3D Model Helps Shape Dundee Waterfront

"When the central waterfront area is complete not only will the heart of Dundee be re-connected with its stunning estuary setting, but up to 3,500 permanent jobs will be created bringing in GBP2.6 billion to the national economy," commented Ken Guild, Leader of Dundee City Council.

3D model making has always been expensive and local authorities in particular have depended on third parties to supply imagery and animations for new architectural proposals. However where planners are creating area masterplans the ability to draw up a basic 3D model in-house to aid in the design process is very valuable. A couple of years ago the planning department at Dundee City Council started, with more enthusiasm perhaps than a suitable budget or 3D computer skills, to draw up a basic model of the Dundee Central Waterfront proposal in Google SketchUp.

The model was quickly considered successful as it proved to be very useful, particularly because planning officers could easily make changes in-house to quickly test out ideas and communicate them to others. The central buildings were carefully drawn up and then surrounded with basic flat-topped extrusions representing buildings for the wider area. Unfortunately the extrusions did not provide a convincing backdrop that was recognisable, this was a serious drawback in terms of skyline considerations. The time required to draw in a wider area of the numerous surrounding buildings was considered too much, also the model was becoming functionally limited due to the size of the file.

Bluesky's development of 3D environments came in at a good time for Dundee City Council's planning department's ambition for a wider more detailed model. It allowed for greater expansion, with more recognisable features that the public can now engage with. It allows planners to understand possible developments more quickly and assess their impact on the local and wider environments and skyline. The new development of V&A coming to the waterfront of Dundee will now make the model more important as public interest increases.

Used in Google SketchUp, a 3D modelling programme designed for architects, civil engineers, filmmakers and game developers the Bluesky building model " ... is easy to use, easy to manipulate and the addition of aerial photography makes it easy to interpret and understand even for non GIS / CAD trained users and especially for the public," commented John Gray Planning Officer, for Dundee City Council.

The bespoke building model supplied by Bluesky was derived from high-resolution aerial photography to produce a vector mesh file showing real world heights and locations for the existing waterfront development together with the underlying ground terrain. The aerial photography is also used to texture the landscape and building roofs providing additional real world detail in order to make the model more user-friendly. Bluesky 3D building models are created ready to have building facia textured with additional oblique or street level photography if required.