City rendering software

[markf]

Hi,

 

I am a long time user of 3DS (circa r4) and Vray. I have been asked to advise on how a small town might develop a 3D model of all the existing buildings and etc. This would be used by the town planners and historic architectural review commission to visualize proposed new construction and renovations. It would be something that was regularly updated to reflect new projects. Architects could submit models to be incorporated into the overall town model.

 

I'm thinking that 3DS max may not be the best solution for this. I'm researching what kind of software is already in use for this type of town wide planning. I'm trying to get educated on what's available, what's being used, any municipalities that are doing this, and if they like whatever systems they are using.

 

I realize this is a broad brush question but any help or references or input will be greatly appreciated. thanks!

[Eric]

Sounds like a fun project! Here's an article posted here a few years ago.

 

http://www.cgarchitect.com/2012/06/building-an-accurate-3d-model-of-london

[markf]

Thank you Eric. that's helpful.

 

Any other knowledge or links pointing to city modeling/planning software or municipalities that are using such a system will be much appreciated.

 

I'm initially imagining it would likely use existing GIS data / Arial photo / survey data. etc to extrapolate and generate a base model. Then that model is usable by what will likely have to be a trained person who can input new info, add more detail, generate views for presentation to the review board and so on. Incorporating surrounding mountain topography will also likely be required.

[Smile of Fury]

If you search this site for "webinar" there are a few about creating cities with a software called Esri. Might be what you need.

[Ernest Burden III]

Esri makes GIS software, you can get a trial to them to try, but be warned, once on their email list, they will write to every day, several times per day, forever and ever and ever. Oh, look, there's another one coming in. Then there are the newsletters in the mail... I think I should move and change my name.

 

But ARCGIS or other GIS software are for working with data, so you still have the question of creating it in the first place. You should look into LIDAR as a means to gather the raw data in the first place. The rest will come from government GIS

[Mario De Achadinha]

Was quite cool company called Simmersion doing something similar using http://www.simurban.com

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[markf]

Thank you all for your helpful replies. I am going to review ESRI (but stay off their mailing list ) and other suggested systems.

 

I'm also looking for any municipalities that are doing this or using 3D as a required part of their developments/architectural design review process.

 

Thanks again!

[John Dollus]

Skyscraper Digital (division within Little Associates) did this for Charlotte, NC in the late 90's/early 2000's:

 

https://books.google.com/books?id=YUSQlbuyg0IC&pg=PA120&lpg=PA120&dq=skyscraper+digital+charlotte+city+model&source=bl&ots=GFu6vypi2k&sig=6NYp41OXSwSs3va8y9IIL5AaG2A&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zV6NVc6hI4uosAXfpLOIAg&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=skyscraper%20digital%20charlotte%20city%20model&f=false

 

The above link is the first that came up but I'm sure you can find out more with a bit of digging

[jasonstewart]

You can import models into google earth. Might be worth checking out. Some buildings may already be done (although maybe not in the best quality) and it is easy to import from various softwares because I think it was using obj.

[Jon Berntsen]

Thank you Eric. that's helpful.

 

Any other knowledge or links pointing to city modeling/planning software or municipalities that are using such a system will be much appreciated.

 

I'm initially imagining it would likely use existing GIS data / Arial photo / survey data. etc to extrapolate and generate a base model. Then that model is usable by what will likely have to be a trained person who can input new info, add more detail, generate views for presentation to the review board and so on. Incorporating surrounding mountain topography will also likely be required.

 

 

Here in Norway the municipals have their own map portal where you can get what we call SOSI files with everything from fire hydrants to buildings. They start to get pretty detailed, and the buildings are also getting more detailed. I seriously don't know how it is over there, but I'd just thought mentioning that we have our own file format, and those files has a lot of info. We can then use Autodesk Infraworks to get everything in as a model, then export from there to max or whatever program you are working with, to incorporate with other new projects they might want to incorporate in the study. I am sorry, you probably don't have sosi there, but check with the government what format they use. I think every western country with a certain level of intelligence system have access to a common site format. Anyway, Infraworks also gives you the topology as well as satellite image on top (images might be too low res). Basically we can choose which part of the terrain to extract, and then we just order that file from "the system", then import it and voila it's all there. I am not doing this every day, but I believe there should be people in the government who could help you.

 

The concept you are looking for is indeed interesting, because the demands for getting detailed surroundings in any way is increasing every day. I don't think the workflow for max users is easy enough, both with geo references and with formats in mind. There should definitely be an option for importing different survey formats (in my case SOSI files), and then set geo ref. to 0 for that.

Edited June 29, 2015 by chroma

[markf]

Thank you Jon!

[Jon Berntsen]

Thank you Jon!

 

Np. I was just made aware of http://terrain.party, where you can create height maps for the game Cities:Skyline. (For us terrain/building geeks, that's a cool game by the way!) It's incredibly easy to get the terrain out - for free. Just apply it to a plane with similar size and apply displace. But I wonder, seriously, this has huge potential, if we just could get more high res height maps out. Does anybody know if such service exists? I think I would use that for creating surroundings... Maybe just not the actual plot... Neighter any buildings here. But as the terrain, maybe something as a backdrop when doing huge aerials.

Edited June 30, 2015 by chroma

[markf]

Thanks Jon. Here we have DEM files that work pretty good for surrounding terrain.

 

Possibly use google earth as well?

 

Honestly this idea of having 3D model (that can be updated and added to) of even a small town is a large can of worms IMHO. I plan to explore other options as well. Like could a system be set up to provide verification of project supplied 3D? IOW the project applicant provides 3D renderings but they might be required to provide a standardized set of accompanying backup for verification of accuracy.

[beestee]

Agisoft Photoscan

 

Autodesk ReCap

 

Acute 3d Smart 3d Capture

 

I have the standard edition of PhotoScan and it is pretty easy to get relatively small objects such as statues and such into Max using it. Have not had any need to do anything large scale, but these software developers claim that they can do it, and the examples look decent. Not sure how far you will get with readily available footage, might need to also look into investing in a drone. If this need ever came up I would probably look into getting a DJI.

 

There may even be services out there that use these tools to do this for you for a fee...then again, you could offer this service as well if there is demand for it and you possess the tools and ability.