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3 DEM
3DEM for Win95/98/ME/2000/XP and Windows Vista will produce three dimensional terrain scenes and flyby animations from a wide variety of freely available data sources including:
* USGS Digital Elevation Model (ASCII DEM) files
* USGS Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS DEM) files
* NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) files
* LIDAR Point Cloud (LAS) files
* USGS Global 30 Arc Second Elevation Data Set (GTOPO30 DEM) files
* NOAA Global Land One-km Base Elevation (GLOBE DEM) files
* NASA Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) files
* Any topographic data file organized by rows and columns of elevation data
* XYZ scattered point topographic data files
Terrain data files can be saved in the following formats for use by other GIS programs
* USGS ASCII Digital Elevation Model (*.dem)
* GeoTiff Graphics File (*.tif)
* GeoTiff Digital Elevation Model (*.tif)
* Binary terrain matrix (*.bin)
* VRML world (*.wrl)
* Terragen terrain (*.ter)
3DEM can merge multiple DEMs to provide high-resolution overhead maps and 3D projections of large surface areas, limited only by the computer's memory. Geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) are shown on all overhead map displays. Both Lat-Lon and UTM coordinates are supported, allowing display and measurement of position to high accuracy. Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver waypoints, routes, and tracks can be read via serial interface and displayed on 3D images and flybys of the terrain, allowing visualization of the path of a trek through the wilderness.
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Autodesk Design Review
Autodesk Design Review software saves time and money in the design review value chain, with easy-to-use tools for team members to view, print, measure, mark up, and revise 2D and 3D designs—with or without the original design-creation software.
This free* tool tightly integrates with all Autodesk® design software and enables project teams to adopt fully paperless design review and approval processes. By reducing the the cost and hassle of paper, fax, and couriers, Autodesk Design Review powers faster, more accurate, and more sustainable design processes across all major sectors. Core features include:
* Easy-to-use ribbon interface
* PDF and DWF Support
* Enhanced, lockable markup capabilities
* Digital signature support
* Find and locate design information
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Dem3d Viewer
The Dem3d viewer allows users to view and move DEM files (.dem format) through a 3-dimensional perspective. This free downloadable software was provided by the USGS Mid-Continent Mapping Center (MCMC), but MCMC no longer provides support for this viewer.
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Fledermaus 3D Visualisation System
Interaction Vizualisation Systems (IVS) offers Fledermaus Professional, a powerful 3D data visualisation system capable of route planning and real-time tracking of objects. Fledermaus also allows data from remotely operated vehicles, ships or other entities, to be visualised in real-time. IVS 3D offers an evaluation version.
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FlightGear
FlightGear is an open-source flight simulator with simple, accessible file formats. Writing 3rd party extensions for FlightGear is straightforward making it an attractive option for use by private, commercial and research areas. It contains an extensive world scenery database including 20,000 real world airports. Runs on all operating systems.
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g3DGMV
The g3DGMV program was designed as a free (open-source) viewer for Digital Elevation Model (DEM ) and Digital Line Graph (DLG ) maps. These maps are rendered by g3DGMV as 3D images that can be manipulated by the user and view from different angles. Windows-based.
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Genesis IV Freeware
GenesisIV Freeware is a completely functional freeware version of GenesisIV. GenesisIV brings photorealistic landscape rendering within the reach of all GIS users and supports NTF data formats.
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GMT Mapping Tools
GMT is an open source collection of ~60 tools for manipulating geographic and Cartesian data sets (including filtering, trend fitting, gridding, projecting, etc.) and producing Encapsulated PostScript File (EPS) illustrations ranging from simple x-y plots via contour maps to artificially illuminated surfaces and 3-D perspective views. GMT supports ~30 map projections and transformations and comes with support data such as GSHHS coastlines, rivers, and political boundaries.
GMT runs on UNIX and Linux platforms and requires a C compiler to compile the application.
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LandSerf
LandSerf is a freely available GIS for the visualisation and analysis of surfaces. Applications include visualisation of landscapes, geomorphological analysis and surface modelling. Supports TINs, DEMs, MSNs and OpenGL. Works on all operating systems that support Java.
Features:
* Handles multiple surface models - raster digital elevation models (DEMs), vector Triangulated Irregular Networks (TINs), contours and metric surface networks (MSNs).
* Interactive 3D viewing and 'flythrough' of surfaces on platforms that support OpenGL.
* A range of powerful and interactive visualisation techniques including lighting/shade models, multiple image blending and dynamic graphical query.
