By Brock Haroldson, ConnectPress Editor
Transoft Solutions recently released a new version of their InVision software. This software allows for the creation of animations that show how multiple vehicles will interact with a design. The simulation can then be saved as an AVI file for presentations and visual confirmation of a design.
In InVision it is possible to set the speed and starts and stops of multiple vehicles in the animation. You can also move the camera view within the simulation environment and even show the animation from the driver’s view. The new version has been improved to keep up with the 3D capabilities of other CAD software.
Some of the new features in this version include: multiple rendering options - wireframe, shaded or realistic; high definition, realistic 3D vehicle models; and multiple camera viewing options within the animations.
“The ultimate goal is to produce an output video file … from the CAD environment in a common format played in most media players out there, to allow the operational video to be shared with technical and nontechnical stakeholders,” Michael Frost, business development manager, Transoft Solutions, said.
The animations help designers to “provide that means of technical design information, design challenges and mitigation of any design issues, while there sitting there with their clients,” he said.
“A lot of times non-technical stakeholders involved in projects do not pick up on the details of heavily lined or lined laden CAD drawings,” Frost said. So visualizations can help get the point across better.
Frost said that visualization has become more popular and easier to use. “I think it’s got a great path ahead of it still as well … It’s come from being very expensive and needing very specialized applications to do this work, to getting down to simpler to generate, the data is there, the applications are costing less.” InVision costs around $500 U.S. “As the 3D design has been coming along, the visualization is getting more and more accurate.”
InVision takes simulation info created in the Transoft products, AutoTURN or AeroTURN to make the animations. You don’t even have to have AutoTURN on your system just the files. With these products you can simulate vehicle movement to find out things like if a vehicle will have an “undercarriage clearance collision, or an overhead clearance collision, or off street geometry - if they have a utility pole or signal arm,” Frost said.
“That’s picked up in the video as well, so they could have a couple of sequences of video. One as a first pass showing if you have as built infrastructure or if you designed this way, this is the problem you’re going to run into, this is where the problem’s occurring. Then they can go back and they can lay out their solution and show how this has solved that problem.”
Frost said that the main point of InVision is not just visualization, but “it’s to be more sensitive to the engineering aspects of what the users are taking a look at, proving the vehicle movements have sufficient space along the roadway, identifying any of the conflicts or collisions and then ultimately showing how their mitigated.”
As far as where the actual designs come from, InVision is compatible with designs from AutoCAD 2007 through 2012 (except AutoCAD LT), and MicroStation V8.1, V8 2004, XM and V8i. “It will be an MDL application for Bentley platforms or an ARX application for the Autodesk platforms,” Frost said. “When we sell licenses of our product, it’s compatible on both platforms.”
Frost pointed out that Bentley and Autodesk products do have video tools, “but they tend to be a camera flying over a bunch of static items … but actually getting movement is the thing people have a lot of challenge with. And the next one besides movements is, getting accurate or precise movement for a vehicle … and that’s where the two benefits come in with InVision.
Regardless of the CAD platform you’re designing in, Frost says the learning curve is short and the work flow is simple. “Often our users feel that our work flow, our environment and how the interact with our software, it’s very familiar to them out of the box,” he said. “It’s familiar to the point that they forget at times that this is a third party application. It feels like a native tool that’s been provided to you inside of your CAD package.”
To see a video go here. For more information visit Transoft Solutions' Website http://www.transoftsolutions.com/invisionat.
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