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Develop a parcel

In this topic

  1. Assign building types
  2. Draw and edit spaces
  3. Generate buildings from footprints
  4. Validate buildings using zoning regulations
  5. Demolish existing conditions

You can develop a parcel with a plausible building, you can leave the parcel as is, or you can demolish existing conditions. A plausible building is a low level of detail (LOD1) schematic building. You can generate a plausible building automatically by assigning a building type to a parcel, or you can create a plausible building by drawing individual building spaces. You can also edit the individual floors of an automatically generated building. In addition to drawing building spaces, you can draw surfaces and select a space-use type as parcel ground. You cannot develop a parcel in the existing scenario. See Work with plan scenarios to learn more.

Assign building types

When assigning a building type to a parcel, a plausible building is generated. The form of the plausible building is based on the underlying zoning or land-use parameters and the space-use types assigned to the building type. To generate a plausible future building on a parcel, all of the following are required:

  • The parcel must be located in a zoning or land-use boundary with sufficient parameters to define a plausible building (or at least parameters applied as overrides on the parcel).
  • The parcel must have a building type assigned with space-use types and a stacking plan for the floor plates of the building.
  • The parcel must have a valid combination of parcel shape, size, and zoning or land-use parameters; otherwise, a building may not be possible or feasible (for example, if a parcel is too small to support a large building).

Assign a single building type

To assign a single building type to a parcel, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the plan editor.
  2. Click Development Development in the header to switch to development mode.
    3. Ensure that the side panel on the right is expanded.
  3. Click a parcel in the view.
  4. Click the Modify drop-down menu in the Planned development on selected parcels section of the side panel and choose Apply building type.

    The side panel lists the available building types. If you select a parcel with an assigned building type, it is highlighted in the list.

  5. From the Select building type side panel, click the building type name to assign to the parcel.
    • The building is updated in the view.
    • Existing buildings and trees intersecting the selected parcel are demolished. See the Demolish existing conditions section below for more information.

Assign a building types mix

To assign a building types mix to multiple parcels, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the plan editor.
  2. Click Development Development in the header to switch to development mode.
    3. Ensure that the side panel on the right is expanded.
  3. Select the parcels to which the building types mix will be assigned.

    To select multiple parcels, press the Shift key while selecting parcels or use the Advanced selection tool Select on the workflow toolbar at the right of the view. To deselect a parcel from a group selection, press the Alt key while clicking it in the scene view.

  4. Click the Modify drop-down menu in the Planned development on selected parcels section of the side panel and choose Apply multiple building types.

    The Apply multiple building types side panel appears.

  5. Add building types using the Add building Type drop-down menu in the side panel.
  6. Define a percentage for each building type.

    • The percentage represents the probability with which the corresponding building type is assigned to one of the selected parcels.
    • If the sum does not equal 100 percent, the percentage values are redistributed automatically to equal 100 percent when you click Apply multiple building types.

  7. Click Apply multiple building types at the bottom of the side panel.
    • The view is updated and shows the parcels with the configured building types mix.
    • Existing buildings and trees intersecting any selected parcel with a building type applied are demolished automatically. See the Demolish existing conditions section below for more information.
Note:

  • The assignment of the building types changes every time you apply the same mix of multiple building types.
  • In the allocation process, only building types that comply with the underlying zoning or land-use regulations are applied to the selected parcels. This may affect the resulting building types mix.

Draw and edit spaces

You can do the following when drawing and editing spaces:

  • Edit the building spaces of generated plausible buildings.
  • Draw additional spaces on or next to generated plausible buildings.
  • Design custom buildings by drawing new building spaces.
  • Plan the area between buildings with surfaces and parcel ground.
  • Duplicate buildings.

As with building spaces, surfaces and the parcel ground have a space-use type assigned and count toward metrics. Surfaces and the ground do not count toward zoning regulations such as coverage or number of dwelling units. They are always draped to the terrain and have no height. Surfaces can count toward floor area ratio (FAR) if this is specified in the surface settings.

Draw new building spaces

To draw new building spaces, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the plan editor.
  2. Click Development Development in the header to switch to development mode.
    3. Ensure that the side panel on the right is expanded.
  3. Optionally, demolish existing buildings and trees where necessary.

    See the Demolish existing conditions section below for more information.

  4. Select the parcel where you want to draw a new building space.
  5. Click the Edit spaces tab in the side panel.

    The blue header bar with the spaces editing tools appears.

  6. Click Draw new building space Draw new building space.
  7. Draw a building space on the map.
    • This tool supports snapping. To disable snapping temporarily, press the Ctrl key while drawing.
    • This tool supports editing constraints. Press the Tab key while drawing to input exact dimensions.
  8. Double-click to complete the drawing.
  9. Add underground spaces.
    1. Click the menu button Menu and switch to Underground.
    2. Adapt the view of the scene and add spaces by drawing from the underground.
    Alternatively, you can create underground spaces by moving the building below the ground level using the Edit building elevation tool described in the Edit building spaces section below.
  10. Edit the building space according to your requirements using one of the options listed in the Edit building spaces section below.

