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Export Formats

The CityEngine has advanced functionality to export generated 3d models into any kind of modeling or rendering application. Samples can be downloaded here. Please note that the CityEngine export works like a batch process: every building (or street entity) can individually be generated, optimized and exported. Several options are available to control the file and mesh granularity of the exported geometry.

With the introduction of CityEngine Pro 2009.1, a new scripting feature using Python is available which allows for the scripting of complex export processes. For example, a scene can be automatically exported in different level of details to different formats at the same time.

The following formats are available:

Format

Features/Typical Usage

Wavefront OBJ

One of the most common formats in the 3D industry. Transfers textured models to any DCC tool or rendering engine.

Autodesk FBX

Provides export into Maya, Max, MotionBuilder and other DCC tools equipped with an FBX importer. Includes layered-texture support.

Autodesk 3DS

Very mature format for export into Autodesk LandXPlorer, Google Sketchup and many older DCC tools.

COLLADA DAE

Exports into a large number of DCC tools and rendering engines with support for asset-instancing, layered-textures & file-referencing.

MentalRay MI

Direct export into MentalRay or RealityServer with support for instanced assets, flexible shaders and file-referencing.

Renderman RIB

Direct export into any Renderman compatible renderer with support for delayed RIB loading, flexible shader calls and multi-texturing.
Export Options

To meet different production pipeline requirements, a variety of export options are available for each supported format, like in the COLLADA export screenshot below. For example, the user can choose if he wishes to export each building (aka initial shape) as a separate file or that the involved textures should be collected into the specified target folder.

An overview of the most important export options:

Option

Description

File Granularity

File Granularity can be controlled by initial shape boundaries or by geometry size (ie. the exported data is split into similar chunks of n megabytes).

Mesh Granularity

Mesh Granularity can be controlled by merging meshes which share the same materials or by using asset instances (if supported by the chosen format). In the latter case, meshes generated by the grammar process will be merged by material.

Optimization

For the individual mesh components (vertices, vertex normals, texture coordinates) removal of duplicate items as well as triangulation of faces can optionally be activated.

Mesh Components

Specify if vertex normals and how many texture coordinate layers should be included in the export.

Materials

The inclusion of material definitions can optionally be disabled.

Collect Textures

All referenced textures will be exported into the export target folder and the image references in the material definitions will be adapted.

Binary Format

If supported by the chosen format, the file is stored in binary (native) format.

Export Log

Stores useful information about an export process for later reference.

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