In the architectural industry numerous software tools are currently used throughout the engineering design process, as a means to guarantee accuracy, provide consistency, automate tedious or numerically intensive tasks, and to help visualize the resulting design. In general these tools can be categorized into design, simulation, and visualization tools. Furthermore, geographic information systems (GIS) may be applied to any of the three groups of tools.
The simulation tools are generally used to model, forecast, and analyze the movement of vehicles, people, or material goods. In aviation design, the software is used to model customer activities such as passenger movement or baggage handling and studies of landside and airside traffic. Some of the applications in transportation planning include toll plaza evaluation, freeway and corridor studies, environmental impact analysis, light and heavy rail transit studies, and ITS (intelligent transportation systems) assessments. Military applications include analysis of range training facilities and troop movement. In the newly emerging field of homeland security, applications include evacuation planning and emergency management.
The visualization tools can be categorized in two areas; 3D modeling and virtual reality (VR) software. The 3D modeling software is used to produce high end, photo realistic quality, images and animated video. The VR software is used to generate immersive environments which allow a user to freely move about and interact within a virtual world.
Both types of software are used to visualize engineering designs in numerous application areas. Advances in software and hardware technology now allow the quality of the visual images produced to contain a high degree of photo realism. GIS software provides tools which allows visualization from a geographic perspective. These tools provide the ability to compile data from many sources, to link location and information to that data, and to interpret how it interrelates.
In the development of a video or a virtual environment, an artist creates animated objects without reference to any previous data generated by use of simulation software. While a good artist can generate animated objects which may appear to be an accurate representation for the environment and circumstances, the artists do not create an accurate representation using simulation data.