Note:
  • You can also draw building spaces on top of and next to each other. Building spaces that do not share vertexes or edges are considered separate buildings. Use the snapping options to ensure that the spaces of a building are correctly aligned.
  • The building space is assigned to the parcel where its centroid is located. Building spaces overlapping multiple parcels are not supported.
  • Overlapping building spaces and surfaces are not supported. There is a warning in the blue header bar in case of overlaps. Remove overlaps to avoid double-counting spaces toward the legend and dashboard.

Draw new surfaces

To draw new surfaces, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the plan editor.
  2. Click Development Development in the header to switch to development mode.
    3. Ensure that the side panel on the right is expanded.
  3. Optionally, demolish existing buildings and trees where necessary.

    See the Demolish existing conditions section below for more information.

  4. Select the parcel where you want to draw a new surface.
  5. Click the Edit spaces tab in the side panel.

    The blue header bar with the surface editing tools appears.

  6. Click Draw new surface Draw new surface.
  7. Draw a surface on the map.

    This tool supports snapping. To disable snapping temporarily, press the Ctrl key while drawing.

  8. Double-click to complete the drawing.
  9. Edit the surface according to your requirements using one of the options listed in the Edit surfaces section below.
Tip:

If your surface covers the whole parcel, consider selecting a space-use type as parcel ground instead. See the Select a space-use type as parcel ground section below to learn more.

Note:
  • The surface is assigned to the parcel where its centroid is located. Surfaces overlapping multiple parcels are not supported.
  • Overlapping building spaces and surfaces are not supported. There is a warning in the blue header bar in case of overlaps. Remove overlaps to avoid double-counting spaces toward the legend and dashboard.

Edit building spaces

To edit building spaces, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the plan editor.
  2. Click Development Development in the header to switch to development mode.
    3. Ensure that the side panel on the right is expanded.
  3. Click the parcel with the building spaces you want to edit.
  4. Click the Edit spaces tab in the side panel.

    The blue header bar with space editing tools appears.

  5. On the highlighted parcel, click a building space.
  6. Choose from the space editing tools according to your requirements:
    • Transform Transform—Scale and rotate the selected building space. The scaling also impacts the congruent building spaces above the selected space. The rotating impacts all building spaces above the selected space.
    • Edit vertices Edit vertices—Add vertices and move and remove existing vertices. This impacts the selected building space as well as congruent spaces above it.
      Note:
      This tool supports snapping. To disable snapping temporarily, press the Ctrl key while editing.
    • Move edges Move edges—Push and pull the edges of the selected building space. This impacts the selected building space as well as congruent spaces above it.
      Note:

      This tool is not supported on devices with touch input.

    • Duplicate floor Duplicate floor—Add a floor by duplicating the currently selected building space.
    • Duplicate building Duplicate building—Duplicate the building where the selected building space belongs.
    • Edit building elevation Edit building elevation—Vertically align the entire building where the selected building space belongs.
      Note:

      The tool automatically updates the floor numbers and the building height. Floors that are pushed to underground are automatically excluded from the gross floor area (GFA) and FAR calculations; floors that are raised from underground count toward GFA and FAR. Uncheck the Change ground floor check box to disable this automatic update of the ground floor (for example, to adjust the building in uneven terrain). When using the tool, the ground floor is highlighted in blue.

    • Remove Remove—Remove the currently selected building space.
  7. Edit the parameters of the selected building space in the Selected spaces section of the Edit spaces tab in the side panel. Choose from the following options:
    • Space use type—Change the type of the selected building space.
    • Floor height—Change the floor height of the selected building space.
      Note:

      If a building floor consists of multiple building spaces, changing the height of one building space automatically changes all other building spaces on this floor.

    • Counts towards GFA/FAR—Decide whether the area of the selected building space counts toward the gross floor area (GFA) and FAR calculations. Spaces that do not count toward GFA or FAR are visualized transparently while editing spaces.
  8. Click Done when you finish your edits.
Note:
  • The building space is assigned to the parcel where its centroid is located. Building spaces overlapping multiple parcels are not supported.
  • Overlapping building spaces and surfaces are not supported. There is a warning in the blue header bar in case of overlaps. Remove overlaps to avoid double-counting spaces toward the legend and dashboard.

Edit surfaces

To edit surfaces, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the plan editor.
  2. Click Development Development in the header to switch to development mode.
    3. Ensure that the side panel on the right is expanded.
  3. Click the parcel with the surfaces you want to edit.
  4. Click the Edit spaces tab in the side panel.

    The blue header bar with surface editing tools appears.

