Cool 3D Buildings: Creating the Modern City | SolidWorks 3D CAD Technology Design Blog

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If you look over the edge of your coffee cup you’ll notice everything is going 3D. There’s more news about 3D maps, 3D TV’s and 3D games than ever before.

Then I see this article from the January 1931 issue of Modern Mechanix about a 17,000 sq. ft. model of what modern day (1980) New York would look like.

“This model took 5 months to complete…built in an old blimp hanger…[with] the tallest tower of which is 40 feet high”

77 years later…
The $200,000 and 200 technical experts it took to build that plaster and glass modern version can be done at a fraction of the cost in a full 3D environment.

There’s sites like Everyscape that map out the cities, models of Modern/Futuristic 3D cities you can view with Google SketchUp and illustrated3D maps of Shanghai, but the most impressive I’ve seen is ScreamPoint’s 3D New York city. See a video after the break. What could be next?

Screampoint 3d New York

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Don Swavely 5 months ago 1 point
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Full disclosure first: I work for 3DVIA on the development team after more than 30 years in the design and engineering real world. I've used SolidWorks for more than 11 years. 3DVIA has a stong working relationship with Microsoft, as does SolidWorks.

Darth Vader (i.e., Microsoft) is not my favorite, but they do have some really cool stuff that just never seems to get mentioned in regards to what is happening in the 3D world. Several times, for personal endeavors, I've done comparisons of Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth. Sometimes Casper the Friendly Ghost (i.e., Google)is better and sometimes Darth is better.

My point is that where we are going in the future of 3D has many strong players and like most new technologies there is no clear path nor any totally good guy/bad guy scenarios. We all need to be aware of all the possibilities, since we are the ones who will decide what works.

Check out Microsoft Virtual Earth (http://maps.live.com/) for the customer side and (http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth/product/3...) for the developer side.

It is better to know than to guess.

Flame On!

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http://www.SupplierSource.com

Josh 5 months ago 1 point
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Hey Don. You don't know hoooow close I was to linking up the 3D view of Manhattan NYC on Live! Very, very cool 3D and ahead of Google for that matter, except it's a little slow, but bandwidth will meet up with it sooner or later.

Beside that, my favorite is the Photsynth project I've mentioned.

Thanks for bringing it up!

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Don Swavely 5 months ago 1 point
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Josh - You're right about Virtual Earth being a little slow at times (and flaky too), but sometimes it really is worth the wait. There are just so many amazing things being developed now by a lot of really great people. We should all be trying as many new things as we can, so that we know what works for us. Thanks for all the great things that you find and bring to our attention! Keep it up.

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Josh 5 months ago 1 point
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Thanks a lot Don. It seems like product development and technology is just moving so much faster, even since this year has begun. There's something everyday that is coming up in Tech/Web/Media and yes even 3D and CAD. fun times my friend!

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Good Therapy 2 months ago 1 point
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Thanks! Yes, the development of technology cuts down on time, make it cheaper and easier to do things. It’s really amazing how technology vuts down your work load. Screampoint is reallly something special. I really like the 3D model of New York city. I really plan on using Screampoint in the next few days and it really seems fun to use.

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