Installation, network, and security setup

Application installation and assets download

VU.CITY Desktop is comprised of a light-weight app (~500MB) and a large 3D model/data directory (London, for example, is ~20GB). To download the VU.CITY Desktop please follow this link which will guide you through installing the desktop application via your Hub account.

After successfully launching for the first time, VU.CITY will create a directory at C:\VUCITY and attempt to download the 3D model into this directory in the form of in-app updates. Please do not skip these updates the first time you log in, as you will need to download all of them for the app to function normally and the 3D model to be complete. This directory can be relocated to enable sharing assets between multiple users over a network, however you will need to edit VU.CITY's global config file (detailed below) for the app to know where to find the directory. If VU.CITY cannot find a directory at the location specified in the global config file, it will create a new directory at C:\VUCITY and ask you to download all updates again.

Directories

The VU.CITY executable is installed to C:\Program Files\VUCITY\VersionNumber\

VU.CITY's main directory (for 3D assets, data layers, metadata etc) is C:\VUCITY

Tools within VU.CITY will store user data such as screenshots in C:\Users\UserName\Documents\VU.CITY

VU.CITY will store logs in C:\Users\UserName\AppData\LocalLow\VUCITY

If your corporate software environment uses software restriction policies (SRPs) or group policies that restrict app behaviour, please ensure VU.CITY has the appropriate access to the above locations, else the app may fail to launch or otherwise function correctly. While you can change the location of the main directory, do not attempt to move the executable or any of the surrounding files/folders.

Network firewalls

If your network environment restricts outgoing traffic, please note VU.CITY accesses various IP addresses from the following domains:

• *.unity.com/
• *.vu.city/
• *.googleapis.com/
• api-js.mixpanel.com/

Due to the nature of cloud computing, the individual IP addresses returned by these name servers will change over time. This means a static list of IP addresses cannot be supplied.

Note VU.CITY initially makes DNS queries via port 53 to identify which IP address can be used in the current session, following which all subsequent requests are made via port 443 (HTTPS).

HTTPS inspection

Inspecting HTTPS traffic between the VU.CITY app, and Google's Cloud infrastructure is a known cause for intermittent and lost connections with VU.CITY Drive. This can prevent users from saving and loading their work, so we recommend your security setup does not involve HTTPS inspection.

Proxy servers

VU.CITY does not support proxy servers, therefore if your environment requires the use of proxy servers, we suggest using VU.CITY Cloud instead.

Third party security software

Some third party security packages (CyberArk, Sophos UTM, 6 Degrees etc) screen apps to verify their trustworthiness before allowing them to launch and function normally. To reduce the chances of security software like this blocking VU.CITY, we code-sign our app.

If you have followed all of the above regarding IP addresses, proxy servers, and SRPs, however you are still unable to launch or sign into the VU.CITY app, it may be that your security software is blocking VU.CITY from launching or accessing your network. In this scenario, you will need to configure your security software to trust VU.CITY, or if that option isn't available, escalate it to your security software provider.

Alternatively, use VU.CITY Cloud.

Updating the VU.CITY app

VU.CITY Cloud is always up to date.

Updates to the VU.CITY desktop app require that you download a new installer from your Hub account. If you are managing multiple installations of VU.CITY, the installer will need to be run on each computer individually.

If you are using a shared network asset directory, updating the VU.CITY desktop app will require some additional steps to ensure your shared directory continues to work as expected.

** Legacy Guides **

To download the app installer for accounts still using the old dashboard (pre-July 2022), log into the online dashboard, and click the download link in the top right corner. The 3D model cannot be downloaded directly, rather it is downloaded and managed by the VU.CITY app.