modelinsight
Loading a Model
The first thing I noticed when loading a model within ModelInsight, is a number of options that I
have prior to loading a model. These options allow you to control how ModelInsight is going to handle
opening the model e.g. how much data is going to be loaded into memory. Ticodi have done some
very cleaver stuff with ModelInsight when it comes to the loading of models, hence how it is able to load very large
models. I won't go into this in too much detail, but what it does is loads certain data into
memory and certain data it saves to swap space files. As you move around the model is swaps what
model data is in memory and what is saved to swap space files. What this fundamentally means is that
unlike traditional 3D viewers that load the complete model into memory, hence the restriction on loading
any type of large model, ModelInsight only loads certain parts of the model into memory. This allows you to
not only have increased performance, but allows you to open huge models. Ticodi has informed us that
some of their clients have loaded models as large as 5.4GB in size, in about 20mins only using about 2GB
of memory, now that is what you call impressive.
Once you have chosen how you wish to load your model, the next thing is to choose how you want to handle the loading of your database. This database stores all of the model data associated with the graphical elements. You have three option to choose from, New which creates a completely new database, Reload which allows you to reload all model data but retains any other settings e.g. display set etc. and Use which uses the database as is, obviously the last two options only are available if a database has previously been created for the model.
What we noticed is that loading of the database and model is incredibly quick, the sample model that comes with ModelInsight loaded in a matter of seconds, 3.5 seconds to be exact.
Rendering and Graphics
Well this could be a very short section of the review, as I could just say the rendering is flawless, crisp and the best I have seen in a 3D rendering tool in this market. However if I did that it would not be a very good review.Because the rendering is of such good quality it allows you to identify pieces of equipment even when zoomed out. The colour of the rendering is sharp and smooth and the most noticeable aspect of this is that there are no jagged lines, elements that are straight are straight and does not look like graphics you would expect from an 80's computer game. With this quality of rendering it does make viewing the model a very pleasant experience.
The great news is that this is just the standard rendering mode, there are three stages in this current version, so you know what that means..... it just gets even better. Stage 2 rendering is adding more shading and light sources to your model given it that even more realistic feel to it. Stage 3 is where, if possible, the rendering jumps to a whole new level and we start to get into the whole material rendering territory. The realism that ModelInsight achieves has completely blown me away, they have increased the level of detail on the shadowing, allowed you to place light sources, adds dynamically generated landscapes and allows material association. This ensures that you have a tool that is completely scalable depending on your requirements, you can use ModelInsight as an engineering model review tool which rest assured ModelInsight is or a extremely powerful visualisation tool.
