I’m working on a highway design project created in Autodesk Civil 3D and InfraWorks, and I’d like to import it into Unreal Engine with Cesium for realistic visualization and animation.
What’s the best way to position my 3D model at its correct geographic coordinates inside Unreal + Cesium, so that it aligns properly with the real-world terrain and satellite imagery?
I have the Civil 3D model (in local coordinates) and I can export it through InfraWorks or FBX/Datasmith, but I’m not sure how to handle the coordinate transformation so that it appears in the right place in Cesium.
Any tips or recommended workflow for aligning engineering models (roads/highways) with Cesium’s global coordinate system would be greatly appreciated.
There’s two possible ways to accomplish this. First, you could use a Cesium Globe Anchor to assign the coordinates to the model in Unreal Engine itself.
Secondly, you could use Cesium ion to upload your model and run it through our tilers. Given your description, you’ll probably want to specify it as an Architecture, Engineering or Construction model (BIM/CAD).
You can then use that to align the tileset to the appropriate geographic coordinates. This is useful if you’re going to reuse the model in multiple contexts (e.g., different levels or apps), so you don’t have to realign the model with the terrain every time.
