Esri has acquired Procedural, one of the world’s leading software companies for creating stunning 3D urban environments from typical 2D data. Urban planners, architects, video game developers, and movie studios around the world use Procedural’s CityEngine product to create 3D cities at any resolution.
Esri will integrate CityEngine into ArcGIS, allowing ArcGIS users to create and design 3D urban environments leveraging their existing GIS data, such as parcels and street centerlines. CityEngine’s rule-driven approach will allow users to undertake large-scale civic planning efforts and will provide immediate visual feedback on the impact of planning decisions, such as setbacks and floor-specific zoning changes. Users will also be able to interactively design and analyze urban growth with intuitive sketching tools.
“Many GIS problems can only be solved in 3D, particularly in the area of urban development,” said Jack Dangermond, Esri president, making the announcement at Esri’s 2011 International User Conference. “Procedural’s unique capabilities for generating high-quality 3D data, using the same GIS data our users already have, makes them a perfect match for Esri.”
CityEngine will continue to evolve and expand as a stand-alone product. The founders and employees of Procedural will be employed by Esri, and Procedural’s offices in Zurich will be extended to a leading-edge R&D center in the field of urban design and 3D content creation. Procedural will continue to meet the needs of its large community of CityEngine users in the simulation and entertainment industries.
“We are very excited to join forces with Esri,” said Dr. Pascal Mueller, CEO of Procedural Inc. “Many of our existing clients already use ArcGIS and a closer integration between our complementary technologies presents obvious benefits. We’re looking forward to fully leveraging our R&D capabilities, growing the CityEngine business and bringing many of the innovations we’ve developed at Procedural to the leading GIS solution of ArcGIS.”
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