Creating 3D Trees - ArcGIS Pro to CityEngine

This documentation was created to identify best practices for Nashville & Davidson County Metropolitan Government's 3D deliverables and is subject to change as needed. 

There are generally two different geometries provided in 2D to represent the location of trees on a map or drawing. Usually polygons depict dense tree canopy and points depict individual trees (eg. proposed street trees).

Different Tree Types:

Steps to create individual trees from polygons:

1.    Bring the UrbanTreeCanopy2016 layer file into the map (or newer if available)

2.      In the analysis toolbox, find and open the "Create Random Points" tool

3.      Enter the following parameters:

4.      This should distribute the trees at a fairly even spacing that still represents the approiate density. If needed, you may increase the minimum allowed distance to reduce the amount of trees created and run the tool again.

5.      Next. to remove trees that intersect with buildings, structures, pavement and other layers that will largely not support plant-live go to the Map tab >  Select by Location > Add features to selection:

6.    When selected, go to the Edit tab > Delete > click Save in the Edit menu. Repeat steps 5&6 for all layers representing areas that should not intersect with trees.

7.      Open CityEngine Scene > File > Import > File GDB Import > Next

8.   In the "Browse" dialogue box copy and paste the path to the ArcGIS Pro project geodatabase (.gdb)

9.  When the data is imported > Align Shapes to the Terrain

10.   In the Inspector > click Assign > navigate to the Esri Library rule file > Plant_Loader

 11.   Choose a tree with a reasonable canopy shape ( not too conical or too large for urban context). The recommended tree representation for generated forested canopy areas en masse is the fan tree. The realistic (model) trees will weigh down your processing power and cause your browser to crash when modeled in the large quantities. Only use realistic (model) trees in areas where the model will be scrutinized. Set transparency values at your discretion.

12.  Click "Generate" to see the forest for the trees!