New in CityEngine 2013 - Part 3

Now I am re-creating a project in CE2013 I did very recently in the previous version. Following the same steps and using default settings of CE2013 I noticed some differences in generated blocks and models. The demo I was working on is using Desert City example rules and assets and here is the screenshot from version 2012.

When doing the same workflow in 2013 here is what I got

In CE2013 blocks have rounded corners and the models for buildings have less variation. Comparing street creation setting from both versions in 2013 street width is now 7 (changed from 14) and lane width setting is not there. So far I can't confirm if rounding of the created blocks is a result of change in import module for OSM. I'll do more testing and post the results soon.

Majority of local councils in New Zealand use CRS (Core Record System) as source of parcel and road centreline data. Importing these in CE (after some cleanup of parcels) would produce situation like below.

In this release we can use 'Fit Widths to Shape' option from Graph menu. To test this I have intentionally picked an area where we have simple, straight streets and some more interesting ones. The result is shown below.

Some work is required and it could be as simple as tuning the parameters used. I will definitely explore this option whole lot more.

While talking about street shapes, there are new standard shapes (and rules) available

• Freeway
• FreewayEntry
• RoundaboutIsland
• Roundabout
• RoundAboutEntry
• Joint

This opens up options for greater tuning and control of street shapes. I like the options for roundabouts since there are lot of them in New Zealand.

Next option to explore is bridge generation but for that I'll have put aside little bit more time...