Environment Information Dialog¶

A new environment is added to the current case using the Environment Information dialog (class CEnvInfoDlg). The dialog has three top-level fields — Environment Name, Date of Crash and Time of Crash — followed by a tabbed property sheet and the standard OK/Cancel buttons.

The property sheet may contain up to five tabs — Terrain, Sky, Physical, Location and Traffic Signals. Which tabs appear depends on the run mode and viewer type:

The Terrain tab is always present.
In HVE-3D (RUN_MODE_3D), all five tabs are shown.
With a 3-D camera viewer, the Sky, Location and Traffic Signals tabs are added.
In HVE-2D, only the Terrain tab is present. The Physical tab (Wind Speed, Wind Direction, Temperature, Barometric Pressure, etc.) is built only in RUN_MODE_3D, so those fields are simply not shown in HVE-2D — they are not displayed read-only.

Top-Level Fields¶

Environment Name¶

A user-editable field allowing the user to assign a name to the current environment.

Date of Crash¶

The date of the crash or test being simulated. The entry format follows the user's date-style preference; the field label displays the expected format as either (mm/dd/yy) (US) or (dd/mm/yy) (European). The displayed year uses a 2-digit format.

Time of Crash (24 Hr)¶

The standard time of day (24-hour military time) for the crash or test being simulated.

Terrain Tab¶

The Terrain tab selects and configures the environment geometry or aerial photo.

Type¶

Radio buttons selecting the kind of environment surface:

None — no terrain or aerial image.
Terrain Map (Geometry) — a 3-D geometry file.
Aerial Photo (Bitmap) — an aerial photograph displayed on a ground polygon.

Selecting a type enables the corresponding Terrain Map or Aerial Photo group and disables the other.

Terrain Map group¶

Filename — an editable field showing the terrain geometry file in use.
Open... — opens an existing geometry file. The file-type filter offers HVE Geometry Files (*.h3d), Inventor Files (*.iv), VRML Files (*.wrl) and OBJ Files (*.obj); when the DXF translator feature is licensed, DXF Files (*.dxf) and DWG Files (*.dwg) are also offered.
Save As... — saves the current environment geometry to a new HVE Geometry file (*.h3d). Only H3D is supported for saving; texture pathnames are cleared/stored relative to the environment textures directory. Enabled only when geometry is in use.
Remove — clears the current terrain filename and resets the Type to None. Enabled only when a filename is present.
Use As Default — checkbox marking the current terrain file as the default for new environments (not available when editing an existing environment).

File Import Options¶

Shown for non-H3D geometry (e.g. DXF/DWG/IV/WRL/OBJ); disabled for native *.h3d files:

Flip About X-Axis — checkbox to flip the imported geometry about the X axis.
Scale Factor — numeric scale applied to the imported geometry.
Default Type — combo box assigning the default polygon/object type for the imported geometry. Options: Human, Vehicle, Road, Friction Zone, Curb, Water, Other.

Aerial Photo group¶

Filename — an editable field showing the aerial image file in use.
Open... — opens an aerial image. Supported formats: BMP (*.bmp), TIF (*.tif), GIF (*.gif), RGB (*.rgb) and JPEG (*.jpg/*.jpeg). The image's ground coordinates are set from the image aspect ratio.
Remove — clears the current aerial filename and resets the Type to None. Enabled only when a filename is present.
Use As Default — checkbox marking the current aerial image as the default for new environments (not available when editing an existing environment).

Sky Tab¶

The Sky tab configures the sky image, sky dome and fog. (Shown only in 3-D run modes or with a 3-D camera viewer.)

Ambient Light Intensity — slider and edit field (0.0–1.0).
Use Sky Image — checkbox enabling a sky/backdrop image. When checked, a Filename field, Open... and Remove buttons, and a Use As Default checkbox become available. Sky images use the same bitmap formats as aerial photos.
Use Sky Dome — checkbox (available only when a sky image is in use) with a Sky Dome Rotation field.
Fog Type — combo box: None, Haze, Fog, Smoke. Selecting any type other than None enables the Visibility field.
Set Sky Color... — opens a color editor for the background/sky color.

Physical Tab¶

The Physical tab holds the atmospheric and coordinate-system parameters. It is built only in RUN_MODE_3D (HVE-3D).

Angle of X Axis (deg)¶

The angle of the user-defined earth-fixed coordinate system relative to true north. Valid range is -360 to +360 degrees.

Wind Speed¶

The ambient wind velocity (displayed in the current user velocity unit, e.g. mph).

Wind Dir. (from X Axis, deg)¶

The ambient wind direction, measured from the earth-fixed X axis. Valid range is -360 to +360 degrees.

Barometric Pressure¶

The ambient barometric pressure.

Temperature¶

The ambient temperature.

Gravity¶

The local acceleration of gravity.

Location Tab¶

Current Location¶

A drop-down combo box that selects an existing location from the location database. Selecting a location fills in the Latitude, Longitude and GMT fields from that database entry.

Latitude (dd.mm.ss)¶

Used to define the global latitude, entered in degrees.minutes.seconds. N and S denote north and south latitudes, respectively.

Longitude (dd.mm.ss)¶

Used to define the global longitude, entered in degrees.minutes.seconds. E and W denote east and west longitudes, respectively.

GMT (+/-24 Hr)¶

(Also called UTC offset.) The difference between the local standard time and the time at zero longitude. West longitudes are negative (e.g., New York City is -5 hours).

New Location / Add New Location¶

To add a location to the database, type its name into the New Location edit field and click Add New Location. A duplicate name is rejected. The new location is added to the Current Location combo and selected (with empty Latitude/Longitude and GMT 0), ready for its coordinates to be entered. (Saving the page also updates an existing database entry in place if its name matches.)

Traffic Signals Tab¶

The Traffic Signals tab configures the timing of traffic signals placed in the environment. (Shown in 3-D run modes or with a 3-D camera viewer.)

Traffic Signals List — list of signals in the environment; select one to edit its timing.
Type / Layout — read-only fields describing the selected signal.
Is Active — checkbox enabling the selected signal.
Repeating — checkbox for a repeating signal cycle.
Signal Timing — a radio choice between Start Time (with a start-time edit field) and Follow (with a combo selecting the signal to follow plus an Overlap field).

OK / Cancel¶

OK validates each tab in turn and accepts the entered environment information; Cancel discards the changes.

Source topic: EnvtInfoDlg.htm — updated from source code (HVEINV-64, Physics) 2026-07-05.

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