Getting Technical - August 2025
How can you generate 3D vegetation in ArcGIS Pro? Is it possible to leverage CityEngine to generate realistic facades for the buildings within our ArcGIS Urban scenarios? How do you make cartograms in ArcGIS Pro? Get answers to all these questions and more in this month’s edition of Getting Technical. Read it now:
Must Reads
Register today for the Esri Canada Federal User Conference
Esri Canada Federal GIS Conference
October 7, 2025 | Ottawa, Ontario
Make plans to join us at this exclusive event that explores how the federal government is using the geographic approach to derive powerful insights and make data-driven decisions for all Canadians.
Register today for the Esri Canada User Conference
Esri Canada User Conference is Back – Register Now!
November 3–4, 2025 | Toronto, Ontario
Time is running out to get the lowest price for Canada’s #1 GIS event: the Esri Canada User Conference 2025. Tickets are limited and selling fast. Don’t miss your chance to be part of the movement that’s integrating everything, everywhere to build a smarter, more connected future.
Blogs
Enhancing Decision-making in Urban Centres with ArcGIS Dashboards
Urban Centre Explorer showing an overview of the housing tab for Downtown.
Learn how the City of Kelowna’s Long Range Policy Planning department is making the most out of ArcGIS Dashboards for planning the city’s five Urban Centres.
Extending ArcGIS Urban with CityEngine: Realistic Facade Models – No Code
Using CityEngine we can quickly go from schematic massing models to a detailed, realistic scenario.
ArcGIS CityEngine expands the parametric and generative planning functionality available with ArcGIS Urban and can support your planning work at scale throughout the planning process. This blog is part 2 of a three-part series focusing on different integrations between Urban and CityEngine. In this part, we explore how we can leverage CityEngine to generate realistic facades for the buildings within our ArcGIS Urban scenarios to enhance the impact of our planning scenarios. Read Part 1 here to explore initial Urban-CityEngine integrations.
Generating 3D vegetation in ArcGIS Pro
Classified point cloud web scene layer showing vegetation.
When it comes to 3D GIS, the most commonly seen objects are generally of buildings, utilities or other infrastructure. But there is one type of feature that makes up a big part of our world: vegetation. Modelling vegetation such as trees is important for performing analyses like spatial proximity, line of sight or shadow impact – investigations that are valuable in fields such as AEC and urban planning. There are several ways to render 3D vegetation in ArcGIS. In this blog, we show you a simple approach on how to generate these features in ArcGIS Pro, as well as how to share and display them in web GIS.
View all additional blogs on the Esri Canada Blog site.
Videos
Colour Tips to Improve Map Accessibility in ArcGIS Pro
Want to make your maps more inclusive and readable for everyone? In this GeoSnap, I’ll show you how to use smart color choices in ArcGIS Pro to improve map accessibility. Whether you're designing for colour vision deficiencies or just want clearer map visuals, these tips will help you choose colour schemes that work better for all users.
Create Service Usage by Users Report in ArcGIS Enterprise 11.5
Do you need more granular data on who is using what services and how often in your ArcGIS Enterprise Deployment? The new ServiceUsageByUsers reporting metric in 11.5 has you covered.
How to Create Cartograms in ArcGIS Pro 3.5
Have you ever wanted to make your own cartogram? If so, check out this GeoSnap where Alex walks you through how to use a new tool added to ArcGIS Pro 3.5. In only a few minutes, you can make your own cartograms with publicly available data from the ArcGIS Living Atlas or ArcGIS Online!
Stay up-to-date on all of our GeoSnaps by visiting the YouTube playlist.
Training
Using ArcGIS AllSource for Geospatial Intelligence Analysis
Harness geospatial data and tools for mission support
Ideal for intelligence and all-source analysts, this course teaches geospatial concepts and recommended workflows that support the production of timely, accurate and actionable intelligence. Using relevant scenarios and operational problems, you will learn how to manage, analyze and visualize geospatial data, then share your work by producing mission-specific products aligned with industry best practices.
Esri Canada Seminars & Webinars
What’s Next: Cityworks AMS to Trimble Unity Maintain
September 3, 2025