Spatial Database Management and Generation of VRML Models

Introduction Staff in the Faculty of the Built Environment at the University of the West of England (UWE) have been involved in the 3D modelling of buildings and urban areas since 1984. These models have been used for applications ranging from the automatic co-generation of visualisation, drawings and schedules to Virtual Reality (VR) and the Web. Since 1984 a number of different Computer Aided Architectural Design (CAAD) systems have been used to create these models, some in succession to others, some in parallel with translation from one to another because each is easier to use in one sphere of the whole task than another. This need to successively pass the task in hand from one CAAD package to another is a strong endorsement of open standard nonproprietary description of data. These experiences also reinforce the view that in practice heterogeneous part-models with abstract mappings linking their various parts can be achieved pragmatically, whereas the seamless single building product model remains an elusive holy grail.[1]