SmartPlant Review's image generation features offer a fairly advanced set of controls for the production of realistic renderings and animations. A full palette of materials is available for applying to objects—er, excuse me, "elements"— in the project model, and if the Photo-Realism Add-In module is installed, the numerous properties of each material can be edited as well. The Material Editor allows the user to assign a wide range of properties to materials and preview the results prior to rendering the image, and new materials can also be created from existing IGDS or MicroStation color tables. The Material Editor's newest features include an improved user interface and several additional functions including transparency, pattern matching and texture mapping. The Photo-Realism Add-In module enables the user to define a complete set of lighting and raytracing parameters as well as choose different background images and environments with which to surround the 3D model.

For animated presentations, a variety of motion and directional control options are available. View Dependent Motion sets the direction of "camera" motion directly toward where the camera is pointing. Level View Dependent Motion is the same thing, but the elevation is fixed. View Independent Motion permits complete flexibility by allowing the user to independently specify the vector of motion as well as the camera view, and Plant North is similar to View Independent Motion mode except that the direction of motion is always "plant north." Positioning Modes permit the user to toggle the mouse into different positioning modes that specify the movement of the view cone eye point. The mouse can be used to toggle different positional modes so the view cone can be dragged about the model. The Simulation and Effects module can display animation sequences. Ordinary saved views can later be set as Key Frames that are used by the module to create Transitional Frames based on a B-Spline curve that the program fits through all of the Key Frames as a motion path. Parameters saved with each Key Frame view are preserved, including lighting and the direction the camera is pointing. Stereo views can also be saved.

SmartPlant Review can be customized to support user-defined accessories like CAD programs, raster image editors and text editors from the Accessories pull-down menu. Three example utility programs are even bundled with the program to demonstrate the functionality of this feature.

Intergraph recently announced the compatibility of SmartPlant Review with the Elumens VisionStation single projector hemispherical display system. The VisionStation supports all of the capabilities of SmartPlant Review, and SmartPlant Review 4.1.2 features a VisionStation display mode. The VisionStation hemispherical display system surrounds the viewer for an "immersive" design review experience.

David Clendenen is the Editor of AECVision and Managing Editor of AECCafe.com

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