Push Pull Tool

Extrude 2D shapes and modify existing 3D extrusions with the Push Pull Tool . You can hover over any shape to display handles to extrude an edge or face.

Tip:

• To use the CityEngine tools, ensure the Tool Options window open by clicking Window > Tool Options in the main menu.
• Not all CityEngine tools have options under Tool Options.

To extrude a shape, do one of the following:

• Click the Push Pull Tool button .
• Press P.
• Click Shapes > Push Pull Tool in the CityEngine main menu to open the tool.

Extrude face

Depending on the shape, different arrows appear. This allows you to create shapes along different directions. Hover over a direction arrow for immediate feedback. There are four types of directions, each with a unique color and mouse icon.

Global axes.
Face normal.
Face normal projected on the ground plane.
Special edge directions from adjacent faces.

Tip:

• Use guides to snap to other shapes.
• Turn on Force New Edges in the Push Pull Tool options or press Ctrl to force the creation of new edges when extruding.

Special edge direction

When dragging along the special edge direction arrow, all edges are extended along their adjacent faces during dragging. The arrow appears with a slight offset when it has the same direction as another arrow. The table below shows the difference between the up and special edge direction dragging.

Starting shape.
Shape is dragged directly up along the green arrow.
Shape is dragged along blue arrow extending adjacent faces.

3D shape editing

3D shapes allow polygonal editing, such as snapping, splitting, and automatic closing. Split parts can be moved to further refine the 3D model.

Preliminary split.
3D move.
Final split and 3D move.

3D edge move

Hover over edges with the Push Pull Tool to display edge handles. Similar to dragging faces, you can drag edges in multiple directions.

Edge move along global axis.
Edge move along adjacent faces.
Edge move along average face normal.

While moving the edges with the Push Pull Tool, connected faces update to maintain planarity. In addition, the moved edge is intersected with neighboring polygons. Both features are useful for creating roofs as shown below.

Edge before moving orthogonal faces

Orthogonal faces moving with edge

Inset edge along roof

Edge move along the blue axis insets the edge along the existing roof

Tool options

The Push Pull Tool tool includes the following options:

Push Pull Tool
Distance (m)	Distance in meters of the edge or face extrusion. You can enter a value to lock the extrusion distance along the available directions. Click again to start a new extrusion.
Snapping	Turn snapping options on and off. Extrude a face and snap to faces, edges, vertices, of the same shape. Also, snap to guides. Extrude an edge and snap to vertices of the same shape. Press Shift to temporarily enable or disable snapping.
Force New Edges	Force the creation of a new edge when extruding. Press Ctrl to temporarily turn on or off the creation of new edges.