Release notes for Urban October 2022

The following updates have been made to ArcGIS Urban.

General

The following new features and general improvements are available in Urban:

  • There is an improved user experience for the ArcGIS Urban landing page:
    • Find recent urban models, create a model or open the Boston example city as a signed-in user.
    • Sign-up for a trial, find resources to learn more about ArcGIS Urban or find a simpler way to sign in as a non-signed-in user.
  • Find all the urban models you have access to more easily:
    • Search for urban models by their name.
    • Reorder the list of urban models you have access to using predefined criteria.
  • When you create an urban model, there is a new user experience:
    • Configure the geolocation of your urban model.
    • Choose a template.
    • Add your parcels and zones.
    • The OpenStreetMap 3D Scene Layers are used by default as base layers for the schematic and imagery visualization.
  • The building types in the USA Default template have been updated. Some of them have now values configured for the following building footprint parameters:
    • Maximum footprint length & width
    • Minimum building segment length & width
    • Alignment & secondary alignment
  • The urban model base layer functionalities are extended:
  • New ToolTips show the dimensions when editing geometries across the app. For example, edge lengths are shown when editing building spaces in the plan editor.
  • The plan, project, and indicator descriptions now support bullet lists and tables. See Description styling to learn more.
  • The accessibility is improved:
    • Aria labels on UI elements support assistive technologies (for example screen readers).
    • Visual focus on UI elements supports keyboard navigation.

Overview

The following new features and improvements are available in the overview:

  • Hover over pins to show a pop-up with additional information about the plan or project.
  • The LOD1 project buildings are visualized with sketchy edges.
  • The plan and project study areas are visualized on the map.
  • Creating a city web scene is further improved:
    • You can replace an existing city web scene when creating a new one.
    • Use the My web scenes capability to explore all city web scenes that you created in Urban after the October 2022 release. See View the list of exported web scenes to learn more.
    • Find your city web scenes on ArcGIS Online by filtering for the Urban and City web scene tags.

Data manager and plan configuration

The following new features and improvements were added to the data manager and the plan configuration:

  • The metrics graph is improved. See Configure the dashboard in the data manager and Work with the dashboard in the plan configuration to learn more.
    • You can rearrange metrics in the metric graph.
    • You can persist the metric graph layout.
    • You can create metrics and draw connections directly in the graph with drag-and-drop actions.
    • You can hover over a metric to highlight its dependencies in the graph.
    • The graph shows a warning for metrics that are not connected.
    • The metric connection dialog box shows a list of space-use type parameters. You can explore, add, and modify space-use type parameters directly in this dialog box.
  • The experience to upload data is improved. A dialog box guides you through the import process step by step.
  • You can now upload overlay types from a spreadsheet, feature table, or feature layer symbology. Deleting many overlay types at once is supported as well.
  • A new color picker facilitates setting colors on zone, land-use, overlay, and space-use types.

Plan editing

The following new features and improvements were added to the plan editing experience:

  • There is a new demolish tool in the development mode. See Work with custom demolish areas to learn more.
    • You can demolish entire parcels by clicking them.
    • You can draw custom demolish areas.
  • Overlay, zoning, and land-use type descriptions now support markdown text styling. For example, you can use this to show hyperlinks to zoning codes in the zoning popup and in the legend. See Description styling to learn more. Modify your existing zoning and land-use types with the following steps:
    1. Open the plan.
    2. Go to the list of types.
    3. Click the Configure button.
    4. Copy the name that until now was stored in the Description field.
    5. Paste it into the Name field.
  • The scenario to web scene is further improved:
    • The thumbnail on the web scene slides represents the associated viewpoint location. There is no longer a generic thumbnail.
    • You can find your plan scenario web scenes created after the October 2022 release on ArcGIS Online by filtering for the Urban and Plan scenario web scene tag.
  • The zoning type list in the zoning mode now shows overlay types as well.
  • The space-use types list in the development mode now shows building types as well.
  • Split zoning boundaries using the newly added tool in the zoning pop-up.
  • The tool to edit parcel edges is now part of the parcel editing tool.
  • Overlay, zoning, and land-use pop-ups can be closed with a button.
  • Zoning envelopes adapt to slanted terrain.

