1. A method for manipulating data from any environment in the world to construct a database that can be used to generate definitions of the user's physical environment including buildings, terrain and other site parameters, comprising the steps of: (a) creating and formatting a plurality of objects defining an environment of floors, walls, partitions, buildings, building complexes or compounds, terrain, foliage or other sites or obstructions; (b) verifying the sufficiency of said plurality of objects to ensure a useful definition of said environment and notifying a user of results of said verification of sufficiency; and (c) generating a set of formatted data in a form transportable to and usable by an engineering planning model or other application, said set of formatted data including at least one layer which includes grouped objects of said plurality of objects.