Web-based interactive 3D visualisation for business and building management

This paper reports a pilot study of development and implementation of an interactive environment for construction design and maintenance. The environment is based on a three-tier architecture, where user interface, web server and distributed databases are kept separate. The environment supports design, visualisation (2D layout, 3D or panoramic view), searching, planning, specifications, computation and supplier information. The system enables users to be able to simulate and evaluate a 3D environment interactively. The paper presents the software structure, implementation and test examples. In addition to 3D visualisation, data format conversion and content-based information retrieval are also discussed. Some conclusions and further work are drawn.