAugust 2008
Stable release
2024.1 / November, 2024
Preview release
2025.0 BETA / May 2025
Operating systemWindows, Linux
Available inEnglish, Finnish, Simplified Chinese
Type3D computer graphics, geodesign, procedural generation
LicenseProprietary (Named User, Node-Locked or floating)
Websitewww.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-cityengine/overview

CityEngine can be used for urban planning and architecture, graphics visualization, game development, entertainment, and archeology. CityEngine can be used to visualize the building information modeling (BIM) data of buildings in a larger urban context, making for more realistic construction projects.[1]

History and releases

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Software history

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ArcGIS CityEngine, originally named Esri CityEngine, was developed at Swiss technology university ETH Zurich by Pascal Mueller, the co-founder and CEO of Procedural Inc. While researching for his PhD at the ETH Computer Vision Lab, Mueller invented a number of techniques for procedural modeling of 3D architecture that make up the foundation of CityEngine. CityEngine publically debuted at the 2001 SIGGRAPH conference;[2] since then, additional research papers have been published that have contributed to CityEngine and its features. The first commercial version of CityEngine was released in 2008.[3] In 2007, Procedural Inc. was founded and separated from ETH Zurich, the top-ranking technology university in Switzerland. In the summer of 2011, Procedural Inc. was acquired by Esri Inc., becoming Esri R&D Center Zurich.[4] Esri CityEngine was renamed to ArcGIS CityEngine in June 2020 to offically make it a part of the ArcGIS software suite.[5]

Releases

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Date Version
July 21, 2008 CityEngine 2008
Nov 20, 2008 CityEngine 2008.2
Dec 17, 2008 CityEngine 2008.3
May 19, 2009 CityEngine 2009
Sept 15, 2009 CityEngine 2009.2
Dec 10, 2009 CityEngine 2009.3
June 23, 2010 CityEngine 2010
Oct 12, 2010 CityEngine 2010.2
Dec 9, 2010 CityEngine 2010.3
Oct 26, 2011 Esri CityEngine 2011.1
Feb 23, 2012 Esri CityEngine 2011.2
Oct 3, 2012 Esri CityEngine 2012.1
Nov 13, 2013 Esri CityEngine 2013.1
June 1, 2014 Esri CityEngine 2014
Sept 15, 2014 Esri CityEngine 2014.1
----,---- Esri CityEngine 2015.0
----,---- Esri CityEngine 2015.1
----,---- Esri CityEngine 2015.2
----,---- Esri CityEngine 2016.0
----,---- Esri CityEngine 2016.1
----,---- Esri CityEngine 2017.0
Nov 7, 2017 Esri CityEngine 2017.1
May 10, 2018 Esri CityEngine 2018.0
Sept 18, 2018 Esri CityEngine 2018.1
May 14, 2019 Esri CityEngine 2019.0
October, 2019 Esri CityEngine 2019.1
June, 2020 ArcGIS CityEngine 2020.0
November, 2020 ArcGIS CityEngine 2020.1
March, 2021 ArcGIS CityEngine 2021.0 BETA
June, 2021 ArcGIS CityEngine 2021.0
August, 2021 ArcGIS CityEngine 2021.1 BETA
----,---- ArcGIS CityEngine 2021.1
April, 2022 ArcGIS CityEngine 2022.0 BETA
June, 2022 ArcGIS CityEngine 2022.0
September, 2022 ArcGIS CityEngine 2022.1 BETA
October, 2022 ArcGIS CityEngine 2022.1
June, 2023 ArcGIS CityEngine 2023.0
October, 2023 ArcGIS CityEngine 2023.1 BETA
November, 2023 ArcGIS CityEngine 2023.1
May, 2024 ArcGIS CityEngine 2024.0 BETA
July, 2024 ArcGIS CityEngine 2024.0
September, 2024 ArcGIS CityEngine 2024.1 BETA
November, 2024 ArcGIS CityEngine 2024.1
May, 2025 ArcGIS CityEngine 2025.0 BETA

Licensing and pricing

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ArcGIS CityEngine is included in the Professional and Professional Plus tiers of ArcGIS Online. Pricing may vary by region and distributors. In the US, the professional tier costs US$2,200 per year[6]; in the UK, it is £4,200 per year (excluding VAT).[7] CityEngine can be purchased elsewhere via a local Esri partner. [8]. Once purchased, users can download and obtain license details from the MyEsri portal.

