Presentation Techniques

Capturing, Printing and Presenting Images

Third Party Modeling Resources

There are a large number and variety of third party resources available for design visualization modeling. There are libraries of texture maps, background photos, 3D models and procedural tools that produce content automatically. Models are available with animation already setup- such as walking...

Advanced 3D Objects

Microstation and Geopak include several 3D modeling, surfacing, and modification tools. There are often several ways to construct a similar 3D object. A few of the basic objects and techniques are covered in this section.

3D Primitives and 3D Construction Tools

Scale & Coordinate Issues

Typically, a design file will be based upon existing plan and DTM data provided by others and the coordinate system and scale will already be determined by that data. One situation where problems may occur is with the insertion of model elements from another file, or third party content such as...

Presenting Rendered Images

Effective presentations of a design can be made without using any applications but Microstation and Windows. This section covers some basic presentation techniques and utilities within Microstation.

Displaying Images in MicroStation

The Image Display tool is...

Animated Drive-Through

Once a design has been surfaced, Geopak includes a tool for producing drive-thru animation along the 3D chain. Microstation also includes a simple 'fly-through' tool. The tool can be used to set up a camera that follows a path. The camera can be used to create still views or an animation.

Advanced Materials & Lighting

Simple materials and lighting definitions were discussed in Basic Materials and Lighting. This section will cover the use of texture maps with materials and more sophisticated lighting.

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Basic Materials & Lighting

This chapter covers basic color and shader application and simple lighting techniques. For more advanced materials and lighting, see Advanced Materials and Lighting.

Setting Colors and...

Creating & Rendering Camera Views

The best way to produce perspective renderings of the 3D model from specific viewpoints is to set up a camera in the scene. Using a camera view is the only way to create a view from a specific X,Y,Z location within the model. A camera view can be set up either by navigating interactively in a...

Surfacing a Road Design

One of the most commonly used visualization techniques is to produce a TIN (triangulated irregular network) surface of the proposed roadway, shoulders, and the surrounding existing terrain. These surfaces are generated automatically from the section and plan information produced during the...