SYSTEMS

RDV Systems has announced the availability of RDV 2005 for Civil 3D. Rapid Design Visualization (RDV) is an application developed specifically for use with Civil 3D, Autodesk’s new generation of Civil Engineering design software. RDV 2005 enables any Civil 3D user to create a fully interactive visualization environment directly from their Civil 3D project. Using RDV 2005 designers can easily create drive through simulations, flyovers and interactive simulations for proposed roads, subdivisions, interchanges and many other complex land development projects. RDV 2005’s interactive simulations are cost effective during every phase of the project from preliminary design validation for internal use through to presentations for public review and even on the construction site to visualize complex construction scenarios. RDV 2005 is web enabled so that users can easily publish their simulations to the internet or intranet enabling them to communicate their design intent to anyone, anywhere and at anytime. Integration with Civil 3D: RDV 2005 was developed over the past 2 years in coordination with Autodesk’s Civil 3D development team. “RDV ties in very nicely with Autodesk Civil 3D 2005 resulting in a very easy process of taking a design model into a 3D virtual environment that can be used to present a design proposal to approval agencies, the public or other project stakeholders.” says Dave Simeone – Civil 3D project manager for Autodesk. “I’ve found that the process of creating animation views and paths that will be followed in animations are enough of a barrier for most users to keep them away from integrating 3D visualization into their design and selling processes. RDV simplifies these and other steps so that the process is painless and immediate.” “We are proud to be one of the first 3rd party developers to roll out a product based on Civil 3D” says Natan Elsberg - CEO of RDV Systems. “Civil Engineers have been waiting a long time for easy to use tools to help them visualize their design. Civil 3D’s power in modeling coupled with RDV 2005’s easy to use visualization tools will revolutionize the way designers work with computer aided design systems.” Cost Effective: Civil engineers invest a lot of time and money into a project before they are ever presented for feedback or approval. Discovering design problems during late phases of design or construction can be devastating to a project and the design firm. RDV 2005 is the first tool commercially available which provides a cost effective means for engineering firms to review their design online during the design process. While visualization has been considered a valuable addition for many important civil engineering projects in recent years it was difficult to prove cost effectiveness for daily use in the design process. In the past engineers creating the design did not have the tools to create the visualization on their own in a rapid and simple manner. Ease of use in the content creation and viewing stages are key features of the RDV system which are critical to achieving cost effectiveness. Engineers working through different design alternatives on a daily basis are now able to update their design visualization effortlessly, considerably reducing risk. Focused on Civil 3D users needs: Traditionally the problem with design visualization was that designers needed to learn an entire new profession to create visualizations. Most designers just don’t have the time to learn standard visualization programs. RDV 2005 for Civil 3D focuses on the tools and processes needed daily by Civil Engineers, Landscape Architects and other land planning professionals while most of the tools available on the market today focus on just architectural visualization needs. RDV 2005 includes automated processes for tasks such as drive through animation paths, sight distance evaluation, accurate draping of raster imagery on terrain models, generation of vegetation on terrain surfaces, placement of road environment features such as lane striping, crash barriers, and many other dedicated features needed to easily create high quality visualizations. Interactive: The ability to provide full user interaction throughout the visualization experience differentiates RDV 2005 from other visualization products. Visualizations creating still images or AVI files leave no room for user interaction in the proposed design environment. The RDV 2005 simulator not only allows for predefined drive through and fly-over animations to be run, but also may permit the user to move around freely in the design project, all the while updating the user on position and project coordinates. Problems identified with sight distance on a road may be tied to project coordinates to notify the design team of the exact location of the problem to be resolved. RDV 2005 interactive visualizations may include different design scenarios in the same scene so that users can turn on or off Autocad layers, each showing a different design alternative from the same vantage point. Additional point and click interaction may be incorporated into the scene allowing users to select objects and change their appearance or obtain the object ID for more advanced geo-spatial queries. Web Enabled: RDV 2005 creates files that are just a few megabytes in file size for a typical project. On high bandwidth connections, which are common in most design offices today, these files are downloaded to the viewing computer in just a matter of seconds. In contrast, conventional techniques for visualizing animations created large AVI files which could easily reach hundreds of megabytes for each animation posing problems for efficient distribution to those who need to view the visualization. Furthermore, the RDV viewing control is automatically downloaded to the viewing computer enabling the graphic processing and animations to be performed on the viewing computer, with no additional costs. Availability: RDV 2005 is available through local Civil 3D resellers worldwide. Additionally, RDV 2005 is available for sale through RDV’s website: www.rdvsystems.com Interested resellers contact: sales@rdvsystems.com Background: RDV Systems is a dynamic young company which has quickly emerged as a leader in Civil Engineering and Land Planning Design Visualization. It’s unique approach to modeling and simulation of complex engineering projects has revolutionized the way engineers use visualization to evaluate, communicate and gain approval for their design projects. For more information about the company, see www.rdvsystems.com. Autodesk is the world's leading design software and digital content company, offering customers progressive business solutions through powerful technology products and services. Autodesk helps customers in the building, manufacturing, infrastructure, digital media, and wireless data services fields increase the value of their digital design data and improve efficiencies across their entire project lifecycle management processes. For more information about the company, see www.autodesk.com.