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Life in 3D

Monday, February 08, 2010

Catherine Deshayes

Forget Avatar in 3D, now you can check out a brand new 3D city mapping service - Skape has been designed for architects, planners and surveyors and will allow them to manipulate urban landscapes online by combining high resolution 3D textured city models with 2D mapping and terrain data - a technological first...

Created and developed by Infoterra, provider of geographic information products and services, Skape can be used to access major UK cities, enabling urban planners to rapidly develop highly detailed architectural models and save on both time and costs.

With Skape, new buildings can be imported into a city and viewed in context with their surroundings, whilst existing buildings can be instantly removed and replaced. The high level of accuracy means that varying building textures, street furniture, light and sun shadowing at different times of the day, and unlimited vantage points can be observed from anywhere in this online environment.

Skape launches with in-depth 3D coverage of major UK cities including London (centre), Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, Southampton, Brighton, Bournemouth, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle. By the end of 2010 Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Cardiff, Edinburgh and additional London coverage will be added to Skape's city coverage.

Skape Facts

12 - the number of UK cities mapped so far

4 - the number of planes in the Infoterra fleet

52 - the number of experts on the Skape testing panel

11 - the number of industries that could use Skape

14 - the number of applications for Skape

52,660 - the number of buildings mapped in total

23,947 - the number of buildings mapped in London

3,750 - the number of hours it took to map the centre of London

960 - the number of hours it took to map Birmingham

Jamie Ritchie, responsible for the launch of Skape, explains: 'In today's environment architects and planners are so dependent on modelling and 3D modelling. Their clients are demanding high quality, 3D visuals to bring concepts to life and to help them with their tendering and commissioning decisions. With Skape, highly realistic, complex modelling can now be done quickly and cost-effectively.'

'Skape has been developed in conjunction with our user base, so we've called on an independent, expert panel of architects for feedback during the development process.'

'During the feedback and development process, the majority of users viewed Skape as a significant improvement over current technology, showing that the market has been waiting for a service like Skape.'

'The feedback has been extremely useful, and has meant that the service has been developed with our customer base constantly in mind. Skape will continually develop as we capture more and more data, and as our customers' needs evolve.'

Skape has already been used by Bournemouth Borough Council's planning department to scope out a potential new regeneration project, allowing stakeholders to see a far more realistic visual concept than would have been possible previously, in the form of a flythrough of Bournemouth centre and 16 development sites.

'I am convinced Skape has a number of uses that will assist us in promoting the Town Centre Master Vision (TCMV) initiative and the Council's wider aspirations for the Town.' - Martin Tiffin, TCMV Programme Leader, Bournemouth Borough Council.

For more information on Skape visit www.skapeworld.com

Story by Geo Connexion

Check out homes for sale all across the UK at http://www.themovechannel.co.uk/property/england/

Picture by everystock

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