  5. On the highlighted parcel, click a surface.
  6. Choose from the surface editing tools according to your requirements:
    • Transform Transform—Scale and rotate the selected surface.
    • Edit vertices Edit vertices—Add vertices and move and remove existing vertices.
      Note:
      This tool supports snapping. To disable snapping temporarily, press the Ctrl key while editing.
    • Move edges Move edges—Push and pull the edges of the selected surface.
      Note:

      This tool is not supported on devices with touch input.

    • Remove Remove—Remove the currently selected building space.
  7. Edit the parameters of the selected surface in the Selected spaces section of the Edit spaces tab in the side panel. Choose from the following options:
    • Space use type—Change the type of the surface.
    • Counts towards GFA/FAR—Decide whether the area of the selected surface counts toward the GFA and FAR calculations.
  8. Click Done when you finish your edits.
Note:
  • The surface is assigned to the parcel where its centroid is located. Surfaces overlapping multiple parcels are not supported.
  • Overlapping surfaces and building spaces are not supported. There is a warning in the blue header bar in case of overlaps. Remove overlaps to avoid double-counting spaces toward the legend and dashboard.

Select a space-use type as parcel ground

To select a space-use type as parcel ground, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the plan editor.
  2. Click Development Development in the header to switch to development mode.
    3. Ensure that the side panel on the right is expanded.
  3. Optionally, demolish existing buildings and trees where necessary.

    See the Demolish existing conditions section below for more information.

  4. Select the parcel where you want to assign a space-use type as parcel ground.
  5. Click the Edit spaces tab in the side panel.

    The blue header bar with the space editing tools appears.

  6. Ensure that no space or surface is selected. Click outside the parcel to deselect a space or surface.
  7. Click Select space use type Options button in the Ground on selected parcel section in the side panel.

    The side panel lists the available space-use types.

  8. From the Select space use type side panel, click the space-use type to select as parcel ground. Click None to remove the ground from the parcel.
  9. Click Done in the blue header.
Note:
  • Overlaps between the ground and building spaces (including generated buildings) and surfaces are handled. Ground areas do not count toward the legend and dashboard where overlapped by building spaces or surfaces.
  • Overlaps between the ground and existing buildings are not handled. Ground areas do count toward the legend and dashboard where overlapped by existing buildings. Consider demolishing the existing buildings first. See Demolish existing conditions to learn more.

Generate buildings from footprints

You can generate building spaces by uploading building footprints. See the Draw and edit spaces section above to learn how to modify and edit building spaces.

To generate building spaces from footprints, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the plan editor.
  2. Expand the drop-down menu named after the plan and choose Configure plan.

    The plan configuration opens to the general plan settings tab by default.

  3. Choose Spaces from the Development drop-down menu.
  4. Choose the scenario that will receive the building spaces from the scenario drop-down menu.
  5. Click Upload footprints to open the From feature layer dialog box.
    1. In the Item step, search for the ArcGIS Online layer that contains the footprints, click the layer, and click Next to continue.
    2. In the Sublayer step, select a sublayer, and click Next to continue.
    3. In the Data step, choose the building type to be applied to the imported footprints, and click Next to continue.

      The buildings being generated ignore the underlying zoning or land-use parameters. For every space-use type that is part of a building type, the maximum number of floors is built as configured on the building type.

    4. In the Validation step, review invalid features in the Errors table if errors are detected. Correct the errors in the source data and click Refresh. If all features are valid, click Next or wait 5 seconds to start the import.
    5. In the Import step, all features are imported. Click Close to close the dialog box.

    Building spaces are only generated for building footprints that are completely within the study area and whose centroid intersects with a parcel. Underlying parcels are automatically demolished.

Note:

  • You can upload footprints to parcels that are already developed with future buildings. To replace those buildings, ensure that you first reset the respecting parcels before you upload footprints.
  • The footprints are converted to the coordinate system of the urban model if the coordinate systems don't match.

Validate buildings using zoning regulations

You can validate the new buildings using the zoning regulations in the current scenario. You can do this by displaying warning labels in the map view or by inspecting the building regulation side panel. See Zoning regulation management to learn more about zoning regulations.

Validate using warning labels

To validate all new buildings by displaying warning labels in the map view, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the plan editor.
  2. Click Development Development in the header to switch to development mode.
  3. Click the menu button Menu in the upper left corner of the header to expand the layer list.
  4. Turn on Warning labels.

    Buildings that violate the zoning regulations will show a warning label. Hover over the warning label to see additional information.

Note:

Warning labels may be hidden by envelopes. Hide envelopes to ensure that all warning labels are visible. See Hide envelopes to learn more.

Validate using the building regulation side panel

To validate the buildings on selected parcels by inspecting the building regulation side panel, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the plan editor.
  2. Click Development Development in the header to switch to development mode.
    3. Ensure that the side panel on the right is expanded.
  3. Select one or more parcels you want to inspect.
  4. Browse to the Building regulation subsection in the side panel on the right.
  5. Inspect the parameters in the Built and Allowed columns.

