At Lands End

The future of Autodesk® LandXplorer Studio Professional

After the release of Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler, several customers have asked us about what is happening with Autodesk LandXplorer Studio Professional.  Essentially, Infrastructure Modeler is being introduced as the next generation of LandXplorer Studio Professional capability.

This means:

• We're introducing new workflows that improve upon the LandXplorer experience based on customer feedback
• We are attempting to echo capability in Infrastructure Modeler that is roughly equivalent to some capability in LandXplorer
• Current subscription holders of LandXplorer Studio Professional will receive Infrastructure Modeler 2012 for their entitlement this year
• Users who depend on some LandXplorer Studio Professional functionality may continue to use their LandXplorer licenses under our standard prior version policy

We realize that this is particularly important for existing customers who use CityGML.  We hope to explore CityGML interoperability through Infrastructure Modeler in the future.  Customers who have specific concerns about this should contact me directly.

It does not mean:

• That we will replicate all LandXplorer capability in Infrastructure Modeler
• That we will not introduce additional Infrastructure Modeler functionality in the future that more closely resembles some LandXplorer functionality
• That we perfectly hit all of our valuable LandXplorer customers' requirements with our first release

LandXplorer was an innovative product and, with Infrastructure Modeler, we've made some great additions to LandXplorer's core concepts, including:

• A workflow with refreshable source data
• Allowing a more GIS-friendly data schema
• Introducing the concepts of proposals and time
• A scripting interface!
• Growing 3D assets from 2D GIS and CAD data
• Sketching assets in 2D and instantly creating them in 3D

We've done our best to introduce a new product that carries forward some key capability of LandXplorer while also delivering lots of great new tools.  We look forward to hearing your feedback as you explore Infrastructure Modeler.

 

LandXplorer 2011 Courseware are available!

Hi there,

check out the new LandXplorer courseware including a whole bunch of data, now!

The training material will teach you how to exploit the full benefits of displaying, creating, editing, and publishing 2D and 3D geospatial data using Autodesk® LandXplorer™ Studio Professional.

As you progress through each exercise you will gain a better understanding of how Autodesk® LandXplorer™ Studio Professional can be used not only to build aesthetically pleasing 3D city models and 3D landscape models but how to create value-added information and products for end-users and stakeholders.

The training material supplied is intended for use with Autodesk® LandXplorer™ Studio Professional 2011 and introduces new functions which were not available in prior versions of Autodesk® LandXplorer™ Studio Professional. The focus for the 2011 release has been put especially on productivity and connectivity with other Autodesk® products through Autodesk® FDO technology and FBX support and more intuitive dialogs for data import and manipulation.

ftp.3dgeo.de/3dgeo/customers/geodata

geodata / Cp69kE5w

Have Fun & Enjoy.

ToW LDX2011/Galileo - Import/Export formats

When using a tool for creating 3D city models you will end up in many different formats which can contain information for you model. Today I want to give you a simplistic overview on what can be inserted in and exported from LandXplorer Studio Professional 2011.

This topic is also interesting to those of you who are playing around with the new Project Galileo. Since Galileo is a technlogical preview it does not contain as much capability like LandXplorer has today yet, but looking at them as partner tools you may encounter some nice workflows.

As you might know Galileo isn’t yet able to import 3D shape files. So the workaround would be:

• Open LDX 2011 and load your 3D shp file and texture it as you want
• Export the city model to fbx from LDX 2011 (I exported 1730 buildings at once)
• Open Project Galileo and insert the newly created fbx city model.
• Enjoy...

Here is an overview on the formats being able to bring in and out of LDX 2011:

Download TS_Import_Export_Workflow

 

 

ToW LDX2011 - How to add Custom Providers Sqlite, PostGIS

Lately we've had lots of posts about the new exciting Project Galileo.  Today, I would like to get back to our existing LandXplorer Customers and tell them how to get some more FDO providers connected to LDX2011.

Officially PostGIS & SQLite are not supported within LandXplorer 2011 but they can be used as custom providers. You can add PostGIS/SQLite manually in the provider.xml file under your installation folder(Autodesk\LandXplorer Studio Professional 2011\Fdo).

For PostGIS:

<FeatureProvider>

  <Name>OSGeo.PostGIS.3.5</Name>

  <DisplayName>OSGeo FDO Provider for PostGIS</DisplayName>

  <Description>Read/write access to spatial and attribute data in an PostGIS.</Description>

  <IsManaged>False</IsManaged>

  <Version>3.5.0.0</Version>

  <FeatureDataObjectsVersion>3.5.0.0</FeatureDataObjectsVersion>

  <LibraryPath>PostGISProvider.dll</LibraryPath>

</FeatureProvider>

Additionally you need to add the required postgis dll's into the fdo directory manually.

Download PostGIS.

 

For SQLlite:

<FeatureProvider>

    <Name>OSGeo.SQLite.3.5</Name>

    <DisplayName>OSGeo FDO Provider for SQLite (spatial)</DisplayName>

    <Description>Read/write access to feature data in a SQLite file.</Description>

    <IsManaged>False</IsManaged>

    <Version>3.5.0.0</Version>

    <FeatureDataObjectsVersion>3.5.0.0</FeatureDataObjectsVersion>

    <LibraryPath>SQLiteProvider.dll</LibraryPath>

  </FeatureProvider>

Find the SQLiteProvider.dll for the LDX fdo directory here.

