E&S Enhances Site Modeler.(Product Announcement)

Version 2.0 of RapidSite, the 3D site visualization program from Evans & Sutherland, offers virtually unlimited site size in addition to several other new features. RapidSite's customer base comprises real estate developers, civil engineers, and landscape artists, all of whom use the product to quickly create, assemble, edit, explore, and present photorealistic models of real estate sites and new and existing buildings.

Earlier versions of the product had been restricted to a maximum of 50 acres per site. Now, according to the company, the limit is prescribed by the user's workstation and graphics card rather than by the software. Another major new feature allows the sharing of RapidSite models through a free viewer called Navigator. Any user running Windows NT/2000 with an approved OpenGL graphics card may use Navigator. Architects and engineers have the option of distributing a copy of the Navigator viewer along with any RapidSite models they might wish to share with clients or various approval agencies.

E&S also offers collaborative options through RapidSite's new import/export capability. The package can now import and export textured 3D models from or to any 3D modeling package capable of handling models in VRML format.

Additional new features are higher resolution terrain textures, with resolution as fine as 2.5 inches for modeling ground surfaces, and ...