    A dot indicates a violation of the allowed parameter value. Click the parameter to get an overview over all zoning regulations that are in place on the selected parcels.

Note:

The number of built dwelling units is calculated by dividing the total floor area per space-use type within a building by the gross floor area per dwelling unit configured on the space-use type. This value is then rounded down so that only whole units are assigned to a building. If a unit does not fit entirely into the building, it is not included. When rounding down, a tolerance of 0.01 is applied to account for small imprecisions in the area calculation. For example, 0.99 units is rounded up to 1 unit, and not down to 0 units. See Modify a space-use type to learn how to configure the area per dwelling unit.

Demolish existing conditions

Use the demolish tool to remove existing buildings and trees from the view. The demolish tool allows you to do the following:

  • Demolish all existing buildings and trees intersecting a selected parcel. See the Demolish a parcel section below to learn more.
  • Use a custom demolish area to remove selected existing buildings and trees. See the Work with custom demolish areas section below to learn more.
  • Remove selected demolish areas. See the Remove a demolish area section below to learn more.

Note:

  • If a parcel or an area is demolished, the values of intersecting existing metric pins are ignored in the dashboard metrics calculation. See Work with the dashboard to learn more.

  • To review how much of a parcel is demolished, select one or more parcels and, in the Parcel information section in the development side panel, inspect the Demolished area value.

Demolish a parcel

To demolish all existing buildings and trees intersecting a selected parcel, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the plan editor.
  2. Click Development Development in the header to switch to development mode.
  3. Click the Demolish button Demolish on the workflow toolbar at the right of the view.
  4. Click the Demolish parcels button Demolish on the Demolish toolbar in the header.

    The Demolish parcels button Demolish is selected.

  5. Click a parcel.

    The parcel is visualized in orange with a solid outline. All existing buildings and trees intersecting the selected parcel are removed from the view.

  6. Optionally, select other parcels to demolish.
  7. Click Done to close the demolish tool.
Note:

When a parcel is demolished, the values of existing metric pins on the parcel are ignored when calculating metrics in the dashboard. See Work with the dashboard to learn more.

Work with custom demolish areas

You can draw a custom demolish area to remove existing buildings and trees. You can also edit custom demolish areas that you configured.

Draw a custom demolish area

To draw a custom demolish area, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the plan editor.
  2. Click Development Development in the header to switch to development mode.
  3. Click the Demolish button Demolish on the workflow toolbar at the right of the view.
  4. Click the Demolish custom area button Custom demolish on the Demolish toolbar in the header.

    The Demolish custom area button Custom demolish is selected.

  5. Draw a demolish area on the map.

    The custom demolish area is visualized in orange with a dotted outline. Existing buildings and trees intersecting the demolish area are removed from the view.

  6. Click Done to close the demolish tool.
Note:

  • This tool supports snapping. To disable snapping temporarily, press the Ctrl key while drawing.
  • This tool supports editing constraints. Press the Tab key while drawing to input exact dimensions.
  • If a custom demolish area intersects with an existing metric value pin, the existing metric values associated with the pin will be ignored when calculating metrics in the dashboard. See Work with the dashboard to learn more.

Edit a custom demolish area

To edit the geometry of a custom demolish area, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the plan editor.
  2. Click Development Development in the header to switch to development mode.
  3. Click the Demolish button Demolish on the workflow toolbar at the right of the view.
  4. Click a custom demolish area you want to edit.

    Custom demolish areas are displayed as hashed polygons with a dotted outline.

  5. Use the handles on the selected custom demolish area to edit its edges and the vertices.

    Existing buildings and trees intersecting the demolish area are removed from the view.

  6. Click Done to close the demolish tool.
Note:
This tool supports snapping. To disable snapping temporarily, press the Ctrl key while editing.

Remove a demolish area

To remove a demolish area, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the plan editor.
  2. Click Development Development in the header to switch to development mode.
  3. Click the Demolish button Demolish on the workflow toolbar at the right of the view.
  4. Click a demolish area you want to remove, or press the Shift key to select multiple areas. To deselect a demolish area from a group selection, press the Alt key while clicking it in the scene view.

    Demolish areas are displayed as hashed polygons with either a solid outline (parcel demolish area) or a dotted outline (custom demolish area).

  5. Click the Remove selected demolish areas button Delete.
    • Selected demolish areas are removed from the view.
    • Existing buildings and trees that were intersecting the removed demolish areas are visible again.
  6. Click Done to close the demolish tool.

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In this topic
  1. Assign building types
  2. Draw and edit spaces
  3. Generate buildings from footprints
  4. Validate buildings using zoning regulations
  5. Demolish existing conditions