Dreamhaus is designed for the PC. The design specifications are based on several commercially available structural simulation and computer-aided-design (CAD) software packages.

The software allows users to take interactive virtual tours and navigate buildings in real time with 3D views taken from any point and rotating at any angle. The software also allows players to see simplified renderings of stress points in the building. This structural analysis code is used later in the building and testing component of the game.

The player designs virtual buildings in the CAD portion of the environment. The player can choose from a selection of materials and chapes that she arranges and modifies to construct buildings. One the player has designed a building, she can test it for structural soundness using the structural analysis tool. The software analyzes and examines geometry, restraints, materials and loading conditions, which lets you concentrate on the specific problems at hand.Because advanced CAD software can be quite complex to learn, Dreamhaus will include a simplified version of this software, similar to Bridge Builder.

Indeed, a ll of the software applications we are proposing for the Drafting Board and PDA-"Smartphone" already exist or are in the final stages of development. For more information, see: Graphisoft's ArchiCAD,* Geometric Description Language (GDL)* and ArtLantis Render;* Digital Canal's Structural Engineering Frame Analysis,* StrucPro and STRAAD Analysis, on Netopia Inc.'s Timbuktu Pro* and Carnegie Mellon University's Blackboard software,* and on PowerCAD CE.* The Architecture Library is based on the Prestel Sightlines pocket-guide "Architecture From Art Nouveau to Deconstructivism" by Klaus Richter.

Copyright 2002, MIT.