Parametric design method for geospatial data visualization and interactive map modeling

Abstract

Traditional environment of spatial data visualization and map design was oriented to idiographic geometric shapes and users were over limited to some details. Its disadvantages mainly are: (1) visualization model is not flexible and fully user-oriented; (2) the whole process of visualization scheme cannot be supported; (3) system cannot support rapid modification and effectively reuse of former results. The theory and method of Parametric Design was proposed in this paper to get a new solution. System constraint model of geosciences maps was set up, and the constraints were classified into four main types which are geometric constraint, structure topological constraint, standard constraint and attribute constraint. Based on the synthetic analysis and comparison of various constraint solving algorithms, the geometric constraint solving method based on graphics theory was introduced. And the system structure of parametric design system with one platform and five layers, and relative system function model were put forward. Case studies of some typical graphics designs were discussed. The result indicates that parametric design method can play an important role in representation of user's idea, interactive design of map structure and building the flexible graphics generation environment.