An official website of the United States government
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
The Big Lake photosims were a unique project in that even the background photo had to be created. The photo that was taken on site did not adequately show the two alternatives being considered. That photo was used as digital image source material to paint in a new background view over a 3D...
This case study will show some simple visualization techniques that can be accomplished entirely with Microstation and a few plugins and images for texture maps. The model is based on a road design file for a remote valley in New Mexico. One of the other case studies shows photosims produced for...
The Cuba La Cueva project was a pair of photosims showing a re-alignment and a proposed bridge in a scenic valley in New Mexico. This is a classic photosimulation example. A 3D model of the road design and bridge were produced in Microstation, as well as the surrounding context as a 3D DTM. A...
The Guanella Pass Proposed Road Improvements Project CD-ROM is an early example of a multimedia CD-ROM created to present a visual comparison between an existing highway and prosposed alternatives. Created for Windows 95, this project was developed before many of the newer technologies discussed...
There are a few products available that allow the linking of a 3D CAD model to a schedule (Primavera or Microsoft Scheduler). These applications are commonly referred to as 4D tools. The tools are being applied more often to architectural and...
There are a number of analytical simulation tools used for testing roadway designs. The tools can be used to test capacity for a system, intersection and signal timing performance, or general traffic flow performance evaluation for a road network. Some of the more common tools are: HCS, CORSIM,...
Realtime interactive tools allow the user to navigate through a model environment at their own pace and to go wherever they want to go. Console games are a good example of interactive model environments. Objects in the scene can be set up for interactivity as well- the user can be allowed to...
2.5 D refers to visualizations that use a layer of animation over a static view where the base image doesn't change. These images are essentially photosimulations where one or more of the layers is animated. A good example would be a view of a road where the new road surfaces and the background...
The Bautista Canyon photosims are a good example of photosimulations produced with Microstation and a paint application. A 3D model of the road design was produced in Microstation, as well as the surrounding context as a 3D DTM. the road surface was texture mapped with an image of asphalt and...
This section discusses issues with exporting 3D Microstation files to other rendering programs, as well as some of the visualization techniques possible with those programs.
There are two key things to keep in mind when...