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Infrastructure and CAD Software
News Release from: Bentley Systems | Subject: Democratizing the Third Dimension
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 25 January 2007
Democratizing the Third Dimension
Styli Camateros, Vice President, Bentley Geospatial discusses how recent changes in GIS technology and associated 3D capabilities have changed how geospatial information will be made available.
Styli Camateros, Vice President, Bentley Geospatial discusses how recent changes in GIS technology and associated 3D capabilities have changed how geospatial information will be made available If a picture is worth a thousand words, the third dimension is definitely worth a thousand pictures
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 9 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Even if the vast majority of geospatial information is viewed in 2D -- whether in a printed format on or on the Web -- the recent profusion of 3D maps has become extremely popular.
Here are a few facts in relation to the proliferation of 3D:.
- There have been over 100 million downloads of Google Earth since its introduction last year and Google Earth's popularity continues to grow.
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- Adobe introduced amazingly powerful 3D capabilities with Adobe Reader 7.
To date, more than 500 million copies of Adobe Reader have been downloaded worldwide on 23 platforms in 26 languages.
- Microsoft embraces 3D at multiple levels.
Direct3D, the 3D graphics API that is available in Windows and in Xbox games, is now available in Windows Mobile 5 targeting mobile devices such as PDAs and smart phones.
Windows Vista, the next generation of Windows, will offer native 3D support for, potentially, all the aspects of the user interface.
Microsoft is also innovating with pictometry oblique photography in local.live.com.
It is also an active researcher in the virtual reality arena.
- And finally, a whole panoply of 3D-compliant standards has appeared in recent years: OGC's GML and CityGML, IFC, aecXML, LandXML, X3D, COLLADA, and many more.
The evidence is that 3D technology is here and that it is already widely accessible.
But what does this mean for the provider or consumer of geospatial information? It means new opportunities for better decision making and saving money.
I don't see the need of finding a research reference for proving that a 3D terrain map is easier to read in comparison to a 2D map with contour lines.
I have personally witnessed several cases where better decisions could have been made much more quickly by using a 3D terrain.
But more powerful than 3D terrain views are the possibilities of a 3D city.
For instance, the city of Toronto invested Euro 2.8m (4m CDN) in its Enterprise Stereoscopic Model project.
The return on investment has been astonishing -- an estimated Euro 4.9m (7m CDN) just in its initial year.
This highly accurate, reliable 3D model improved projects like shadows and line-of-sight studies, pavement markings, environmental protection projects, and the eradication of a pest called the Asian Longhorn Beetle.
The city also sells these data to utilities, architectural organizations, real estate firms, and others.
So how do we all benefit from 3D visualization? There are obviously different ways to approach such new technology, but I would suggest reviewing the most costly projects, services, and missed opportunities in your organization, and ask if adding 3D would solve some issues.
3D should not be seen as a replacement for all 2D objects and symbolic representations, but rather as an addition, and only for objects that are cost effective.
A 3D building might offer more information than a 2D colored polygon for a town planner analyzing lines of sight, but the name of this building and its usage represented by a color also conveys valuable information when it's time for the same town planner to manage zoning.
One trick is to offer different options for viewing the same information and to play with map scales so that the 3D views only show at larger scales.
Whatever the future brings, more of it will be seen in 3D.
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