I have an idea for an automated city layout planner that looks for the optimal layout. I would base the optimal layout search on the idea that the best layout is going to be straight roads radiating from Town Hall. The program would then try combinations based on building sizes until it found the most optimal. (Since CityPlanner data also includes the type of building, that could also be used as a secondary priority, attempting to keep similar buildings together.)
However, it would be a lot easier if there was a way to read the current layout directly into the program. I’ve looked at the JS for cityplanner, but I’m not a JS programmer (prefer Python). (Plus the comments are in German 🙂 ) But it still seems like it should be pretty straight forward to add a button and function to the city planner that saves the layout to a local file. I’m not picky about the format, as long as it’s something standard, i.e. XML, JSON, or even CSV.
I also tried saving the layout to the FOE-Helper server, but it doesn’t look like it does what I need either.
BTW: If the capability to generate an optimal layout already exists, someone let me know: as much I love solving these kinds of problems, I hate re-inventing solutions that someone else has already come up with.