Breaking changes

The following breaking changes are introduced with this release:

  • With the introduction of a dedicated layer for existing trees in imagery visualization, the currently defined layer for existing trees will only be displayed in the schematic visualization. To see existing trees in imagery visualization, configure a dedicated layer. See Manage imagery visualization layers to learn more.
  • Plans that were shared with the public at least once before the July 2021 release might contain legacy custom demolish areas. Delete these legacy custom demolish areas to ensure that demolishing works as expected. Complete the following steps to do so:
    1. Open the plan.
    2. Open the Demolish tool. See Demolish existing conditions to learn more.
    3. Click the custom demolish areas while pressing the Shift key. Custom demolish areas are visualized with a dotted outline.
    4. Click the Remove selected demolish areas button.

Removed functionality

The following functionality has been removed:

  • The Demolish entry in the Modify drop-down list in the development side panel of the plan editor has been removed. Use the Demolish tool instead.
  • The Demolish button in the spaces editing toolbar of the plan editor has been removed. Use the Demolish tool instead.
  • The Enable sync capability has been removed from the plan and project configuration. The ArcGIS CityEngine integration does not require sync-enabled design databases anymore. Use the ArcGIS Online user interface to turn on or off the sync capability on a design database.

Enhancements and bug fixes

The following enhancements and bug fixes are introduced with this release:

  • The creation and the upgrade of an urban model, a plan, or a project is more reliable. This also solves an issue where the creation of a new urban model was not possible on certain ArcGIS Online organizations.
  • In city web scenes and exported plan scenario web scenes, spatial filters are now used to mask existing trees and schematic buildings. The existing trees and schematic buildings layers do not need a companion feature layer anymore.
  • A new drop-down list allows you to select the unit when importing future project buildings in the data manager.
  • When importing data from a feature layer in the data manager or plan configuration, fields of the type GUID are also shown in the field matcher drop-down list.
  • In the Daylight tool, there is a new option to use a virtual light source relative to the camera instead of the sun’s position at a certain date and time.
  • You can now hide resolved comments in internal discussions.
  • In the embed mode, the side panel on the right side is hidden by default.
  • Zoning and land-use parameters are now ordered the same way in all dialog boxes.
  • Bug fix—The land use potential in exported scenario web scenes was incorrect if more than one space-use type is allowed in a land-use type. This is fixed.
  • Bug fix—Zoning envelopes can be displayed again in imagery mode.
  • Bug fix—An issue where zones inherited from the existing scenario were not deleted when deleting all zones in a scenario is fixed.
  • Bug fix —Some parts of the plausible buildings were not generated at all on concave parcels with certain tiers and setback restrictions. This is fixed.
  • Bug fix—Pop-ups configured on a map imagery layer used in indicators are now showing again.
  • Bug fix—Hiding a newly created public feedback comment did hide the previous comment. This is fixed.
  • Bug fix—Certain locales showed wrong decimal and thousands separators in pop-ups. This is fixed.
  • Bug fix—An internationalization issue for signed out users is fixed.
  • Bug fix—The analysis tool pop-up now closes when opening an analysis tool.
  • Bug fix—The table header was misaligned when sorting by color in the data manager or in the plan configuration. This is fixed.
  • Bug fix—The default land-use type in land-use plans was called Default zoning. This is fixed. It is now called Default land use.
  • Bug fix—The parameters section in the space-use legend is now hidden if no parameters are defined.
  • Bug fix—When selecting a parcel on a zone with no space-use types restrictions, the space-use types list returned no results if the option Allowed on selected parcels was enabled. This is fixed.