Features

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  • CGA (computer generated architecture) parametric modeling rules to control mass, geometry assets, proportions, or texturing of buildings or streets on a citywide scale
  • Select a target location and import geo-referenced satellite imagery and 3D terrain of the location to more quickly build accurate urban environments through OpenStreetMap integration[9]
  • Interactively control specific street or building parameters, such as height or age
  • Import/export geo-spatial/vector data with industry-standard formats such as Esri Shapefile, File Geodatabase, and OpenStreetMap, as well as file formats for WebGL, KMZ, Collada, Autodesk FBX, Autodesk Maya, 3DS, Wavefront OBJ, RenderMan RIB, Alembic, e-on software's Vue, Universal Scene Description USD, Khronos Group GLTF, Unreal Engine, and Unreal Datasmith
  • Script and generate rules-based reports to show socioeconomic figures (e.g., Gross Floor Area (GFA) and Floor Area Ratio (FAR)) to analyze their urban design proposals.
  • VR viewing of modeled environments with Samsung Gear VR[10]
  • Use a variety of materials through the Esri materials library

Procedural modeling

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ArcGIS CityEngine uses a procedural modeling approach to automatically generate models through a predefined rule set. The rules are defined through a CGA shape grammar system, enabling the creation of complex parametric models. Users can change or add the shape grammar as needed.

Urban environments can be modeled within CityEngine by starting with creating a street network (either from the street drawing tool or with data imported from map data). Then, lots may be subdivided as many times as specified, resulting in a map of multiple lots and streets.[11] CityEngine can then be instructed to start generating the buildings using defined procedural modeling rules. At this point, the city model can be re-designed and adjusted by changing the parameters or the shape grammar.

Geodesign

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Though CityEngine is not an analytical tool like GIS, discussions about geodesign often mention the use of ArcGIS CityEngine.[12] As it can be used to enhance 3D shape generation in ArcGIS, ArcGIS CityEngine is a critical product to improve the applicability of geodesign by using geospatial information to design or analyze a city.[13]

Applications

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Urban design and planning

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Garsdale Design used ArcGIS CityEngine in the creation of city master plans in Iraq before 2013,[14] both to model existing historic areas and also model future plans.[15] Larger companies like Foster+Partners and HOK Architects have also used CityEngine in their urban planning projects. [16]

Urban and environmental studies

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Because its primary feature is building informative city models, some urban researchers use CityEngine to compare land-use planning schemes, for example in very dense global cities such as Hong Kong and Seoul.[17] Environmental scientists can also utilize the instant 3D model generation in CityEngine, which can make for more convenient informative research than modeling a city by creating each building individually.[18]

Game development

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CityEngine can be used as a tool in the creation of video games that require detailed 3D environments to assign interactive scripts.[19][20]

Movie industry

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Zootopia (also known outside of the US as Zootopolis), which won the 2016 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film, used CityEngine to model the city in its movie. multi-scaling city, the designers used CityEngine due to its rule-based system. CityEngine was also used to create Big Hero 6's San-Fransokyo.[21]

Military

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Due to its integration with the Esri product suite and its ability to process geospatial data to create 3D scenes/maps, CityEngine can be used within military/defense organizations.

List of movies and TV shows using CityEngine

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Studios and companies rarely state what software they use in their pipelines. When CityEngine is mentioned as a tool in production, it's often in a small reference in a larger article.

TV/Movie Title Studio/Publisher Year Reference
TV The Witcher Netflix 2020 [22]
Movie Blade Runner 2049 Warner Bros. 2017 [23]
Movie Independence Day: Resurgence 20th Century Fox 2016 [24]
Movie Zootopia/Zootroplis Disney 2016 [25]
Movie Big Hero 6 Disney 2014 [25]
Movie Superman: Man of Steel Warner Bros. 2013 [26]
Movie Cars* Pixar 2006 [27]
Movie Guardians of the Galaxy* Marvel 2014 [27]
TV Westworld HBO** [28]

* Movies only claimed to use CityEngine by a single Esri employee
** Presented at FMX 2025 workshop

Ports

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ArcGIS CityEngine is built on top of Eclipse IDE, and has therefore able to be used on Windows and Linux operating systems.[29] Support for macOS was stopped in March 2021.[30]

Plugins and extensions

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ArcGIS CityEngine currently works with a number of third party 3D modeling, rendering, and analytical software products via its SDK and API; these currently are:

ArcGIS CityEngine provides a Python scripting interface built on Jython (current version 2.7.0) which allows users to create their own tools and functionality.

