Not only is Ernie Els undeniably one of the world's top golfers, but he has now also turned his talents to golf course design. And when it comes to planning the perfect course, few would know better than the world's current 3rd ranked player. Oubaai is the first Ernie Els signature golf course to be developed in the world. It is situated on the beautiful coastline on Herolds Bay, just outside George, in the southern parts of the Western Cape.

Situated between a lush river valley and the beautiful Indian Ocean, Oubaai features lots of natural vegetation. Ernie Els and his team designed the course to take full advantage of the natural beauty of the area. Five times `PGA Player of the Year' Jack Nicklaus' company, Nicklaus Design, supported the project as technical advisors. The layout and design considerations are a culmination of the talents of the Big Easy, the Golden Bear, and Africa's natural beauty and have resulted in a successful and beautiful golf course.

Dimension Modeling was approached to do initial site layout images and visuals of proposed house design studies for both design and marketing purposes. They received mesh data of the terrain, aerial photographs, site layout sketches, and typical residential design guidelines, (coastal contemporary). The various disciplines involved in Oubaai used their digital data, all rendered through Bentley's MicroStation V8, to optimise the golf course layout, the site layout, and architectural considerations. Animations consisted of flying over the original site (images draped over the terrain model), as well as flying over the site with the golf course and houses as per layout studies. This gave the developing team realistic visual data to work from their remote offices. The images also assisted the marketing team in compiling the various billboards, brochures, and marketing pieces. The campaign was launched worldwide and was accepted with great success. Construction is currently in progress.

Dimension Modeling transformed all the technical data to visual information via MicroStation V8. The digital data that was rendered from the terrain was parsed to the project developers in stages, evolving as design changes happened. Images were rendered from various positions on the site to allow optimum house positions for the best views possible. The initial site layout sketch was mapped to the 3D contours and after the first images were rendered, the design team realised that some changes were inevitable. For example, some residential plots were too close to cliffs and with some re-thinking of the layout more residential plots could be added. This would not have been possible had they not seen the site in 3D in their own office environment. Initial golf course layouts could be developed and studied. Even graphical representations of rainwater flow could be simulated for the site engineers.

The marketing team also gained valuable information for the marketing campaign. Images were incorporated into brochures, billboards, and leaflets. Sales over the December period totalled 150 plots for the holiday season - just another case study success story that Dimension Modeling had delivered by creating realistic marketing material through MicroStation V8. Clients like to see what they buy, and with the use of digital imagery created from accurate 3D data, the sales team had an easy task to convince prospective buyers to invest in one of the world's most beautiful golf course estates.

For more information contact Bentley Systems, 011 462 5811, www.bentley.com or Dimension Modeling, 021 913 7620, www.dimensionm.co.za