- Spatial network analysis software
Spatial network analysis software are computer tools used to prepare various graph-based analysis of
spatial network s. They stem from the research field ofspace syntax in the domain ofarchitecture , although they can now be used to analyse road networks over an entire continent.As the domain of space syntax has expanded, there are now a plethora of tools associated with it. Since most were developed within the academic community, most tend to be free for academic use, and some are open source.
In historical order:
* [http://www.spacesyntax.org/software/macbundle.asp Axman] The (near) original developed by Nick Sheep Dalton of UCL to perform axial line analysis on computers running
Mac OS , currently used in more than 50 countries. This spawned many offshoots such as Pesh (for the analysis of convex space networks) and SpaceBox (for the analysis of 'all-line' axial maps).* [http://undertow.arch.gatech.edu/homepages/jpeponis/Cities.htm Spatialist] Developed at
Georgia Institute of Technology to implement theoretical innovations principally introduced by John Peponis, this software is plugs into theMicroStation CAD package to analyse networks of automatically generated 'e-spaces' and 's-spaces'.* [http://www.hig.se/~bjg/Axwoman.htm Axwoman] , written by Bin Jiang while at UCL, is a tool to perform axial analysis as a plug-in to
ESRI products.* [http://www.vr.ucl.ac.uk/depthmap Depthmap] Developed by Alasdair Turner of UCL, this software was first developed to generate
isovist s and performvisibility graph analysis of building systems on computers running Windows, but now includes the automatic generation of axial line networks and analysis of axial line networks and road segment line networks at anything up to the level of the USA or Europe.* OmniVista Developed by Nick Sheep Dalton and Ruth Conroy Dalton to perform a range of
isovist measures onMac OS computers.* [http://www.intelligentspace.com/modelling/visibilityanalysis.htm Fathom] , a commercial implementation of visibility graph analysis written by the [http://www.intelligentspace.com/ Intelligent Space Partnership] .
* [http://www.mindwalk.com.br/ Mindwalk] Developed by Lucas Figueiredo, This software performs spatial analysis over standard axial maps and new continuity maps. It is written in Java and runs on several platforms. Also known as xSpace, Mindwalk has been used as a research and teaching tool at several institutions since 2002 and now it is being distributed worldwide for academic and non-commercial purposes.
* [http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucessan/ Isovist Analyst] by Sanjay Rana while at UCL, this program creates isovists from building plans as a plug-in to
ESRI products.* [http://www.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/bu/people/gf/anavis/ Ajanachara] . Open source software developed by Gerald Franz at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics to perform
visibility graph analysis of3D Studio Max andVRML models.* [http://bat.vr.ucl.ac.uk/ Webmap] Also developed by Nick Sheep Dalton at UCL, this software is free to use (although it requires registration), and allows users to analyse axial maps through a
web browser interface.* [http://www.spacesyntax.org/software/newtools.asp Confeego] Developed by the commercial company [http://www.spacesyntax.com Space Syntax Limited] , but available free for academic use, this software plugs directly into
MapInfo to analyse line axial networks.* [http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/ajax/ AJAX] by Mike Batty of UCL, performs both traditional axial network analysis (Batty calls this the "primal" analysis), and point-based visibility analysis introduced by Bin Jiang (which Batty calls the "dual" analysis). In a recent paper, Batty shows the elegant mathematical relationship between the two analyses.
* OverView plug-in to AutoCad by Christian Derix for Aedas Architects in collaboration with the Center for Evolutionary Computing in Architecture [http://www.uel.ac.uk/ceca CECA] . Allows architects to do quick visual integration mapping via
isovist analysis on their projects. Contains also the possibility to analyse non-planar environments to take volumes and hilly sites into account.* AXess 1.0 by Jennifer Brisbane at the
City University of New York . A context menu tool for ArcGIS 9.x that calculates connectivity, control, mean depth, global integration, and local integration for all nodes in an axial line layer. Free download available at [http://arcscripts.esri.com/ ESRI ArcScripts] .* [http://homepage.mac.com/thesheep/FileSharing10.html Webmap-At-Home] by Nick Sheep Dalton UCL. A Java implementation of the original Axman program with a number of extra features added. This is a platform neutral full application capable of reading DXF files and the original Axman binary format. Free download available at [http://homepage.mac.com/thesheep/FileSharing10.html WebmapAthome ] .
ee also
*
Geospatial topology
*Space syntax
*Spatial network
*Urban planning
*Visibility graph analysis
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