His researchers are working on virtual stores for a retail firm and a three-dimensional computer version of the city of Coventry for use by architects and planners in local government.

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But more than any other actor, even Henry Fonda's folksy "Young Mr. Lincoln" (1939), Day-Lewis' version seems like a likable, three-dimensional human being.

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An engineer makes a three-dimensional model of each piece of equipment before the life-size version is built.

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