Use Esri CityEngine features external code

Question

I am trying to automatize the process of importing GIS data from OpenStreetMap to CityEngine, generating the 3D model I need and exporting it. CityEngine provides a Python scripting feature inside the application, but Esri does not provide any API.

I first installed Jython on and all the needed sw on my unix machine, set the java classpath ecc... and tried to run Python scripts from outside CityEngine but I still have some problems importing some java modules.

I asked on the CityEngine forum and they say:

"this is currently not possible. you need to run an instance of CityEngine for these tasks."

...

"the closest thing possible for this is to run an instance of CE and work with listeners".

Any idea on how can I make this work? How can I use listeners to interact with the running instance?

Answer 1

I'm not from the ESRI frontier, but from the 3D OSM side, so I try to answer:

The transformation process for 3D building outlines is a bit complex and depends sometimes on picking the right values: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Simple_3D_Buildings
Thus I recommend to use an existing 3D exporter for OSM, like OSM2World (Java). Sadly there is currently no highlevel export like CityGML that can be used for importing to CityEngine. So you might combine both just in the 3D modeller itself http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/3D_animation
Please keep in mind, that OSM has a copyleft license that might affect the mix.