DesignReview is a 3D computer model review package specifically tailored for plant design models consisting of piping, equipment and structural elements such as I-beams, HVAC ducting, and electrical raceways. It allows flexible viewing and manipulation of the model for helping the design team visually track progress, identify interferences, locate components, and facilitate project approvals by presenting clear presentations that technical and non-technical audiences can understand.
On the construction site, DesignReview can display construction status and sequencing through vivid graphics that complement blueprints. After construction is complete, DesignReview continues as a valuable tool for planning retrofits and maintenance. DesignReview is a multi-threaded application that is available for both UNIX and Windows NT.
The model in this viewset is a subset of the 3D plant model made for the GYDA offshore oil production platform located in the North Sea on the southwest coast of Norway. A special thanks goes to British Petroleum, which has given the OPC subcommittee permission to use the geometric data as sample data for this viewset. Use of this data is restricted to this viewset.
DesignReview works from a memory-resident representation of the model that is composed of high-order objects such as pipes, elbows valves, and I-beams. During a plant walkthrough, each view is rendered by transforming these high-order objects to triangle strips or line strips. Tolerancing of each object is done dynamically and only triangles that are front facing are generated. This is apparent in the viewset model as it is rotated.
Most DesignReview models are greater than 50 megabytes and are stored as high-order objects. For this reason and for the benefit of dynamic tolerancing and face culling, display lists are not used.
There are 6 tests specified by the viewset that represent the most common operations performed by DesignReview. These tests are as follows:
| Test | Weight | DRV functionality represented |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 45% | Walkthrough rendering of curved surfaces. Each curved object (i.e., pipe, elbow) is rendered as a triangle mesh, depth-buffered, smooth-shaded, with one light and a different color per primitive. |
| 2 | 30% | Walkthrough rendering of flat surfaces. This is treated as a different test than #1 because normals are sent per facet and a flat shade model is used. |
| 3 | 8% | For more realism, objects in the model can be textured. This test textures the curved model with linear blending and mipmaps. |
| 4 | 5% | Texturing applied to the flat model. |
| 5 | 4% | As an additional way to help visual identification and location of objects, the model may have "screen door" transparency applied. This requires the addition of polygon stippling to test #2 above. |
| 6 | 4% | To easily spot rendered objects within a complex model, the objects to be identified are rendered as solid and the rest of the view is rendered as a wireframe (line strips). The line strips are depth-buffered, flat-shaded and unlit. Colors are sent per primitive. |
| 7 | 4% | Two other views are present on the screen to help the user select a model orientation. These views display the position and orientation of the viewer. A wireframe, orthographic projection of the model is used. Depth buffering is not used, so multithreading cannot be used; this preserves draw order. |
| Test # | Weight (%) | Testing Parameters (Also see default parameters) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 45% | -th -mh gyda1-ts -rm TMESH -zb -nil 1 -cp PRIMITIVE -mt |
| 2 | 30% | -th -mh gyda2-ts -rm TMESH -zb -flat -facetnormal -nil 1 -cp PRIMITIVE -wt |
| 3 | 8% | -th -mh gyda1-ts -rm TMESH -zb -nil 1 -cp PRIMITIVE -tx flag.mtv -te MODULATE -magf LINEAR -minf LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR -wt |
| 4 | 5% | -th -mh gyda2-ts -rm TMESH -zb -flat -nil 1 -cp PRIMITIVE -tx flag.mtv -te MODULATE -magf LINEAR -minf LINEAR_MIPMAP_LINEAR -wt |
| 5 | 4% | -th -mh gyda2-ts -rm TMESH -vz -zb -flat -facetnormal -nil 1 -polystipple -cp PRIMITIVE -wt |
| 6 | 4% | -th -mh gyda0-wf -rm LINE -zb -flat -cp PRIMITIVE -wt |
| 7 | 4% | -mh gyda0-wf -rm LINE -ortho -flat -cp PRIMITIVE |