Esri buys Procedural

Hot from the press: Esri announces the acquisition of Procedural. The Switzerland-based company specialises in procedurally (i.e., rule-based) constructed 3D city models and is known, for example, for its reconstruction of ancient Rome. Procedural’s approach, embodied in its software CityEngine, allows for very fast modelling of urban scenes.

Esri’s move will considerably strengthen its stand in the 3D realm and maybe we will at some point see BIM (Building Information Modelling) by Esri? Spatial Sustain points out correctly that Esri hasn’t usually grown by acquisitions, but steadily by its own activities. Before that background, Esri’s move into 3D via Procedural seems rather outstanding and meaningful!

Head past the break for some rather captivating examples of Procedural’s products. Continue reading “Esri buys Procedural”

CrisisCommons

Through this post on GIS and Science I learnt about CrisisCommons which appears to be some kind of meta-organisation for disaster relief organisations. I registered with their Google Group and I’m curious to learn what exactly they are doing and whether I can maybe contribute something to their work. Continue reading CrisisCommons