Download SQLiteProvider

Autodesk Project Galileo and LandXplorer at AU 2010

I'd like to shout out a huge "Thank you!" to the great customers, partners, and Autodesk employees who contributed to getting the word out about Autodesk Project Galileo and the LandXplorer products at Autodesk University 2010.

Some notable highlights:

• Galileo was showcased on the conference mainstage, the Infrastructure mainstage and in press briefings given by Jay Bhatt, Phil Bernstein, Bryan Mathews, and Paul McRoberts that generated numerous hallway conversations for me around Galileo, Conceptual Design, and the integrated CAD/GIS/BIM/3DS workflow

• Dan Campbell, City of Vancouver, and Lynda Sharkey, Autodesk, gave fantastic talks and presentations on the value of city modeling, current software that can be used (i.e., LandXplorer) and the hurdles of the workflows that customers go through to maintain a model today

• The Autodesk Project Galileo Open House was so packed that I had to step over attendees' laps to get to my computer at one point.  We had about 40 attendees in a room set up for 18 people and many Autodeskers generously gave up their seats to allow customers and partners to see Galileo.  Bob Bray and I were both really excited and grateful that so many people came to see us and stuck it through the whole 90 minutes.

• The Open House was attended by attendees from at least four continents, representing work on at least 5 continents.  Any questions that the need for infrastructure modeling solutions is global?

• I was absolutely thrilled that two Open House attendees had built models by the end of the Open House from their own data using a pre-preview build of Galileo that we handed out at the event.

• All of the AU Galileo events have helped push views of the Galileo videos to 1500+

You can see the packed audience for the Open House here:

Keep watching this space for the imminent announcement that Galileo is available on Autodesk Labs!

 

 

LandXplorer 2011 videos from Maynooth, Ireland

The National Centre for Geocomputation, National University of Ireland Maynooth, has used LandXplorer 2011 to produce some great visual studies of their campus.  They have some fantastic building models and the videos make me want to return to Ireland!  (Bet you'd never guess that I am a citizen!)

A big thanks to Neil Brooker from our Farnsborough team for supporting them on this!

If you'd like to contact the NUIM NCG team, send us a note.

YouTube links:

LandXplorer Studio Professional

• Maynooth historic campus

• Maynooth north campus

LandXplorer Server

• Video-capture of prototype web-based point Viewshed navigation system for Maynooth north and south campus 

 

Go to Lynda Sharkey's LandXplorer class at AU!

 

Lynda Sharkey is leading a LandXplorer class at AU! If you're going to AU... make sure to go to her class!

 

Watch her really cool video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwaJIX_kYVA

 

LandXplorer Studio Professional - Product Interoperability

One of the major enhancements within the 2011 release are demonstrated through the connection to AEC related products like Civil3D, Revit Architecture, 3DsMax, Ecotect & Map3D. So this is a first step to combine products to reflect workflows that will represent the full life cycle of infrastructure projects.

 
 

Imagine you create a new site plan in Map3D – export it to LandXplorer and raise the buildings to illustrate how it might look like – change heights or enter new buildings – export it to Ecotect to run some sun (or other) analyzes – bring some analyzed blocks into 3DsMax to detail it out – or include some architecture models to replace the block buildings -  add given Civil3D content to add the new transportation segment of the new site to your city model

For the LandXplorer – Ecotect worklow see here.

The list I want to provide here gives you an overview on the in and export formats within the LandXplorer products.

Download TS_Import_Export_Workflow

Have fun in creating workflows and send in some nice examples or improvements you have in mind.

500,000 ROOFS FULL OF ENERGY...

...this is the head line in the press release from the city of Berlin regarding their solar atlas based on the existing 3D city model. This new invention gives a perfect idea of how sustainable information can be shared in a visual appealing and understandable manner on a city wide scale.

“The Solar Atlas functions as follows: It takes just a few mouse clicks on the online three-dimensional model of the city to find out both whether a particular roof is suitable for the installation of solar panels and how much solar power they are capable of generating. Buildings are no longer represented in their actual height, but rather assigned a height relative to their solar potential.” (press release Berlin)

 

 www.businesslocationcenter.de

Here are the links to the Google Earth 3D Model, the 3D Solar Atlas and the 2D Solar Atlas.

As the model has been created with LandXplorer Studio Pro the Google Earth model is the output of the Landxplorer Publisher a free tool integrated in the LandXplorer Studio setup. The 2D Solar Atlas is based on MapGuide. The work has been done by virtulacitySYSTEMS one of our LandXplorer partners.

LandXplorer at the eCAADe in Zurich

 

A conference about the future of the city.

The eCAADe (Education and research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe) is a non-profit organization made up of institutions and individual members with a common interest in the promotion of architectural applications and related fields. The organization holds an annual conference. The 28th version is this year from 15^th - 18^th of September at the ETH Zurich.

On the first two days of the Congress there are workshops on themes like Digital Urban Design, CAAD & Digital Tool Making. Hereby you are able to learn more about the tools from the Autodesk infrastructure solutions portfolio:

• Autodesk LandXplorer: Efficient visualization of large scale urban models
• Autodesk Ecotect: Performance evaluation of building and urban designs

I will lead the LandXplorer workshop over there and will participate in the Ecotect Session.

For more info and to promote my colleges blog have a look here: The Geospatial Navigator