May 7, 2001, 6:30 am EST
 

German-Dutch Wind Tunnels Launch Visualization Tool based on Data Visualization Software from Advanced Visual Systems

(Waltham, MA — May 7, 2001, 6:30 am EST)

Advanced Visual Systems, Inc. today announced the deployment of sophisticated data visualization software for the German-Dutch Wind Tunnels (DNW), based on AVS's Gsharpô software. DNW operates the aeronautical wind tunnels of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR).

Between them, DLR and NLR offer eight different specialized wind tunnels.

The facilities host aerodynamic and aero-acoustic testing of scale-model commercial and military aircraft, spacecraft, helicopters, and ground vehicles; tests include measurement of craft steadiness, noise, ground effects, and even drop impact.

To present and understand their test results, DNW had been using an internally developed visualization system, but recently transitioned to Gsharp for several reasons, explained John Stringer, AVS engineer.

"First, AVS offers service personnel with significant visualization expertise as well as a customer-centric approach to custom development," Stringer said. "Second, by starting with Gsharp and using highly experienced personnel, rather than developing a completely new application, DNW reduced its time to productive visualization. Further, Gsharp is available for UNIX, Windows and VMS systems and will always be ported to current OS versions."

Gsharp is a comprehensive tool that makes it easy to assemble and produce sophisticated technical graphics for both print and the Web. Gsharp's high-quality graphics exceeded DNW's expectations; in addition, Gsharp easily integrated DNW's legacy C and FORTRAN code for data acquisition.

DNW's custom Gsharp application allows engineers to select the data of interest interactively, lay out plots of that data including selection of data points and tests to be plotted, and to provide real-time updates to on-line versions of the resulting charts. The application also supports multiple displays of the data from one master terminal.

Wiekie Kollen, DNW software engineer, commented, "DNW has enjoyed a tremendous increase in productivity thanks to the Gsharp-based application, including radically shortened response time to customer requests for visualizations and information. Common management allows our multiple facilities to offer a range of test capabilities along with a vast shared knowledge and skill base as well as cooperative research and development. Our relationship with AVS's Professional Services team is an important part of that offering."

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About Advanced Visual Systems
Advanced Visual Systems (AVS) is an international leader in data visualization software and solutions that enable computer users to experience and interact with all types of business, scientific and engineering data. AVS offers a complete line of products that bring information to life on all major computing platforms using the latest in graphics, Web-based and collaborative technologies. AVS is dedicated to helping clients in nearly every industry speed the process of data analysis and decision-making. For more information on AVS call (781) 890-4300, write to info@avs.com, or visit www.avs.com.