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This paper discusses the development of virtual structural analysis program (VSAP). This is a virtual environment (VE) based structural analysis system developed through a collaborative effort between the School of Architecture + Design and the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ. (Virginia Tech). The VSAP was developed by linking a visualization routine using the simple VE library and a structural analysis software, the PC-SAP4. Details of the design of four user interfaces for the VSAP are presented. These user interfaces are: the immersive pen and tablet interface, the desktop interface, the portable immersive interface, and the cave automatic VE immersive interface. Usability studies for each interface were conducted. Results of these studies indicated that the users of VSAP were highly satisfied with the experience. In addition, all the developed interfaces were found to be successful for their specific application.
Setareh et al. (Wed,) studied this question.