{"id":23203,"date":"2024-03-07T10:00:41","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T09:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.ptvgroup.com\/city-and-mobility\/kassels-strassen-in-3d-verkehrsplanungen-greifbar-machen-fuer-politik-und-oeffentlichkeit\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T11:40:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T09:40:36","slug":"kassels-streets-in-3d-making-transport-planning-tangible-for-politicians-and-the-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.ptvgroup.com\/en\/user-insights\/kassels-streets-in-3d-making-transport-planning-tangible-for-politicians-and-the-public\/","title":{"rendered":"Kassel’s streets in 3D: Making transport planning tangible for politicians and the public"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The starting point<\/h2>\n

The German city of Kassel has a high-quality digital 3D city model. This model has been developed in recent years by the city’s Department of Surveying and Geoinformation and is kept up to date using the CityGRID software from UVM Systems<\/a>. The road traffic and civil engineering department wanted to use this city model for the visualization of traffic planning projects.<\/p>\n

On the occasion of the planned redesign of Br\u00fcder-Grimm-Platz, a neuralgic point in Kassel’s city center in terms of traffic, which is accompanied by great public interest, there was a desire for the most efficient solution possible: both offices involved should be able to concentrate on their core task, the surveying office on the management of the 3D city model and the civil engineering office on traffic planning in the usual style. Neither the city model should have to be imported into Vissim, nor the transport planning into the 3D database of the city model. Instead, traffic planning and the city model should be merged in a 3D visualization and displayed together.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the solution was to be provided by an interface of the visualization software CityGRID Scout, which enables real-time coupling with PTV Vissim and displays the traffic simulation created there in real time in the 3D visualization of the city model.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https:\/\/youtu.be\/xdBAqr0MHUo?feature=shared” el_width=”70″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

The Method<\/h2>\n

CityGRID Scout is a 3D visualization software (a “3D viewer”) which was developed by UVM Systems on the basis of the Unity Engine. Unity originates from the computer games sector and is particularly powerful in the 3D area. The simulations created in the course of a Vissim project virtually provide a “script” for the 3D animation of each road user. In addition to the movement trajectory, Vissim also simulates other traffic-relevant behavior typical of reality, such as braking, flashing lights, opening doors, pedestrians and cyclists both moving and waiting. This behavior is of course coordinated with the traffic light control and the corresponding control of each traffic light system is also simulated. Vissim provides the “scripts” for the planned behavior of traffic lights and the corresponding realistic behavior of many thousands of road users.<\/p>\n

To realize this, we have developed a software interface (API) that communicates with Vissim in real time via a COM server. With this interface, the information of a simulation started in Vissim is converted into correspondingly synchronized 3D animations in CityGRID Scout.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Creating a 3D Library<\/h2>\n

As a prerequisite for the 3D animation of the traffic simulation, “library objects” must be created, i.e. sample models that can be instantiated several times in different variants (e.g. in different colors) in CityGRID Scout. All library models are available in at least two LOD levels to ensure high-performance visualization. The following library objects were modeled for the Br\u00fcder-Grimm-Platz project, for example:[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”23246″ img_size=”500×500″ add_caption=”yes”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n