CityEngine was originally designed and developed by Pascal Mueller from Switzerland. He invented a breakthrough programmatic modeling technology during his doctoral study in the computer vision laboratory at ETH Zurich. This technology was mainly used for three-dimensional architectural design, which also laid a solid foundation for CityEngine. In 2001, he published a research article "Procedural Modeling of Cities" in SIGGRAPH. This also meant CityEngine had been officially out of the lab.

CityEngine has now been able to use existing 2D GIS data to quickly create 3D scenes. It can also import the generated model into other 3D software such as ArcGIS, Maya, 3ds Max, ArcGlobe, Google Earth; game engines like Unity, Unreal Engine; rendering solutions like RenderMan, and cloud services such like RealityServer, so as to carry out efficient planning and design. Thereinto, the perfect support for ArcGIS enables a lot of existing basic GIS data to quickly achieve 3D modeling without format conversions first.

As the preferred software for 3D city modeling, CityEngine provides a brand-new, rule-based modeling technology that enables users to create 3D models quickly and automatically in batch from 2D data. In addition, it also provides advanced 3D editing capabilities and implements the WYSIWYG planning and designing. All these effectively reduce the investment cost of a project and shorten the construction cycle of a 3D GIS system. Therefore, it is primarily used in digital city, urban planning, rail transit, architectural design, game development, film production, analog simulation, and so on fields.

Key Features

  • Procedural Modeling Core (CGA Shape Grammar Language)
  • Get Map Data
  • GIS/CAD Data Support
  • Parametric Modeling Interface
  • Dynamic City Layouts
  • Map-Controlled City Modeling
  • Street Networks Patterns
  • Industry-Standard 3D Formats
  • Custom Report Generation
  • 3D Web Scene Export
  • 360 VR Experience
  • Python Scripting Interface
  • Facade Wizard
  • 3D Format Support for Game Engines (VR/AR)
  • Available for All Platforms

Main Applications

  • Geodesign
  • Urban Design and Planning
  • Urban Study
  • Game Development
  • Movie Industry

Official Demo Video

Build a city in five steps

  1. Step one - Find your area of interest. Use ‘Get Map Data’ to import basemap and terrain data
  2. Step two - Add or sketch your streets, city blocks, and parcels
  3. Step three - Move 2D data into 3D models. Add rooftops, furniture, vegetation, and other 3D assets
  4. Step four - Texturize your buildings and facades. Add more details to your 3D models
  5. Step five - Export your finished 3D city to the web, VR experiences, game engines or a geodatabase

System Requirements

Edition Statement

AppNee provides the Esri CityEngine Advanced Edition multilingual full installers and unlocked files, portable full registered versions, as well as tutorials and examples for Windows 32-bit and 64-bit.

Installation Notes

for v2022.0+:
  1. Extract and install CityEngine, do not launch program
  2. At the ArcGIS Administrator Wizard window, select "CityEngine Concurrent Use", select "Define a License Manager later from the ArcGIS Adminstrator", click 'OK', and click 'OK'
  3. Copy the unlocked file to the following path and overwrite:
    • X:\Program Files\ArcGIS\CityEngine202X.X\plugins\com.procedural.cityengine.flexnet.win32.win32.x86_64_1.0.0.202XXXXXXXXX\
  4. Done
*** To use ArcGIS Urban or get map data, you need to register and login an account.

for v2019.0:

  • Just download and extract to use
for v2016.0:
  1. Be sure to uninstall the old versions before installing this program. And delete the following folders first:
    • C:\Users\[your user name]\CityEngine
    • C:\Users\[your user name]\.CityEngine
    • C:\ProgramData\CityEngine\ESRI
  2. Download and install Esri CityEngine (must only contain English characters)
  3. After installation, the ArcGIS Administrator Wizard window will appear, then choose "Advanced Single Use" option, and press 'OK' -> 'OK'
  4. Copy the unlocked files (the entire 'plugins' folder) to installation folder and overwrite
  5. Done
*** If the program gets stuck in the splash screen, the solution is as follows:
  1. Force the software to shut down
  2. Delete the "wordkspace" folder under "C:\Users\[your user name]\CityEngine\"
  3. Rename or just delete the 'CityEngine' folder directly ('CityEngine' folder is generated every time the software starts up. And of course you can also change the location of this folder)
  4. Open software, enter "File/Switch WorkSpace/Other", and specify a new folder
  5. Done

Warning

The unlocked file might be reported as Threat: Win32:Malware-gen threat with high risk. Use VirusTotal to make a full, authoritative scan and decide whether to use it by yourself.

*** Please remember: antivirus software is not always right, just be careful.

Related Links

Download URLs

License Version Download Size
Advanced Edition v2016.0 reserved 441 MB
v2019.0 reserved 444 MB
v2022.1 reserved 1.01 GB
v2023.1 reserved 973 MB
v2024.1 64-bit 1.14 GB
Tutorials and Examples
Free v2015 reserved 1.09 GB
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