CityEngine 2025.1 arrives with a broadened toolset for procedural modeling, architecture, and urban layout work. The update focuses on CGA geometry manipulation, a more capable Visual CGA workflow, improved street modeling, and a first look at the new Python 3 API.

CGA: Direct geometry modifications

CGA rules have always been powerful, although historically confined to operator-driven construction. CityEngine 2025.1 breaks that convention with direct geometry modification. The new modify operation lets you select specific geometry parts, apply transformations or splits, and then reattach the edited components to the existing topology. A new recompose strategy for inline restores connectivity after subdividing shapes, which helps when creating parametric surfaces, non-orthogonal massing, or complex roof structures. CGA becomes far more flexible for contemporary architectural forms and free-form procedural layouts.

Contemporary Architecture Park example

A new example project showcases these capabilities through a set of buildings inspired by current architectural trends. It includes sculptural massing models, facade designs with hexagonal patterning and surface twists, and reusable components for custom rule sets. The example ships with the release and can be downloaded directly through the application.

Visual CGA: More components, more control, less code

The Visual CGA Editor continues its transition into a no-code modeling environment. Facade components have been added to ESRI.lib, allowing designers to convert massing studies into complete buildings without writing rules. Building volumes can be split into floors, assigned facade layouts, and populated with windows or shading systems.

Parameter connections now allow values such as floor count or window dimensions to propagate across components, improving procedural consistency. Documentation is integrated into the Editor. Each component includes a description, and tooltips explain attributes and extension points. The experience is more guided and significantly more practical for architectural users.

Street Designer: Lane clarity, OSM intelligence, and cleaner intersections

Street Designer receives several refinements. Sidewalk shapes appear in a darker tone for better separation from roadbed lanes, and separator lines highlight when editing tools are active. Pointer icons have been cleaned up and the minimum lane width is now 0.1 meters, useful for dense layouts or alley-scale segments.

Street object attributes display intended lane use, width, direction, and relative position within the segment. These attributes change dynamically as lanes are edited or moved between sidewalk and roadbed groups. OSM-derived lane categories now support Vehicle, Bus, Bike, and Pedestrian. A new CGA rule, Generic_Lane_for_OSM_Import, applies these categories automatically when importing data through Get Map Data. Sorting options for street configurations have been expanded, and a list view improves readability for long configuration names.

Performance around intersections is significantly improved due to reductions in unnecessary micro triangles and the removal of small visual gaps between intersection and lane boundaries.

Python 3 API in beta

CityEngine takes its first real step into open development with a Python 3 API. Instead of a closed automation layer, Python now connects CityEngine to ArcPy, the ArcGIS API for Python, and third-party libraries. This enables workflows for automated analysis, AI-driven scene modification, and custom UI tools. Users can manage multiple interpreters and virtual environments through a new configuration dialog. The API is currently in beta, with known limitations.

Updated tutorials and documentation

The tutorial catalog has been reorganized with improved visuals and new learning tracks. Two new tutorial series cover procedural modeling with CGA and data import workflows. Existing tutorials have been refreshed. The Python scripting tutorial adopts better coding practices, the terrain modeling tutorial includes updated street and shape workflows, and the CSV import tutorial reflects current data handling approaches.

The post CityEngine 2025.1 Expands CGA Geometry Tools and Introduces Python 3 API first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Esri has released CityEngine 2025.0 and added a long-requested feature for technical artists, urbanists, and VFX supervisors: the Street Designer. Finally, precise lane-by-lane city sculpting, directly in the viewport, no extra plugins, no custom code required (unless you want it).

The new Street Designer enables per-lane editing—vehicle, parking, bike, sidewalk, buffer, vegetation, and public transport—each with procedural markings, furnishings, and foliage. Street cross-sections can be built or tweaked interactively, with custom configurations saved and reused. The default Esri.lib now ships with a “Generic_Street_Configurations.cej” demo scene plus preset lane templates, so no more wild west sidewalk hacks or guessing how a European avenue should look in CG.

For developers and TDs, a Python API exposes lane and segment functions (CE.addLane, CE.moveLane, CE.createStreetConfiguration, among others) for procedural street control, batch setup, and automated asset prep. CGA rule support gets expanded for referencing and managing these new lane types.

Visual CGA Editor: Node Clarity at Last

The Visual CGA Editor, CityEngine’s node-based, non-linear rule editing environment, receives overdue ergonomic upgrades. There’s a new “Find Node” dialog, cleaned-up slot visuals, clear annotation widgets, and actual lock indicators for read-only files. Node connections are visually decluttered. Compilation speed in heavy graphs gets a measurable boost. The editor now supports right-mouse panning—a small tweak that will save cumulative hours and wrists across projects.

Procedural Scripting and Geometry: More Boolean, Less Crash

The CGA language itself gains streamlined 3D Boolean syntax, automatic tagging of intersections, and better sequential programming with improved inline rules and comp splits. Numeric stability gets a tune-up: cleaner handling of non-planar geometry, reduced split errors, and a fix for convexify crashers. These improvements matter in heavy production pipelines where edge-case geometry was, until now, a daily headache.

Viewport and UI: Shadows, Snapshots, and Usability Polish

Default anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering are now switched on, cleaning up texture edges and lines out of the box. Shadow rendering for snapshots improves—useful for dailies and quick looks. Snapshot resolution is capped at 10,000 × 10,000 pixels, which should keep both marketing and pipeline artists happy. Material assignment is now instant with a double-click in the Material Browser, and numeric input is more strictly validated across tools. Copy-on-move via Ctrl-drag and new toolbar icons also feature, but won’t disrupt muscle memory. Dark mode dashboard alignment and usability tweaks round out the UI changes—nothing flashy, but a collection of workflow splinters removed.

File I/O and SDK: Industry Standard, Now With TGA

CityEngine 2025.0 brings fixes and updates for USD, FBX, and Collada import/export, finally squashing some persistent opacity bugs. TGA file support is added. Under the hood, third-party libraries (ArcGIS Maps SDK, Chromium, FileGDB, OpenUSD, OpenDesign SDK for IFC/DWG, libpng, libtiff) have been updated, ensuring compliance and futureproofing.

DCC integration is unchanged: export supports OBJ, DXF, FBX, Alembic, and USD, keeping CityEngine interoperable with Houdini, Maya, Max, C4D, Blender, Unreal Engine 5, and similar tools.

Platform Support and System Requirements

The software now supports 64-bit Windows 10+, Windows Server 2016+, RHEL/AlmaLinux/Rocky Linux 8+, and adds official support for Windows Server 2025. No word on major macOS support changes—see the documentation for current OS specifics.

Licensing: Perpetual is Dead, Long Live Rental

With this release, Esri ends perpetual licensing for CityEngine. From June 2025 onward, only subscription access via ArcGIS Professional ($2,200/year) or Professional Plus ($4,200/year) is available. Existing annual license users must migrate; no grandfathering or extensions for perpetuals. This is now rental software—plan your budgets accordingly.

Test First, Deploy Later

As with all major tool updates, users should test new workflows and features on staging assets before pushing CityEngine 2025.0 into live production pipelines. The Street Designer is powerful, but trust—never rely—on the demo scene alone.

CityEngine 2025.0 Release Notes

CityEngine company homepage // Esri CityEngine

The post CityEngine 2025.0: Street Designer Arrives, Perpetual Licensing Leaves first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.