Export shapes

To export shapes to an external format, do the following.

  1. Select the shapes to export.
  2. Click File > Export.
  3. Click City Engine Layers > Export Selected Shapes.
  4. Click Next.
  5. Choose the Esri shapefile or AutoCAD DXF format.
Tip:

You can export shape geometry in CityEngine in two ways: export pure shapes or export models and choose to only export the shape geometry.

Export to SHP

The Esri shapefile is a geospatial vector data format for GIS software. A shapefile commonly refers to a collection of files. The main file (.shp) contains the shape data and the database file (.dbf) contains attributes for each shape. You can export shapes and attributes to shapefiles. Additionally, an index file (.shx) is written.

Note:

The same process can also be used to export graph segments. For a graph segment specific description, see Export graphs .

Export options

The export dialog box consists of the file name and 3D options. Presets can be saved and applied.

File

Click Browse to open a dialog box and select an .shp file to export.

3D options

The following table illustrates the effects of this option:

3D optionShapefile typeData

none

Polygon

2D

PolygonZ

PolygonZ

3D

Multipatch

Multipatch

3D

Note:

No .prj projection file is written. The data is stored in Cartesian coordinates in the current scene coordinate system.

Export to DXF

AutoCAD DXF, Drawing Interchange Format, or Drawing Exchange Format is a CAD data format developed by Autodesk. A .dxf file contains a set of entities. For each selected shape, a closed Polyline type entity is written.

Note:

You can also export graph segments. For a graph segment specific description, see Export to DXF

Export options

No export options are available for DXF data. To create a .dxf export file, click the Browse button and click Finish.