visualization Dynamite VSP civil visualisation engineering 3ds max Autodesk viz mx civil3d inroads rail visualisation geopak 12d survcad astasoft pcplusplus symos geonius

Dynamite VSP Version 3.1 | Release Notes

Primary areas of focus in this release include support for Autodesk VIZ 2008 and 3ds Max 9, a new skew parameter for swept objects, a new rail profile definition for rail objects, all style editor panels may now be resized, and improved support for MX model files and LandXML files.

Release Date

31st March 2007

Major New Features

  • Support for Autodesk VIZ 2008 and Autodesk 3ds Max 9 (32-bit).
  • New skew parameter implemented for swept objects.
  • New W profile rail type added to rail object definitions.
  • All Dynamite VSP Style Editor panels may now be dynamically resized.
  • Non-tangential alignment strings from MX, and a wider range of LandXML files are now supported.
  • Multiple rail objects or road marking objects may now be applied to the same parent shape object. This behaviour is controlled by a new option in the Dynamite VSP Preferences panel.
  • Expanded DynamiteSurfaces material definition including new concrete, asphalt, and ground textures.

Other Improvements

Swept Object Style Editor

  • New skew parameter added to allow asymmetrical bridge decks to be constructed from spanned styles. This parameter is accommodated in Swept Object Styles through the addition of a new Option 2010.
  • Problem solved which caused the global length mapping value to be set to zero after opening a new swept object style.
  • The Build Multispline sub-panel now allows selected portions of single shape objects to be used as parent shapes for swept objects.

Rail Object Style Editor

  • New W profile rail type added, and all existing rail types have been renamed.
  • Problem solved which caused the position of some panel controls to be affected by changes to the width of the Dynamite VSP Explorer Panel.

Object Placement Style Editor

  • The chainage spinner control now allows non-whole number chainage intervals to be specified.
  • Face count information has been added to all remaining Viewpoint previews.

Placed Object Manager Panel

  • Button added to allow random rotation to be applied to selected objects.
  • Vehicle shadow saver settings may now be optionally adjusted when the Shadow Casting button is selected.
  • The contents of the panel may now be exported to an Object Placement Style or a delimited text file (for use in Microsoft Excel).

Imported Object Manager Panel

  • The File Last Modified column has been renamed to Source Last Modified to allow for the fact that this column contains per-model last modified dates for strings imported from MX Model Files.
  • The contents of the panel may now be exported to a delimited text file (for use in Microsoft Excel).

Country Kit Resource Manager Panel

  • This panel no longer allows INI files to be created which feature illegal characters such as commas in the file name.
  • If a new diffuse or opacity map is selected which resides outside of the current country kit folder, copying the file to the country kit structure no longer fails if a file of the same name already exists.

Dynamite VSP Explorer Rollouts

  • The Shape Parameters rollout now indicates whether a selected spline is open or closed.
  • The Surface Parameters rollout is now displayed when selecting any editable mesh object allowing Dynamite VSP draping parameters to be applied to any mesh object.
  • The new Skew parameter has been added to the Swept Object Parameters rollout.
  • The new W profile rail type has been added to the Rail Object Parameters rollout, and all existing rail types have been renamed.
  • The Light Parameters rollout now supports the new Mental Ray Sunlight and Daylight objects in Autodesk VIZ 2008 and 3ds Max 9.
  • Unknown light types no longer cause an error to be generated in the Light Parameters rollout.
  • Performance has been improved when updating hotspot and falloff parameters in the Light Parameters rollout.
  • An error previously displayed in Autodesk VIZ 2007 when opening the Placed Object Animation Editor panel from the Position Controller rollout has been solved.
  • The Length parameter in the Gantry Parameters rollout has been renamed to Span.
  • Sign faces of matrix signals for the NL Gantry type may now be specified in the Gantry Parameters rollout.

Dynamite VSP Preferences Panel

  • The location of the global skymaps folder may now be modified.
  • Two options have been added to provide control over whether multiple rail objects and road marking objects can be applied to the same parent shape object. These options are turned off by default to match the behaviour of previous versions of Dynamite VSP. If activated, these options should be used with caution because they affect the application of overlapping string label masks in Rail Object Styles and Road Marking Styles.

Data Import

  • A wider range of LandXML files is now supported.
  • Support has been added for non-tangential alignment strings in the MX Model File Import Panel.
  • Support has been added for the Autodesk VIZ and 3ds Max DWG File Link Manager. Polylines from dynamically linked DWG files may now be used as paths for most types of Dynamite VSP generated geometry such as road markings and rail objects.

Installation

  • The unattended installation option now supports custom installation paths.

General

  • All Dynamite VSP Style Editor panels may now be dynamically resized.
  • Rail Object skewing problem at the end of some parent shapes has been solved.
  • Adding a material channel to the DynamiteSurfaces material definition no longer causes self-illumination to be set to 20% by default.
  • The sizes of dutch matrix signs in the NL parametric gantry object definition have been corrected.

Supported Host Applications

  • Autodesk 3ds Max 6
  • Autodesk 3ds Max 7
  • Autodesk 3ds Max 8
  • Autodesk 3ds Max 9 (32-bit)
  • Autodesk VIZ 2005
  • Autodesk VIZ 2006
  • Autodesk VIZ 2007
  • Autodesk VIZ 2008