A system and method for visualising a CAD designed 3D article as a 3D environment

摘要

A visualisation system and method is disclosed which allows a designer to navigate within and visualise a designed 3D article as an environment in 3D. The designer designs the 3D article using a conventional CAD application. The CAD application generates CAD data comprising generic information defining the designed article in 3D and CAD application specific information facilitating the manipulation of the article in the CAD application. The CAD data is converted to generic 3D representation data by removing the CAD application specific information. A preferred form of the 3D representation data is a conventional MAP file. This data is then rendered for use by a visualisation engine. The rendering of the MAP file will generate a BSP file which can then be used by a BSP engine as the visualisation engine. The visualisation engine generates data for display and is responsive to user input to allow full 3D movement and visualisation within the article as an environment.