4.4.6.4. Appearance

The Appearance preference settings define how appearance information of city objects shall be processed at import time.

../../_images/impexp_import_preferences_appearance_fig.png

Fig. 4.22 Import preferences – Appearance.

To import appearances, simply enable the corresponding checkbox. This is also the default value. The Importer/Exporter will also import all texture image files referenced from the appearances. Both relative references (i.e., relative to the input file) and global references (e.g., web URLs) to texture files are supported and resolved. The latter might require internet access though. Alternatively, a user may choose to only import the appearance information but to skip the texture files by disabling the import texture file option.

Prior to version 1.0 of the CityGML standard, material and texture information of surface objects was stored using TexturedSurface elements. This concept was, however, replaced by the Appearance module in CityGML 1.0 and thus has been deprecated. Although the CityGML specification discourages the use of TexturedSurface elements, it is still allowed even in CityGML 2.0 datasets. The Importer/Exporter can parse and interpret TexturedSurface information but will automatically convert this information losslessly to Appearance elements. Since TextureSurface information is not organized into themes but a theme should be used for Appearance elements, the user can define a theme that shall be used in the conversion process. The default value is rgbTexture.