This section will go over basic tips for interacting with your scenario.
1. First, the CityEngine interface:
1: Scene Editor; 2: Rule Editor; 3: Viewport; 4: Inspector; 5: Navigator; 6: Second Viewport; 7: Log for Errors, 8: Console
Not all of these pieces of the interface have to be open, but you have the option to select which ones you want by using the "Window" menu.
2. The Viewport is the main window for interacting with your 3D scene. The following is from ESRI's CityEngine help index:
As many Viewport windows can be opened as required by the user (usually with other cameras or a different render mode). The 3D scene can be rendered as wireframe, shaded, with textures and/or lighted. The default navigation works as follows:
- Alt-LMB: Tumble camera around the center of interest.
- Alt-MMB: Track (also called pan) camera parallel to the view plane (through the center of interest).
- Alt-RMB: Dolly the camera to or away from the center of interest, means the distance of the camera to the center of interest is alternated.
- f: Frame the selection. The camera's center of interest is placed into the center of the selection and the distance is adjusted accordingly.
As a consequence, the typical navigation works by selecting an object via LMB or via drag-LMB and then pressingf to frame the camera. Afterwards the selection can be explored via tumble, track and dolly.
Other practical functions include the isolation of the selection (toggle it via short-key i), framing all content (via short-key a), superimposing an information display (toggle via short-key d followed by another d). or the bookmarks which store camera positions. New bookmarks can be simply created by clicking on the bookmark icon.
Furthermore, in the corresponding drop-down icons of the Viewport, zooming (changing the focal length) can be done either via camera preferences or the by setting the focal length directly to one of the presets.
3. Visualize your models online via the web viewer. This is perhaps one of the coolest features of CityEngine, the ability to have others look at your model with the necessary software and via social media.
Using the previous tutorial's scene, "Future Hutto" as a model, we will export that to our webscene.
First, select all of the models that you want to export in the Scene window. Click on the bottom most layer you want to select, hold SHIFT, and then click on the upper most layer.
Next, go to File>Export Models...
In the option window, choose CityEngine WebScene
In the next to windows, there are many different settings you can choose from, but we will just proceed with the default settings for now. Choose Next in the first window and then Finish in the next.
Now in your models folder, you should have a .3ws file, here I named it after my scene: "Future_Hutto"
Double-click the "Future_Hutto.3ws" file and now your model should appear in the online 3D viewer:
Before and After:
Here, you are viewing the web scene locally. If you want to share it with the world, you need an ESRI account (free).
For more info, ESRI is a great resource for free documentation, CE data, and more tutorials.
|
|
|
|
