Abstract: An interactive visualization tool is provided that enables its users to build, modify and interactively view three-dimensional simulation models of a particular geographical space over time. The interactive visualization tool is adapted to receive a user specified time and subsequently render the geographical space in accordance with the specified time. To represent a geographical space over time, the interactive tool employs a scene definition data structure. The scene definition data structure is comprised of a hierarchical tree structure having a plurality of nodes, such that each node represents a physical structure in the geographical space. Each node is further defined to include a time period during which the physical structure exists in the geographical space and link data to the corresponding three-dimensional model data for the physical structure.

Abstract: An interactive visualization tool is provided that enables its users to build, modify and interactively view three-dimensional simulation models of a particular geographical space. The interactive visualization tool employs a scene definition data structure that represents the geographical space. The scene definition data structure is comprised of a plurality of data records, where each record represents a physical structure residing in the geographical space. Each data record includes an identifier for the physical structure, link data which provides information to access corresponding model data for the physical structure, position data which provides positional information for the physical structure in the geographical scene, and hierarchical data which indicates the number of data records having a child relationship thereto.