* Raster and vector transformation including image rectification and map projection.
* Multi-scale surface processing based on quadratic regression.
* Fractal and polynomial surface generation for modelling and simulation.
* Multi-scale parameter and feature extraction (slope, aspect, curvature etc.).
* Import and export of common raster and vector formats.
* Integration with Garmin GPS receivers.
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MacDEM
MacDEM is an application to view and edit digital elevation model (DEM) files for the Mac OS. You can create shaded relief and contour maps with MacDEM.
Using MacDEM, you can:
* Import DEM files in these formats:
o USGS ASCII DEM ("native")
o SDTS DEM (including new format and BFP32 decimal meters)
o NED (National Elevation Dataset) GridFloat and BIL
o DTED Level 0, 1, and 2
o GLOBE
o GTOPO30
o TerrainBase
o Arc-ASCII-GRID
o PGM
o SRTM - Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
o Raw data (Binary and ASCII)
* Export 16-bit elevation data to:
o USGS ASCII
o Photoshop
o PGM files, for Bryce import (preserves more detail than 8-bit gray scale format)
o POV-Ray
o binary files
* Merge DEMs into a single DEM file.
* Display DEMs in shaded relief
o User-definable lighting
o User-definable color palettes
(hypsographic coloring)
o Variable zoom (horizontal scale)
o Variable vertical exaggeration
* Make contour maps.
* Crop DEM files.
* Resample DEM files to different resolutions.
* Edit DEM elevations.
* Use filters to fill gaps and smooth DEM data.
* Export shaded relief images to PICT, TARGA, and TIFF files.
* Create World Files (.tfw)
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MicroDEM
MICRODEM is a freeware microcomputer mapping program written by Professor Peter Guth of the Oceanography Department, U.S. Naval Academy. It requires a 32 bit version of Windows (NT/2000/XP or 95/98/ME). You may freely use MICRODEM with no restrictions.
MICRODEM displays and merges
- digital elevation models
- satellite imagery
- scanned maps
- vector map data
- GIS databases
From sources such as:
- US Geological Survey
- National Imagery and Mapping Agency
- Census Bureau
- National Ocean Survey
- British Ordnance Survey
- Landsat TM
- SPOT
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OpenStreetMap - 3D
With XNavigator you can explore the virtual 3D model of Germany. The software contains many features that were developed within the project GDI-3D.de. XNavigator downloads all 3D data for landscape, road, buildings, labels, and POIs from the W3DS. It can also connect to a number of other OGC services such as WMS providing the overview map, OpenLS Geo-coder for searching for locations, and OpenLS Directory Service for searching for facilities and Points of Interest. An OpenLS Route Service for 3D-Routing including driving and walking directions has been integrated recently. The 3D routing adopts the technology from www.OpenRouteService.org. Additionally dynamic sensor measurements can be embedded and vizualised via a Sensor Observation Service (SOS) such as water levels, air pollution data (German Federal Environmental Agency) or, in the near future, current meteorological data (DWD). You can even adjust the illumination depending on date and time (Solar Settings).
The service showcases what can be done by combining OpenStreetMap (OSM) vector data, and SRTM elevation data. The OSM land-use areas have been integrated into the terrain, buildings have been generated making assumptions on their height.
The software is completely based on Java and Java3D. For the 3D Graphics OpenGL hardware acceleration is used as well as specific software optimizations.
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Terrain Bender
Terrain Bender applies progressive bending to digital terrain models for 3D cartography. It offers interactive tools to add a bent base to a digital terrain model.
3D maps with progressive bending show the landscape using a varying viewing angle from steep in the foreground to flat in the background. The result is similar to the way in which passengers in a plane perceive the landscape, first looking straight downwards and then raising their gaze towards the horizon. This makes Terrain Bender great when displaying terrain at the continental scale, especially when you have mountain ranges.
Terrain Bender is free and open-source software. Version 1.0.6 of 4 February 2010 is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
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UrbanSim
UrbanSim is a sophisticated simulation system for modeling urban land use, transportation, and environmental impacts over a period of 20+ years, under alternate possible scenarios. Its purpose is to support democratic decision-making on such issues as building new transit systems or changing zoning or economic incentives.
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Virtual Terrain Project (VTP)
VTP gathers information and tracks progress in areas such as procedural scene construction, feature extraction, and rendering algorithms. They write and support a set of software tools, including an interactive runtime environment (VTP Enviro). The tools and their source code are freely shared to help accelerate the adoption and development of the necessary technologies. Supports NTF.
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