New Functionalities of a Virtual Computer Model Design and Construction

The purpose of this paper is to construct a virtual model of a computer system for student training, based on analysis of different platforms, creating virtual reality and its related 3D graphics. A classification of three-dimensional models was made. Software platforms for three-dimensional modelling and creation of virtual scenes have been analysed and selected. A virtual model has been developed

MeasureIt-ARCH: A Tool for Facilitating Architectural Design in the Open Source Software Blender

This thesis discusses the design and synthesis of MeasureIt-ARCH, a GNU GPL licensed software add-on developed by the author in order to add functionality to the Open Source 3D modeling software Blender that facilitates the creation of architectural drawings. MeasureIt-ARCH adds to Blender simple tools to dimension and annotate 3D models, as well as basic support for the definition and drawing of line work. These tools for the creation of dimensions, annotations and line work are designed to be used in tandem with Blender's existing modelling and rendering tool set. While the drawings that MeasureIt-ARCH produces are fundamentally conventional, as are the majority of the techniques that MeasureIt-ARCH employs to create them, MeasureIt-ARCH does provide two simple and relatively novel methods in its drawing systems. MeasureIt-ARCH provides a new method for the placement of dimension elements in 3D space that draws on the dimension's three dimensional context and surrounding geometry order to determine a placement that optimizes legibility. This dimension placement method does not depend on a 2D work plane, a convention that is common in industry standard Computer Aided Design software. MeasureIt-ARCH also implements a new approach for drawing silhouette lines that operates by transforming the silhouetted models geometry in 4D 'Clip Space'. The hope of this work is that MeasureIt-ARCH might be a small step towards creating an Open Source design pipeline for Architects. A step towards creating architectural drawings that can be shared, read, and modified by anyone, within a platform that is itself free to be changed and improved. The creation of MeasureIt-ARCH is motivated by two goals. First, the work aims to create a basic functioning Open Source platform for the creation of architectural drawings within Blender that is publicly and freely available for use. Second, MeasureIt-ARCH's development served as an opportunity to engage in an interdisciplinary act of craft, providing the author an opportunity to explore the act of digital tool making and gain a basic competency in this intersection between Architecture and Computer Science. To achieve these goals, MeasureIt-ARCH's development draws on references from the history of line drawing and dimensioning within Architecture and Computer Science. On the Architectural side, we make use of the history of architectural drawing and dimensioning conventions as described by Mario Carpo, Alberto Pérez Gómez and others, as well as more contemporary frameworks for the classification of architectural software, such as Mark Bew and Mervyn Richard's BIM Levels framework, in order to help determine the scope of MeasureIt-ARCH's feature set. When crafting MeasureIt-ARCH, precedent works from the field of Computer Science that implement methods for producing line drawings from 3D models helped inform the author’s approach to line drawing. In particular this work draws on the overview of line drawing methods produced by Bénard Pierre and Aaron Hertzmann, Arthur Appel's method for line drawing using 'Quantitative Invisibility', the techniques employed in the Freestyle line drawing system created by Grabli et al. as well as other to help inform MeasureIt-ARCH's simple drawing tools. Beyond discussing MeasureIt-ARCH's development and its motivations, this thesis also provides three small speculative discussions about the implications that an Open Source design tool might have on the architectural profession. We investigate MeasureIt-ARCH's use for small scale architectural projects in a practical setting, using it's tool set to produce conceptual design and renovation drawings for cottages at the Lodge at Pine Cove. We provide a demonstration of how MeasureIt-ARCH and Blender can integrate with external systems and other Blender add-ons to produce a proof of concept, dynamic data visualization of the Noosphere installation at the Futurium center in Berlin by the Living Architecture Systems Group. Finally, we discuss the tool's potential to facilitate greater engagement with the Open Source Architecture (OSArc) movement by illustrating a case study of the work done by Alastair Parvin and Clayton Prest on the WikiHouse project, and by highlighting the challenges that face OSArc projects as they try to produce Open Source Architecture without an Open Source design software

3D Mesh Simplification. A survey of algorithms and CAD model simplification tests

Simplification of highly detailed CAD models is an important step when CAD models are visualized or by other means utilized in augmented reality applications. Without simplification, CAD models may cause severe processing and storage is- sues especially in mobile devices. In addition, simplified models may have other advantages like better visual clarity or improved reliability when used for visual pose tracking. The geometry of CAD models is invariably presented in form of a 3D mesh. In this paper, we survey mesh simplification algorithms in general and focus especially to algorithms that can be used to simplify CAD models. We test some commonly known algorithms with real world CAD data and characterize some new CAD related simplification algorithms that have not been surveyed in previous mesh simplification reviews.Siirretty Doriast

Comparing and Evaluating Real Time Character Engines for Virtual Environments

As animated characters increasingly become vital parts of virtual environments, then the engines that drive these characters increasingly become vital parts of virtual environment software. This paper gives an overview of the state of the art in character engines, and proposes a taxonomy of the features that are commonly found in them. This taxonomy can be used as a tool for comparison and evaluation of different engines. In order to demonstrate this we use it to compare three engines. The first is Cal3D, the most commonly used open source engine. We also introduce two engines created by the authors, Piavca and HALCA. The paper ends with a brief discussion of some other popular engines

Accessing 3D Data

The issue of access and discoverability is not simply a matter of permissions and availability. To identify, locate, retrieve, and reuse 3D materials requires consideration of a multiplicity of content types, as well as community and financial investment to resolve challenges related to usability, interoperability, sustainability, and equity. This chapter will cover modes, audiences, assets and decision points, technology requirements, and limitations impacting access, as well as providing recommendations for next steps

Procedural Generation and Rendering of Realistic, Navigable Forest Environments: An Open-Source Tool

Simulation of forest environments has applications from entertainment and art creation to commercial and scientific modelling. Due to the unique features and lighting in forests, a forest-specific simulator is desirable, however many current forest simulators are proprietary or highly tailored to a particular application. Here we review several areas of procedural generation and rendering specific to forest generation, and utilise this to create a generalised, open-source tool for generating and rendering interactive, realistic forest scenes. The system uses specialised L-systems to generate trees which are distributed using an ecosystem simulation algorithm. The resulting scene is rendered using a deferred rendering pipeline, a Blinn-Phong lighting model with real-time leaf transparency and post-processing lighting effects. The result is a system that achieves a balance between high natural realism and visual appeal, suitable for tasks including training computer vision algorithms for autonomous robots and visual media generation.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures. Submitted to Computer Graphics Forum (CGF). The application and supporting configuration files can be found at https://github.com/callumnewlands/ForestGenerato