The whole suite has five parts:

• Vista Drawing Tool;
• Vista Advanced Tools;
• AutoScene;
• Visual Analyst;
• Vehicle Specs Database.

With thanks to Simon Whitely, Australia:

"Having used VS trial for 30 days, I found the add text feature is cumbersome, as it does not allow easy sizing. The software is predominantly USA based and not easily usable for Australian application. I found that no time was saved compared to traditional design software. Overall, the software was somewhat useful but I felt it not as quick as claimed."

With thanks to K Lawson:

"I got the trial version from them... It is not very good. A lot of objects to drag and drop but they are really generic. There is a large database of vehicles to make your diagram look good... but it will only be the vehicles in the diagram that look good. If you mess up it is difficult to erase anything! Overall this program is difficult to use and the diagrams take too long to draw. They are really generic.... If you want lane markers on the roadway for example... You have to use the line and arc function. This is almost impossible to do and make look good. I will stick with a pen and template!"

Visual Statement Software Inc. asked me directly to evaluate their product, as the above were less than favourable! - they also supplied the following:

Cpl. Dan Rutherford – Pueblo Colorado Police Department, provides:

"I am currently an accident reconstructionist with the Traffic Division of the Pueblo Colorado Police Department. I also reconstruct accidents privately. I first reviewed your product in 2001. I took the program to the Chief and asked him to purchase the program and was told that there was no money available. I purchased the program out of my own funds. I have no regrets.

I measure my accident scenes using a laser-measuring device. I save that file and import it into the Vista AutoScene. I then add my specific cars, roadway signs, and scenery. My diagram is finished and it looks great. I can finish a to scale diagram in less than five minutes. Just don’t tell the boss.

I currently have three CAD programs at my disposal. I use Visual Statement because it’s the easiest and most professional program that I have used.

Since I purchased the VS Investigator Suite, I have stopped using other speed analyst programs. I really enjoy using the visual analyst module for calculating speed."

Jon Webb, Accident Investigator, London, UK provides:

"I have spent a few days trying out the suite of programs, concentrating on the CAD package.

During the trials I found a few faults, one which caused a program crash, however, Visual Statements were ready to advise and promise to correct these.

The program has the ability to import a data file of co-ordinates, not something I tested. I concentrated on importing a DXF file of raw data from a collision scene and spent time to prepare this for court use, and gave up!

I was unable to show striated tyre marks that applied in this case, and had no easy way of adding street furniture, perhaps when this product is fully aimed at the UK market and has UK street signs I'll change my mind.

The ability to deform a car was great, but to try and place them directly to the surveyed 'corners' could only be done by eye.

A forced reformat of my computer has interrupted my evaluation, I suspect if I actually read the help file I'd get a lot more from this package, it has a lot of nice features, but also is missing some essential ones. Worth evaluating - Sure; Worth the money... err..."

With thanks to Robert Wiro [ACTAR #1027]:
"I have been using the Cad-Zone for about 2 years and found it much easier to use than Auto-Cad LT and the others out there. The program is user friendly and provides professional looking scene drawings. It is set up with icons for either traffic scenes or other crime scenes. It will also allow you to upload from most of the laser transits. The cost, compared to Auto-Cad LT is minuscule."

With thanks to Mark Gallo, Michigan:

The DynaCOP crime and accident scene drawing software package contains over 2,300 shapes: motor vehicles, trains, planes, boats, roadway layouts, landscape components, body symbols, traffic controls, weapons, furniture, etc. Motor vehicles are provided in top, bottom, front, rear, left, and right views. Lines may be created from the keyboard by co-ordinate or polar method, with the mouse, or from drop down windows that allow entry of length, angle, radius, etc. Most drop-downs also have a calculator function that allows numeric entry, calculations of scale, trig function, etc. Drawings may contain up to 256 layers. Shape and favourites libraries, with scale and rotation selection, are directly accessible on tabs next to the drawing window. I went through a 3-day class at Michigan State University - and I would recommend DynaCOP. It is similar in some ways to AutoSketch, and uses the dataSketch symbols library. I think the software/shapes libraries interface is a lot easier with DynaCOP.

• Quickly create scaled accident site drawings using your personal computer.
• Retrieve built-in accident sites, cars, victims, and other common site object, or you can customize your own
• Automatically merge and display vehicle paths computed by other EDC programs.
• Print or plot presentation quality diagrams for reports and exhibits.

Windows 95+
This is not a standalone product but requires VISIO 5