Cityweft builds detailed city context with real roofs and trees on a monthly plan; Mantle Place delivers the ground, imagery, and elevation of a site for a one-time price, free for small sites.
Cityweft and Mantle Place both deliver georeferenced site context for design tools. Cityweft is a context-model service with detailed buildings (LoD2 roofs in 16 countries, lidar-built buildings across the US), individually placed trees, paving, terrain under 2 m worldwide and finer national models in places, and satellite imagery, exported as 3DM, SKP, RVT, IFC, GLB, OBJ, and more, with plugins for Rhino, Grasshopper, SketchUp, Revit, and Forma. It costs from €30 per km² pay-as-you-go or €99 to €499 a month. Mantle Place charges once per site: aerial imagery, the finest native elevation as a GeoTIFF DEM, a vector basemap, building massing where mapped, and more, free at 2 km² and under and then $5 plus $2 per km². Choose Cityweft for rich building and tree detail; choose Mantle Place for ground and imagery you keep at a lower price.
Competitor details checked against cityweft.com and its pricing.
Maps3D sells imagery-draped site models at a flat price per map. Mantle Place delivers a georeferenced site, priced once by area: aerial imagery, the finest native elevation, vectors, and building massing where mapped, free at 2 km² and under and $5 plus $2 per km² above that. Cityweft fits when the model is seen up close and needs real roofs.
For terrain, imagery, and massing, yes. A 20 km² Mantle Place order costs $45 once, while Cityweft’s pay-as-you-go rate starts at €30 per km². Cityweft’s higher price buys detailed roofs, trees, and native plugins, so compare what the project needs.
Free at 2 km² and under, then $5 plus $2 per km², rounded up to the whole dollar and paid once. Cityweft starts at €30 per km² pay-as-you-go, with monthly plans for regular work.
In the US, Mantle Place delivers elevation at 1 m wherever USGS lidar covers the site, and states the delivered resolution in the bundle. Cityweft lists a global baseline under 2 m.
The open-source Mantle Place Importer turns the bundle into an editable Unreal Landscape with the imagery draped, and the same bundle feeds Civil 3D through a LandXML surface.
| Dimension | Mantle Place | Cityweft | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buildings | Massing where mapped | Detailed buildings, LoD2 roofs in 16 countries | This is where Cityweft leads: roof shapes and per-building metadata make a context model read as a real city at close range. |
| Terrain | Finest native for the area, 1 m wherever USGS lidar covers the site | Under 2 m worldwide, finer national models in places | Both deliver usable site terrain; Mantle Place also ships the DEM itself, with its resolution stated, for grading and analysis. |
| Pricing | Free at 2 km² and under, then $5 plus $2 per km² | From €30 per km², or €99 to €499 a month | For a single project the one-time price is far lower; for a studio producing context every week, a Cityweft plan buys its extra detail at volume. |
| Design-tool files | DXF, OBJ, glTF, IFC, LandXML, and more | 3DM, SKP, RVT, IFC, GLB, OBJ, and more, plus plugins | Cityweft writes native Rhino, SketchUp, and Revit files and has plugins; Mantle Place has plugins for Unreal and Revit and relies on exchange formats for the rest. |
| Trees and streetscape | Tree positions and heights; no modelled trees or street furniture | Individual trees, paving, green, water, street furniture | For an eye-level render of a street, those layers save hours of modelling; Mantle Place does not compete there. |
| Real-time engines | Unreal importer, glTF, and a heightmap | Lists Unreal and Unity among its tools | Both reach real-time engines; the Mantle Place importer also builds an editable Landscape with the imagery draped and the georeference applied. |
Yes, for projects that need accurate terrain, imagery, and massing rather than detailed roofs and trees. Mantle Place delivers a georeferenced site, priced once by area, free at 2 km² and under, for CAD, BIM, GIS, and Unreal.
Cityweft charges from €30 per km² pay-as-you-go, up to 20 km² per export, or €99, €199, or €499 a month for 20, 50, or 200 km². Mantle Place is free at 2 km² and under, then $5 plus $2 per km², up to 64 km² per order.
Yes. A common split is detailed buildings and trees from a context service for the blocks around the site, and Mantle Place for the ground model, imagery, and DEM of the site itself.
When the model is seen up close and needs real roof shapes, trees, and street detail, when you want native Rhino or SketchUp plugins or native Revit files, or when your studio produces context often enough for a plan to pay off.
Draw an area and see it in a free Site Brief before you pay. Download a bundle for Unreal, Revit, Civil 3D, QGIS, and more. Every format is built with your order, at no extra cost. $5 plus $2 per km², and 2 km² and under is free. Paid bundles are yours for good. Free bundles keep 30 days, or keep one permanently at its normal price.
Native plugins: Mantle Place for Unreal and Mantle Place for Revit.
