Vectorworks, a global building information modeling software developer, just released version 2.4 of SimTread, a tool that allows users to simulate and analyze patterns of crowds in a given environment or structure. The simulation software tool works by first helping users design circulation patterns. After verifying the patterns, SimTread replicates the behavior of different types of crowds and situations.
Think about how many different types of crowds you’ve been in over the course of your life so far. Some are very slow moving compared to others. Also, many different types of structures hold a variety of crowds that all behave differently. So a tool like SimTread becomes invaluable to the creators of different structures meant to hold a variety of crowd sizes and behaviors.
How many different ways can you change design parameters without affecting a benchmark of optimal crowd flow? How will basic safety priorities like public safety and disaster preparedness affect the design and ability to properly maintain and manage the facilities in a given structure? Design becomes a game of managing catch-22s that involve intended design elements and restriction due to regulations and codes.
This is why visualization programs like SimTread can be helpful—the ability to anticipate how a crowd is going to behave and understand changes to flow when changes to the design are implemented is invaluable. The new enhancements underscore the importance of visualizing crowd flow in any given situation.
- Clients need to see every decision you’ve made in a visual language that is easily matched by accompanying verbal explanations. A new color-coded map appears on top of the floor plan when you use the Create Measurement Result command. By displaying an occupant density of a measurement area that the user specifies in a Vectorworks document, clients can see different potential egress bottlenecks, like those that often occur at the exit and entrance of a facility. This is a departure from showing a movie file of the simulation result, which didn’t provide a high-quality visual report.
- From a Vectorworks document, you can designate the amount of time it will take for each individual to leave a particular building model using the Plot Travel Time command. SimTread then displays a color-coded circle over each occupant’s starting position. The different colors stand for different evacuation times.
Therefore, the Plot Travel Time command can be utilized for planning city evacuations, which is just part of the overall theme regarding version 2.4 of SimTread.
Jeremy Powell, product marketing director at Vectorworks, echoed this theme: “The improved graphical presentation of the program’s results will help articulate the benefits of large-scale evacuation planning.”
Click on the following link if you’d like to see a video demo of SimTread. Heads up though, you need to have QuickTime enabled on your browser in order to view it.