Cadalyst - October 2008 - (Page 16)

techtrends Walker pointed out that, because CommunityViz is based on ArcGIS, the imported map features retain “all their GIS data, such as who owns the property, how many stories it has, or what its street address is.” Shape of a Community According to Walker, almost all planners want to study future build-out scenarios or research how many buildings could be built at a particular site based on its current landuse regulations. In CommunityViz, you can create build-out plans using a wizard that lets you select the desired layer (for example, parcel layer) from the GIS data, set dwelling-unit density, floor-area ratios, development constraints (such as arable lands that need to be preserved), then let the software do the calculations. The output results can be tied to a timeline, so a planner can review the build-out design in a chronological progression (figure 2). Three Alternatives for Vernon Lex Ivey, the founder and principal of the consulting firm TerraCognito GIS, was one of the original beta testers for CommunityViz. He now relies on the software to help his clients, such as the city of Vernon, British Columbia, Canada, understand how urban development could affect the region. “For the city of Vernon, we built a spatial–temporal model of the development history, starting from circa 1910 to the present,” he explained. “Then we extrapolated the land-use patterns to project future land use. We studied the different land-use scenarios’ impact to see their encroachment on the agricultural areas, the visible hillsides and ridgelines — characteristics that define the community.” The analysis also included a look at how long the residents would need to walk to the nearest basic service centers, such as public transportation, health care providers, retailers, and employers. The Smart Growth Advisory Services, a partner of Vernon’s planning department in the official community plan review, wrote, “Every step of the [community engagement] process has built on the previous work done, all of which has led up to the current CommunityViz–based, land-use model.” When the city presented three scenarios for growth in Vernon, the public overwhelmingly selected Option 3. In the three draft development plans (now archived online at www.vernon.sgas.bc.ca under Maps), Option 3 is dubbed Neighborhood Centers for its concentration of new multiple-family development — apartments and townhouses — in and around the proposed neighborhood commercial centers. According to the annotation on the draft, it’s meant to “[direct] growth into the already built-up area of the city.” According to Ivey, the archived maps showing the three options were created by Vernon’s GIS staff, based on the studies in CommunityViz and advanced spatial analysis in the planning process. CommunityViz is “not a crystal ball to predict the future,” he cautioned. “It’s a tool for planners and stakeholders to see what the development potential is.” Figure 2. The TimeScope function in CommunityViz, viewed here in Google Earth, allows users to visualize community growth over time from an early stage (top) to more-developed clusters. and further development of CommunityViz to Placeways, an independent company owned and operated by a number of people once affiliated with the foundation. Dose of Gaming Doug Walker, Placeways president and principal, said, “CommunityViz is right at the heart of the coming CAD– GIS integration, with [computer] gaming on top of it.” The current version, CommunityViz v3.3 (figure 1, p. 14), features two complementary modules: Scenario 360 and SiteBuilder 3D, both based on ESRI’s ArcGIS platform. Placeways describes Scenario 360 as an “interactive analysis tool and a decision-making framework” that lets you paint land-use types on a map and instantly see associated socioeconomic and environmental impacts, calculate the development capacity of your land, automatically rate different locations, and view multiple scenarios side by side. SiteBuilder 3D is described as a tool to create photorealistic, 3D interactive scenes from 2D map data, and it comes with an exclusive library of more than 350 models of houses, buildings, trees, and streetscapes to help you populate your 3D scenes. The new Scenario 3D component, similar to SiteBuilder 3D, will allow you to build 3D scenes incorporating 3D architectural models in KMZ format, Collada interchange format (DAE), or 3DS format, making it compatible with Google SketchUp, Autodesk 3ds Max, VectorWorks, and other popular 3D design tools. 16 Cadalyst executive editor Kenneth Wong explores the innovative use of technology and its implications. Read his blog at www.cadalyst.com/kw. www.cadalyst.com cadalyst October 2008 http://www.vernon.sgas.bc.ca http://www.cadalyst.com/kw http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - October 2008

Cadalyst - October 2008 Contents Editor’s Window Cad Central SimCity for Real Designs Spring to Life — 3D Publishing Tools Make File Sharing as Easy as Opening a Book Xi MTower 2P64X — Dual Quad-Core Workstation ArchiCAD 12 — BIM Software Dell Precision M6300 — High-End Mobile Workstation Cad Manager Mcad Modeling Aec Insight Cad Cartoon Issue Indexes Hot Tip Harry

Cadalyst - October 2008

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