Development of a Virtual Reality Structural Analysis System
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VIEW THE REPLYPublication: Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 11, Issue 4
Abstract
This paper discusses the development of virtual structural analysis program (VSAP). This is a virtual environment (VE) based structural analysis system developed through a collaborative effort between the School of Architecture + Design and the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ. (Virginia Tech). The VSAP was developed by linking a visualization routine using the simple VE library and a structural analysis software, the PC-SAP4. Details of the design of four user interfaces for the VSAP are presented. These user interfaces are: the immersive pen and tablet interface, the desktop interface, the portable immersive interface, and the cave automatic VE immersive interface. Usability studies for each interface were conducted. Results of these studies indicated that the users of VSAP were highly satisfied with the experience. In addition, all the developed interfaces were found to be successful for their specific application.
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Acknowledgments
Several graduate and undergraduate students at Virginia Tech contributed to this project. Their assistance in the development of the VSAP is greatly appreciated. In particular Ndiwalana Ali, Matthew Gracey, and John Lucas helped with the development of the user interfaces discussed in this paper. This effort was funded by the National Science Foundation Grants Nos. NSFCMS-9908719 and NSFDUE-0127326.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 11 • Issue 4 • December 2005
Pages: 156 - 164
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Jun 7, 2004
Accepted: Dec 7, 2004
Published online: Dec 1, 2005
Published in print: Dec 2005
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