3rd Party Software Plugins for VR-Design Studio
The many FORUM8 software plugins enable VR-Design Studio to add value to 2D traffic, environmental and pedestrian micro-simulation data. In addition, plugins are available for other industry standard civil engineering and BIM products such as Civil 3D and AllPlan.
VR-Design Studio currently supports a range of plugins. See full details and features below.
Micro-simulation Player
Import, record and play back micro-simulation data within the 3D environment of VR-Design Studio. Import VISSIM, S-Paramics, Legion and Flood simulation software XPSwmm data. Many more micro-simulation models can be imported using a non-proprietary XML schema. For more information about the open source micro-simulation XML schema, visit OpenMicroSim.
VR-Cloud
VR-Cloud is a consensus building solution which enables interactive 3D VR models to be published over the cloud. Multiple remote users can interact with the VR-Design Studio environment via a basic internet connection via PC or Android.
Multi-User Plug-in
Like the Cluster option this plug-in enables one VR-Design Studio environment to be run simultaneously on two or more PCs such that each PC user can interact with each other within the same interactive environment. This is particularly useful in Driving Simulation research and training enabling the trainer to interact with the trainee driver dynamically.
GIS plug-in and Shapefile Import
The Shapefile plug-in is included in the Standard version of VR-Design Studio and the GIS plug-in in the Advanced version. Shapefile is a GIS file format that includes information on road alignments, building positions and the digital terrain, thus enabling VR-Design Studio users to automatically create an interactive 3D environment.
The FORUM8 GIS plug-in is similar but allows imports and exports using other GIS file formats (see below).
Import:
- Shape file
- MEM files (“50m mesh numerical value map” issued by the Geographical Survey Institute)
- LandXML files
- DXF files
- slm, slp, sal, XML (1/25 000 and 1/2 500 numerical value map data issued by the Geographical Survey Institute)
- TIFFs
Export:
- Shapefiles
- DXF files
Civil 3D
This plug-in link allows data transfer between VR-Design Studio and Autodesk Civil 3D to assist with the road planning and design process. Road designers can quickly produce 3D visualizations of the road network to observe vehicle movements and refine the design. The Civil 3D plug-in provides an object level linkage between the two products running in real time.