Cary, North Carolina-based Virtus Corp has announced a Windows version of its interactive three-dimensional drawing and visualisation program, Virtus WalkThrough, which has been available to Mac users for two years. Virtus WalkThrough is a low-end, low cost computer-aided design virtual reality desktop package. It features an object-oriented drawing format, the company says, enabling users to draw familiar shapes with a single click and drag and provides separate three-dimensional representations of objects being drawn at the same time in a two-dimensional window. By using a mouse, viewers can then navigate in and around the objects, and observe them from different angles, enabling them to detect design flaws and to evaluate designs; the perspective of the model changes on screen in line with these movements. Those wishing to use the system for presentations can also set up a fly-through that highlights specific details and angles. Virtus WalkThrough for Windows is aimed at architects, graphic designers, multimedia authors, set designers – or anyone else wanting to create, view or present their three-dimensional designs quickly and cheaply. It requires an 80386-based personal computer with 4Mb of RAM, a VGA monitor and Windows 3.1 or later. It costs $600 it is available direct from Virtus and from IBM multimedia affiliate Media Sourcery.
