ArcGIS Urban in ArcGIS Enterprise 12.1 is equivalent to the Urban November 2025 release with ArcGIS Online.
New features
The following sections list additions and improvements for ArcGIS Urban.
General
The following new features and general improvements are available now:
- A new header throughout the application provides cleaner navigation.
- You can now copy the metrics configuration from one urban model to another and between plans. For details on how to copy metrics from an urban model to another urban model or to a plan, see Copy and paste metrics. For details on how to copy metrics from a plan to another plan or to an urban model, see Copy and paste metrics
- This release introduces the new screenshot tool in the overview and plan editor. The new tool offers an improved user experience and allows you to take screenshots using previously configured extents.
- The Shadow cast analysis tool provides an improved experience for the Areas above threshold visualization. You can now see the shadow areas of discrete intervals as context for the above threshold result.
- The Analysismode in plans and projects includes the following
enhancements:
- Users without editing permissions can now access the Analysismode in plans and projects and can modify the analysis while changes do not persist.
- The Analysismode now persists the previous state when switching to other modes. This allows you to compare and change scenario designs based on analysis results.
- In the Elevation profileanalysis, you can now store the state of the chart and specify whether the ground or the scene profile is visible.
Project editing
The following new features and improvements were added to the project editing experience:
- Projects now support 3D model upload, including IFC4, which unlocks placement based on exact coordinates of the origin of the model. When uploading a model with coordinates, it is placed at the correct location. See Add a 3D model to learn more.
- Projects can now be checked against the zoning regulations of the urban model for a smooth review process. See
Work with envelopesto learn more.
- Envelopes display the city’s zoning regulations in 3D and enable a visual comparison between a proposed building and what is allowed.
- The envelopes can be exported as part of the project scenario web scene for outreach and stakeholder management.
- Alongside the envelopes, the details panel shows information about the regulations within the project perimeter, providing rich information such as coverage, floor-area ratio, tiers and setbacks, and allowed space-use types.
- Uploaded images add context to your project. The images are stored by scenario as media layers. See Work with images to learn more.
- Scenarios can be shown or hidden in the overview and the plan editor. In the overview, the project detail card indicates which scenario is displayed. See Configure the scenario visible in the overview for details.
Plan editing
The following features and improvements were added to the plan editing experience:
- The new Analysis mode was added to the plan editing experience, allowing you to review a plan's impact. It includes the Shadow cast, Line of sight, Viewshed, and Elevation profile tools. You can store and persist analysis configurations and results.
- Suitabilityanalysis has been improved. See
Work with suitability analysisto learn more.
- Suitabilityis now part of the analysis mode with other analyses such as shadow cast, viewshed, and so on.
- Existing suitability models are migrated when opening the analysis mode.
- Suitability calculations can now be run in the background and no longer block the application. This is especially useful for large plans for which running a suitability analysis can take several minutes.
- Undo and redo are now available.
- Parcel parameters
are available to calculate metrics:
- Parcel-based numeric parameters such as population or land value can now be used to calculate metrics.
- The parameter values can be manually added or imported from feature layers. See Edit parcel parameter valuesand Import parcel parameter valuesto learn more.
- New metricsincludes the following improvements:
- Space-use type parameters now have an optional default value that is applied for any space-use types that don’t have a specified value.
- When exploring metrics at the parcel resolution in the dashboard, parcels are now colored as well.
- The colors in the mini map of the metrics graph are now aligned with the type of metric to mimic the colors in the graph.
Deprecated functionality
Old metrics functionality is deprecated and will be removed with a future release.
Removed functionality
The Counts towards GFA / FAR setting on surfaces has been removed at this release.
Known limitations
The sections below list known limitations of this release.
Urban in ArcGIS Enterprise 12.1
The following are known limitations specific to Urban in ArcGIS Enterprise 12.1 and will be fixed in a future release:
- Plan and project scenario web scenes do not include image files you uploaded to the scenario.
- Copying of 3D data is not yet possible. This affects 3D models in projects that are not copied when creating duplicates and scenario and city web scenes.
- In some cases, you cannot start Urban after upgrading from a previous ArcGIS Enterprise version. See the Upgrade from a previous version section in the frequently asked questions for a workaround.
- After creating a copy of an urban model, there is no option to download a report of the copy process.
- The study area cannot be turned off in the new project editor from the layers panel.
- When editing the study area of a project in the new project editor, the parcels from the urban model cannot be displayed.
General known limitations
The following are general known limitations of Urban:
- There is no example city.
- ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World data is not included when you create an urban model using the Default template.
- The feedback and discussion features are not available for plans and projects.
- The Select basemap dialog box only displays basemaps if you configured a basemap gallery in your organization. See the Configure map topic in the ArcGIS Enterprise documentation to learn more about configuring the basemap gallery.
- The number of vertices of the study area geometry can impact the performance when loading the plan and when editing parcels. Consider simplifying the study area geometry before importing it. See the Simplify Polygon tool documentation to learn how you can do this in ArcGIS Pro.
- The number of parcels per scenario can impact the performance when coloring the parcels according to the calculated suitability score. Consider creating a scenario web scene that includes the suitability scores and configure it as scenario context to reduce the loading time for visualizing suitability scores in the plan editor. See Work with scenario web scenes to learn how to export suitability scores and Configure scenario context to learn how to add a scenario context.
- You cannot copy urban models, plans, and projects from a coordinate system with metric units to a coordinate system with U.S. Standard units and vice versa. This is due to a platform limitation for vertical coordinates. You will receive an error message when trying to copy to a coordinate system with a different unit.
- Basemaps that you published in a way that their spatial reference includes well-known text (WKT) instead of a well-known ID (WKID) cannot be used to create or copy urban models.
- Feature services that you published in a way that their spatial reference includes WKT instead of a WKID cannot be used to import data to Urban.
- In the Copy parcels tool, you can choose how to handle parcel overlaps. If parcels need to be clipped, multipart features might be created. Applying building types, showing envelopes, and editing parcel edges is not fully supported on those parcels. Use the Split tool to split multipart parcels after copying.