PaintCE is a design software tool developed at the Harvard GSD Geometry Lab that facilitates the rapid production of multiple design scenarios for large-scale urban developments. Users may produce scenarios using both existing and “painted” information that is either deterministic (e.g. street networks) or probabilistic (e.g. reported crime, property values, or density of use). Deterministic information is represented through graph networks that automatically stitch together, probabilistic information is represented through overlapping heat maps, and both are coordinated with an aerial map for location and scale.
Everything produced through PaintCE may be quickly exported into ESRI CityEngine for 3d modelling, wherein the graph networks and heat maps produced in PaintCE inform the model’s procedural generation.