addCustomBuildings

Import Buildings

Read buildings from an OpenStreetMap file [1] into the workspace by using the readgeotable function. When customizing the colors of building parts, specify the Layer argument as "buildingparts" instead of "buildings". The function derives information about the buildings from the file and stores the result in a geospatial table.

GT = readgeotable("shibuya.osm",Layer="buildingparts");

View the first eight rows of the table. The Shape table variable represents the building footprints using geopolyshape objects. The Color variable represents the building colors using hexadecimal color codes.

head(GT)

       Shape               Centroid              Type       BuildingID     PartID    MinHeight    MaxHeight            Name              Material       Color      RoofShape    RoofDirection
    ____________    _______________________    _________    ___________    ______    _________    _________    _____________________    __________    _________    _________    _____________

    geopolyshape    (35.6582°N, 139.6987°E)    composite    "7544706"        ""          0             72      "渋谷マークシティ"          ""            ""              ""             ""      
    geopolyshape    (35.6577°N, 139.7002°E)    standard     "55588118"       ""          0         103.31      "渋谷フクラス"             "glass"       "#3BAA32"       ""             ""      
    geopolyshape    (35.6596°N, 139.6987°E)    standard     "55895868"       ""          0             24      "Shibuya 109"            "concrete"    "#3BAA32"       ""             ""      
    geopolyshape    (35.6584°N, 139.6999°E)    standard     "60739620"       ""          0              9      "渋谷駅前会館(飯島ビル)"    "stone"       "#027880"       ""             ""      
    geopolyshape    (35.6592°N, 139.6999°E)    standard     "60739635"       ""          0             27      "渋谷駅前ビル"             "glass"       "#808000"       ""             ""      
    geopolyshape    (35.6593°N, 139.6995°E)    standard     "116710254"      ""          0              9      "ビックカメラ"             "glass"       "#8E4585"       ""             ""      
    geopolyshape    (35.6595°N, 139.6983°E)    standard     "116710255"      ""          0             21      "THE PRIME"              "stone"       "#3BAA32"       ""             ""      
    geopolyshape    (35.6593°N, 139.6996°E)    standard     "116806276"      ""          0              9      ""                       "concrete"    "#3BAA32"       ""             ""      

Apply One Color to All Buildings

Apply one color to all the buildings by setting each element of the Color variable to the same value.

To preserve the original data, create a copy of the geospatial table.

oneColorBuildings = GT;

Specify a blue color using a hexadecimal color code. Then, set all elements of the Color variable to the blue color.

blueColor = "#2FBEEF";
oneColorBuildings.Color(:) = blueColor; 

Add the buildings to the list of buildings available for use with geographic globes. Then, display the buildings in a geographic globe.

addCustomBuildings("blueShibuya",oneColorBuildings)
blueUIF = uifigure;
blueG = geoglobe(blueUIF,Buildings="blueShibuya");

Apply Color Based on Building Materials

Apply color to the buildings using the building materials reported by the OpenStreetMap file.

Create a new copy of the original geospatial table.

materialColorsGT = GT;

The geospatial table stores the building materials in the Material variable. Query the unique materials.

uniqueMaterials = unique(materialColorsGT.Material)

uniqueMaterials = 4×1 string array
    ""
    "concrete"
    "glass"
    "stone"

Create a dictionary that associates each material with a hexadecimal color code. Use yellow for unspecified materials, gray for concrete, blue for glass, and tan for stone.

colors = ["#FFD60A"; "#D3D3D3"; "#2FBEEF"; "#CB845D"];
dict = dictionary(uniqueMaterials,colors)

dict =

  dictionary (string ⟼ string) with 4 entries:

    ""         ⟼ "#FFD60A"
    "concrete" ⟼ "#D3D3D3"
    "glass"    ⟼ "#2FBEEF"
    "stone"    ⟼ "#CB845D"

Set the building colors. Use the dictionary to find the colors associated with the materials.

materials = materialColorsGT.Material;
materialColorsGT.Color = dict(materials);

Add the buildings to the list of buildings available for use with geographic globes. Then, display the buildings in a geographic globe.

addCustomBuildings("materialsShibuya",materialColorsGT)
materialsUIF = uifigure; 
materialsG = geoglobe(materialsUIF,Buildings="materialsShibuya");

[1] You can download OpenStreetMap files from https://www.openstreetmap.org, which provides access to crowd-sourced map data all over the world. The data is licensed under the Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL), https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/.

Specify Building Footprints

Specify the building footprints by creating polygons.

This example add custom buildings for a region near the MathWorks Lakeside campus in Natick, MA. View the region on a map.

figure
geolimits([42.3013 42.3033],[-71.3765 -71.3723])

Specify a building footprint by creating a polygon. Create the polygon using this process:

interactivelySelectVertices = false;
if interactivelySelectVertices
    [lat1,lon1] = ginput;
else
    lat1 = [42.302543 42.302543 42.302814 42.303206 42.301896 42.301994];
    lon1 = [-71.375094 -71.375338 -71.375257 -71.374536 -71.374759 -71.375185];
end

lat1(end+1) = lat1(1);
lon1(end+1) = lon1(1);

[lon1,lat1] = poly2cw(lon1,lat1);

footprint1 = geopolyshape(lat1,lon1);

Specify a second building footprint by repeating the process.

if interactivelySelectVertices
    [lat2,lon2] = ginput;
else
    lat2 = [42.303037 42.302644 42.301790 42.301828];
    lon2 = [-71.374072 -71.373613 -71.373745 -71.374265];
end

lat2(end+1) = lat2(1);
lon2(end+1) = lon2(1);

[lon2,lat2] = poly2cw(lon2,lat2);

footprint2 = geopolyshape(lat2,lon2);

Prepare to create a geospatial table from the building footprints by collecting the polygons into a column vector.

footprints = [footprint1; footprint2];

Display the building footprints on the map.

hold on
geoplot(footprints)

Specify Building Heights

Specify the minimum and maximum height of each building in meters above ground. Prepare to create a geospatial table by storing the height values in column vectors.

minHeights = [0; 0];
maxHeights = [9; 12];

Specify Building Colors

Optionally specify the building colors using hexadecimal color codes. Use tan for the first building and blue for the second building. When you do not specify the building colors, or when you specify a building color using an empty string (""), the geographic globe displays the buildings in gray.

colors = ["#CB845D"; "#2FBEEF"];

Create Geospatial Table

Create a geospatial table from the footprints, the minimum heights, the maximum heights, and the colors. To use the geospatial table as input for the addCustomBuildings function, the names of the table variables must be Shape, MinHeight, MaxHeight, and Color.

GT = table;
GT.Shape = footprints;
GT.MinHeight = minHeights;
GT.MaxHeight = maxHeights;
GT.Color = colors;

Add Custom Buildings

Add the buildings to the list of buildings available for use with geographic globes. Then, display the buildings in a geographic globe.

addCustomBuildings("customLakeside",GT)
uif = uifigure; 
g = geoglobe(uif,Buildings="customLakeside");