Development of a Three-dimensional Computer Graphics System for Forest Stand Structures

There have been a number of reports on the three-dimensional analysis of forest stand structures using personal computers. In recent years, it has become easy to display 3D graphics on Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. Forest Window (FW) has been developed as a new 3D-simulation program for forest stands. This report provides an overview of FW and explains its operation. One of its features is its ability to show stem inclination. The object of this report is to apprise the usefulness of FW. As the result of the study it was recognised that we can use a simpler data structure and FW can display more complicated forest structures than in past applications. FW is a useful application and, run in conjunction with spreadsheet software, it can provide an effective way of studying forest stand structures.