Comparison with 3D City Database
Since 2010, VCS has been a driver and key contributor to the open-source 3D City Database (3DCityDB), a milestone for the CityGML community and a core component of our products and services. By continuously advancing and widely applying 3DCityDB and CityGML in customer and research projects worldwide, we play a vital role in the global adoption of urban digital twins.
Built on top of the open-source 3DCityDB and its ecosystem of tools, our VC Database provides a reliable solution for storing and managing CityGML-based 3D city models, ensuring scalable and efficient management of urban data.
| The VCDB uses the 3DCityDB at its core without modification. Therefore, any tool compatible with 3DCityDB can also connect to the VCDB. However, the VCDB includes additional functionalities not available in the open-source 3DCityDB. |
Database versions
The following table shows which version of the VC Database is based on which version of the 3D City Database.
| VC Database | 3D City Database |
|---|---|
5.0 |
5.1 |
Database features
The table below compares the features and functionalities of the 3D City Database and the VC Database.
| Feature | 3DCityDB | VCDB |
|---|---|---|
Full support for CityGML versions 3.0, 2.0 and 1.0 |
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Complex thematic modeling including support for Application Domain Extensions (ADE) |
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Four (CityGML 3.0) or five (CityGML 2.0 and 1.0) different Levels of Detail (LoDs) |
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Appearance information (textures and materials) |
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Digital terrain models (DTMs) represented as TINs |
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Representation of generic and prototypical 3D objects |
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Free, also recursive aggregation of geo objects |
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Flexible 3D geometries such as Solid, CompositeSolid, MultiSurface, CompositeSurface, Polygon, TINs, MultiCurve, CompositeCurve, LineString, Point, and MultiPoint |
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Bi-temporal historization and versioning support for city objects |
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Changelog table for tracking transactions on top-level city objects |
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Support for PostgreSQL/PostGIS |
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Available as Docker image |
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Installation and maintenance support |
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Database client features
The table below compares the features and functionalities of the command-line utilities citydb-tool from the 3D City Database
and vcdb-tool from the VC Database.
| Feature | citydb-tool | vcdb-tool |
|---|---|---|
Support for CityGML 3.0, 2.0, and 1.0 |
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Support for CityJSON 2.0, 1.1, and 1.0, including CityJSONSeq |
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On-the-fly upgrade and downgrade between versions |
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Import and export of datasets of any file size |
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Multiple import strategies for consistent city model updates |
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Deletion and termination of city objects with support for object histories |
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Advanced querying capabilities based on OGC CQL2 and SQL |
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Affine coordinate transformations |
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Reprojection of geometries to another CRS during export |
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Advanced tiling capabilities for exports |
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Applying XSL transformations during CityGML imports and exports |
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Managing database indexes |
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Extensible via user-defined plugins |
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Available as Docker image |
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Seamless integration into automation workflows for streamlined processes |
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Installation and maintenance support |
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