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Design Visualization

QuadriSpace Presenter 2.3

1 Feb, 2003 By: AIA ,H. Edward Goldberg Cadalyst

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Interactive 3D presentations

QuadriSpace Presenter 2.3 3D presentations pros: Fast; easy to learn; includes all necessary tools for interactive AEC and MCAD presentations. cons: None significant. price: $995 QuadriSpace Corp. 866.337.7223 info@quadrispace.com

The Quadrispace developers describe this software very well when they say that QuadriSpace Presenter 2.3 is the glue that brings multiple file types together as one interactive 3D presentation. Though PowerPoint has become a standard for corporate presentations, it isn't targeted to the architectural design, construction, and mechanical design markets. If you are in one of these fields and need to explain your projects, QuadriSpace Presenter gives you all the presentation tools that you've been looking for-direct support for 3D AEC and MCAD models, 2D/3D synchronized views, real-time walkthroughs with collision detection (figure 1), interactive buttons, and more.

Quadrispace uses a page-based presentation method (figure 2). This method, which is also used by PowerPoint, is in my opinion much easier than the timeline or script methods favored by Director, Flash, and After Effects. In this method, you create complete graphic pages (similar to making a poster in a paint program), and then add your assets (3D models, bit-map pictures, and CAD drawings) to the page by simply dragging and dropping. After you drag your assets into the page, you quickly add interactivity by right-clicking or by

Figure 1. The Walkthrough option has collision detection that avoids walls, and lets you walk up and downstairs in real-time.

dragging and dropping from a menu of options. After you create the pages, you then create interactivity between the pages. The process is very easy and intuitive-even a computer novice can quickly learn this program. The manual is easy to read and not too technical. Five excellent tutorials help you quickly get up and running.

When you start the program, it presents a blank presentation page and Edit and Live buttons. All the available tools are located under the Edit button, and the Live button previews the actual presentation.

Pressing the Edit button brings up two tabs-Overview and Create. The Overview tab contains a navigation tree that includes all the

Figure 2. QuadriSpace Presenter gives you presentation tools for mechanical subjects as well as architecture and construction.

pages in your presentation, including their installed interactive views, shapes, and buttons. The Create tab gives you access to Views, Shapes, and Specials.

From there, you have all the tools you need to develop your presentation. Orbit lets you interactively rotate a view. Interactive Image lets you interactively zoom and pan bit-map files. The Sectional View option shows sections of buildings or objects and is linked to a 3D model. The Walkthrough option includes a digital "actor" that responds to terrain and has collision detection.

This program is tailored for those of us who need presentation not only as a sales tool, but also as a communication tool during the design process. To this end, QuadriSpace Presenter also has tools to create self-running CD-ROMs and interactive Internet movies. How often have you had to explain how your widget unfolds or what shadow your new building will cast in June as opposed to December. With this program, your client can go to your Web site or load a CD-ROM and interactively test the ideas.

Figure 3. Shown is QuadriSpace 2.3's built-in custom Oil style for rendering an interactive 3D view.

The latest version of Presenter lets you select a custom render style for each interactive 3D view in the document (figure 3). This lets you choose from a large variety of preset styles such as sketch, watercolor, and antique. You can even customize the styles by changing properties such as line color and face colors, or selecting image filters to apply to the view.

Render Styles make it easy to use conceptual 3D models directly in Presenter and skip the time-consuming 3D rendering process. With nonphotorealistic rendering, modeling can be quick, easy, and inexpensive. Lighting is simple because a single spotlight is effective. QuadriSpace Presenter also features an adjustable sun system with location, date, and time to determine accurate real-world lighting conditions and shadow studies. You simply import models into Presenter, choose a time, and select from a variety of rendering styles to get the desired effect.

Check out this excellent program for yourself. Download a free evaluation version of QuadriSpace Presenter. While there, be sure to look at the four sample presentations.