Heidelberg-3D Uses OGC Standards to Model City

The system implements OpenGIS Web 3D Service (OGC W3DS), an OGC Discussion Paper, and is based on several OGC standards: - Geocoder, part of the OGC OpenLS Utility Service - Web Processing Service (WPS) - Sensor Observation Service (SOS) - OpenLS Directory Service - Web Map Service (WMS) - Web Feature Service (WFS) - Catalogue Service (CS-W) - CityGML - Symbology Encoding Specification The system comes with a free 3D-Client called XNavigator . This client is a Java WebStart-Application. From the home page, in the left menu choose \"Start Heidelberg 3D.\" After confirming the System Requirements, which may involve updating your video card drive, choose a starting profile of Low, Medium or High, depending on the system resources available (how much RAM, the graphics capability, and what CPU). If Java 6 is already installed on the computer and the system requirements are met, XNavigator will be installed automatically and the application will be launched. XNavigator allows users to explore and analyze the 3D city and landscape models which are streamed by the W3DS server.The 3D model has been generated in very close cooperation with the surveying office of the city of Heidelberg. Additional content stems from other partners or has been digitized within the project itself. Most of the data has been generated from 2D data automatically. The system includes the complete set of approximately 40,000 buildings of the city of Heidelberg that can be accessed from the web. Available data includes a 5- meter DEM (digital elevation model), land use, aerial photographs, street names and a range of other data such as historic flood areas, parking lots, street and traffic signs, trees and even a detailed model of the Virgin Mary that has been generated from terrestrial laser scan. Important buildings and bridges have been modelled in higher detail and have textures. All data is preprocessed for efficient streaming, and is managed within a geodatabase. Three system requirements are specified:⢠OpenGL support Version 1.2 or later. (A link to the GLview tool is provided to enable users to check what version is on the system.)⢠Internet connection with 2000 kbit/s or faster ⢠Dual Core ProcessorIn addition, users are strongly encouraged to update the video card driver to the latest version. The website also includes additional resources, including sections on technology, scenarios, screenshots, videos and publications.

Author: Article courtesy of OGC, Inc. October newsletter

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