Software Tools for Modeling Urban Details

The ability to represent and model buildings, interiors, and subterranean areas for simulation has become increasingly important for a number of disparate markets, including government applications in simulation of military operations in urban terrain, chem/bio flow analysis, and first responder and anti-terrorist training, as well as commercial applications in real-time visualization of planned developments, traffic and transportation flow analysis, and viewshed inspection. However, current tools do not address the automated generation of building interiors and critical underground structures, let alone the integration of these generated models into a consistent three dimensional representation suitable for supporting modeling and simulation activities. CAD tools provide capabilities well suited for geometric modeling, but not the attribution or topology necessary to drive constructive simulation; consumer products lack representations for attribution, topology, and rigorous geographic coordinates. This Phase I effort will produce a detailed design of an efficient, flexible, and powerful urban authoring tool that would serve as an enabling technology for numerous government and commercial interior and subterranean urban modeling applications. Such a tool will enable users to easily and accurately construct realistic geospecific and geotypical interiors and subterranean structures in well-populated urban contexts, exportable with full attribution to current simulation formats.