Publications

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See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Kuehne, Dan (September 22, 2016). "BIM-GIS Integration with IFC". Esri.
  2. ↑ Procedural Modeling of Cities - Yoav Parish and Pascal Mueller (PDF)
  3. ↑ Badwi, Ibrahim M.; Ellaithy, Hisham M.; Youssef, Hidi E. (2022-07-03). "3D-GIS Parametric Modelling for Virtual Urban Simulation Using CityEngine". Annals of GIS. 28 (3): 325–341. Bibcode:2022AnGIS..28..325B. doi:10.1080/19475683.2022.2037019. ISSN 1947-5683. S2CID 247269595.
  4. ↑ "Esri Acquires 3D Software Company Procedural". www.esri.com. Retrieved 2022-12-09.
  5. ↑ "CityEngine 2020.0 release highlights". 8 June 2020.
  6. ↑ "Pricing for ArcGIS Online User Types". Esri. Retrieved May 9, 2026.
  7. ↑ "Pricing for ArcGIS Online User Types". Esri. Retrieved May 9, 2026.
  8. ↑ "Find a Partner". Esri. Retrieved May 9, 2026.
  9. ↑ "CityEngine 2016.0 release notes—Esri CityEngine | ArcGIS Desktop". desktop.arcgis.com. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
  10. ↑ "360 VR Experience Helper page". Esri.com.
  11. ↑ "New York example". Archived from the original on 2011-04-03. Retrieved 2011-04-14.
  12. ↑ "Search E360 - Video | Esri".
  13. ↑ "GeoDesign Overview | Esri". Esri.com. Archived from the original on 2015-02-26.
  14. ↑ Jeffries, Stuart (2014-08-26). "The Yorkshire Dales family who are designing entire cities in Iraq". The Guardian.
  15. ↑ "CityEngine Creates New Solutions for Historic Cities". esri.com. February 2019.
  16. ↑ Zoog, Christopher. "Visibility Analysis tools for planners". Esri.com.
  17. ↑ Guo, Jian (July 2017). "A study of plot ratio/building height restrictions in high density cities using 3D spatial analysis technology: A case in Hong Kong". Habitat International. 65: 13–31. doi:10.1016/j.habitatint.2017.04.012. hdl:10397/69923.
  18. ↑ Zhu, Qing (July 2017). "Robust point cloud classification based on multi-level semantic relationships for urban scenes". Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. 129: 86–102. Bibcode:2017JPRS..129...86Z. doi:10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2017.04.022.
  19. ↑ Klein, Bernhard (2016). "Managing the Scalability of Visual Exploration Using Game Engines to Analyse UHI Scenarios". Procedia Engineering. 169: 272–279. doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2016.10.033. hdl:20.500.11850/119086.
  20. ↑ Cooper, David (May 20, 2016). Literary Mapping in the Digital Age. Routledge.
  21. ↑ Tracy, Cozzens (July 10, 2017). "Esri UC: How CityEngine powered Disney's Zootopia". GPS World.
  22. ↑ Pearce, James (2020-01-23). "Behind the scenes: The Witcher". IBC. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  23. ↑ "Esri CityEngine Used for Oscar Winning Effects in Blade Runner 2049". www.gim-international.com. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  24. ↑ Wade, Daniel (2016-07-23). "Independence Day: Resurgence with Matthias Buehler". ArtStation Magazine. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  25. 1 2 "Esri UC: How CityEngine powered Disney's Zootopia". GPS World. 2017-07-11. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  26. ↑ "Hollywood gives 3D technology, CityEngine, a starring role". GISuser.com. 2013-08-20. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  27. 1 2 Waeny, Taisha (2018-05-29). "State of the Art: How CityEngine Helps Users Plan Real and Imagined Spaces". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
  28. ↑ "#fmx2025 #cityengine #westworld #virtualproduction #digitaltwins… | Dominik Tarolli". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
  29. ↑ "CityEngine 2021.0 system requirements—ArcGIS CityEngine Resources | Documentation".
  30. ↑ "ANNOUNCEMENT: Deprecation of macOS version of ArcGIS CityEngine". Esri Community. 2021-03-19. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
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