Also look for Doug Walker’s session presentations on Monday:

• Session S547:  Making Scenario Planning Work in Practice (10:30 – 11:45, Room 409AB)
• Session S577:  Next Generation Web-based Planning Tools (4:00 – 5:15, Room 408B)

CommunityViz 4.2 version is compatible with ArcGIS 10.0.  If you haven’t upgraded to ArcGIS 10.0 yet, please continue to use your current version of CV 4.1.

CV 4.2 for ArcGIS 10.0 has a new charts platform,  enhanced sketch tools, and numerous core updates, as well as the same powerful, flexible capabilities as CommunityViz 4.1.  For more information on new 4.2 features, check out our CommunityViz Resources page

To upgrade to CV 4.2 for ArcGIS 10:

• Uninstall your current CommunityViz software
• Download and run the new installer, often called a “free download,” available here.
• Reactivate your license using Start > All Programs > CommunityViz > Activate License.  Enter your license ID and password for Single Seat Licenses or enter the Network License Server name for Network Licenses.  If you are using Decision Tools licenses, you will also need to reactivate these.
• Start and run CommunityViz normally.  Your existing CommunityViz files and analyses should all work fine.  Remember, though, that ArcGIS 10 analyses won’t work again in ArcGIS 9.2/9.3.
• If you find some controls or toolbars are inactive or grayed out, check that the Scenario 360 and Scenario 3D extensions are turned on in ArcMap.
• More detailed installation instructions are available on our CommunityViz Resources page.

Questions? Please let us know.  And as always, thank you for using CommunityViz.

• New charting platform
• Updated sketch tools
• System-wide updates and refinements to existing capabilities

CommunityViz 4.2 will soon be available for purchase on the Placeways website. Customers with current technical support contracts will be eligible to upgrade to Version 4.2 for free.  Look for an email in the near future with instructions on how to obtain your upgrade.

At the time, 2001 felt like a golden year for technology.  The Y2K bug had been vanquished, everyone was learning what giga- meant, Windows XP was taking over desktops, and human transportation was about to be transformed with something called a Segway.  But at the same time, darker clouds were gathering over the heady mood of the dot-com boom.   9/11 had just happened, the stock market was starting to jitter, and citizens were increasingly worried about what the future might hold.

At the Orton Family Foundation, excitement was in air.  After more than 3 years of development, pilot testing, study, and refinement, the groundbreaking CommunityViz software project was about to go public.   The first general release, dubbed Version 1.2, ran on ArcView 3.2 and included a “suite” of three components:  Scenario Constructor (the predecessor of today’s Scenario 360), SiteBuilder 3D (presaging Scenario 3D), and an agent-based forecasting component called Policy Simulator.  It cost $5000 and came in a thick box with three volumes of documentation.

Moving the time slider quickly forward (you can read a longer history here), we land 10 years later here in 2011, with Placeways now spun off from the Orton Family Foundation and CommunityViz thriving.  Nowadays, people are learning what tera- and peta- mean, Windows is up to version 7, and human society is about to be transformed with something called… well, that’s not clear yet.  Facebook, maybe?  iPad?  Whatever that latest is, CommunityViz is right here in the thick of the technology explosion, riding a wave of ever-faster computers and doing our part to push the envelope of scenario planning and visualization tools.

Today’s CommunityViz 4.1 costs far less and offers far more than that original Version 1.2.  Years of R&D investment have given us leaps forward in the software’s friendliness and performance, plus an ever-growing library of useful and powerful wizards, presentation tools, and more.  From the first dozen or so earlier-adopter communities that piloted CommunityViz before its general release, the user community has grown to thousands of towns, cities, regions, universities, agencies and organizations all over the world.  This year’s book from APA Planners Press, The Planners Guide to CommunityViz, chronicles real-world successes from all over North America and across the spectrum of planning applications.  And as a fitting match to the ESRI Regional New Business Partner of the Year Award that CommunityViz received 10 years ago, this year Placeways was honored with a 2011 International Business Partner Award as well.

What does the next decade hold for CommunityViz?  Even our best scenario planning analysis can’t quite predict that just yet.  All we can say for now is that the trends are positive, technology is on our side, and the world needs our capabilities more than ever.  And, after peta- come eta-, zeta-, and yotta-.

Regional Transportation Plan Visioning Website – Location: San Diego County, California.  Description: Interactive online tool educates and engages the public.

Coastal Resiliency Seminar – Location: Houston/Galveston, Texas.  Description: Water Quality, Coastal Hazards, Climate Change and Critical Land Analysis for the Houston/Galveston Region.

Climate Change Scenario Planning – Location: Cape Cod, Massachusetts.  Description: Interagency Climate Change Scenario Planning Pilot Project on Cape Cod.

Values-Driven Community Planning – Location: Victor, Idaho.  Description: Using Scenario planning in the small town of Victor, Idaho.

You can read about some of them on the web:

Doug Walker’s blog posts on tabletop planning with CommunityViz

Doug Walker’s article on the Geodesign in the Curriculum webpage

Kathleen Phillip’s article in AgriLife Today