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TECHNOLOGY focus
clients. The company has developed
partnerships with research companies
within some UK universities, setting up
VR studios, like the Virtual Engineering
Centre at the University of Liverpool’s
digital innovation centre in London -
which also served as the venue for the
recent launch of VR4CAD.
Not everyone has the time and
inclination to become a VR expert,
hence the release of VR4CAD as an
entry-level piece of VR software,
designed to make it quick and easy for
architects, CAD engineers and
designers to view, investigate and
annotate their CAD models using PCbased
HMDs or 3D screens. Easy to
use and offering plug-and-play
functionality with direct CAD file
readers, VR4CAD is a low-cost VR
viewer based upon Virtalis' Visionary
Render software. VR4CAD directly
reads the 3D CAD file to quickly import
and build a VR scene for viewing in
low-cost PC-based HMDs such as the
Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, or on a
zSpace or similar 3D screen.
VR4CAD is a full professional VR
software tool, meaning that when you
are in the PC-based HMD you can do
real work. Users can bring up menus to
change materials, move items, add
lights and annotations, slice through
models etc. just as they would do with
the Virtalis high-end Visionary Render
from which VR4CAD is derived.
Users therefore have an interactive
experience whilst using the HMD as a
design tool alongside their CAD
system, rather than just a 'dumb' viewer
of a model that someone else has
created, enabling them to focus on
using VR as a design review and
effective communication tool, rather
than just for viewing files. VR4CAD is
also able to import data from major
mechanical CAD software packages,
thereby becoming a more flexible tool
than a viewer or real-time engine that
just works off a certain file format.
Although most of the software
applications that are currently covered
by VR4CAD are mechanical design
applications, architectural formats are
available and under development. It
takes considerable effort and expertise
to configure the links between VR4CAD
and the native file formats.
The University of Liverpool campus
runs courses for postgraduates and
those pursuing Continuing Professional
Development Programmes. Lynn
Dwyer, interim Head of Business
Development within the Virtual
Engineering Centre, commented: "Our
new VEC@London facility is multidisciplinary,
though there are core
subjects including architecture, urban
planning and industrial design. By
working closely with Virtalis, we are
exposing our students to VR
technology for them to take into their
research, as well as their future
working lives. We know that VR is a
safe place to take risks!"
THE SCOPE OF VR4CAD
Unlike game engines that require
considerable know-how to make a VR
experience, VR4CAD adopts a plugand-play
approach, instantly
recognising which VR viewing device
you have installed, presenting users
with a start window that directly reads
the 3D CAD file, and setting up the
interactive features required for an
impressive list of CAD formats.
These include Creo View, SolidWorks,
Autodesk Inventor, FBX, Collada,
Unigraphics NX, CATIA V5 and STEP
format. CATIA, of course, is the
framework for Dassault Systèmes
3DEXPERIENCE, which we have
covered in recent issues of this
magazine.
As a gateway to Professional VR,
such as its high-end sibling Visionary
Render, VR4CAD is able to rapidly
transform CAD models into full 3D VR,
ready to go. Besides being able to
interact fully with 3D models, changing
materials and surfaces, users can save
viewpoints, annotations and snapshots
and set up ambient occlusion and
shadowing. Upgrading to Visionary
Render takes VR further, giving users
access to a full feature set including
collaboration, clustering, Iray, point
clouds, terrain module and gallery
capabilities.
Virtalis' blue chip clients, like Rolls-
Royce, Siemens, BAE Systems and
Raytheon, acknowledge that its VR
technology saves them money right
across the product lifecycle, with other
engineering firms, like CNH, using VR
for market research and marketing.
VR4CAD can now bring these
advantages within the reach SMEs for
the first time.
Up until now, you had to make a
considerable investment in software,
hardware and training to use high level
VR, which is viable if you know the
benefits and have experience of the
technology. However engineers or
architects that are new to VR are not
going to jump straight to a Visionary
render or 3DExcite (even more
advanced) level of commitment.
Instead Virtalis sees VR4CAD as an
affordable way of stepping into using
professional VR as a daily design tool
at the desktop or on VR devices such
as the Vive.
Virtalis expects that many users, once
they have experienced the power of VR
at their desktop, will want to upgrade
to more high-end, full-featured
software, like Visionary Render, and
look at animating and scripting
functions and collaborating between
sites and stakeholders. Virtual Reality
is forecast to be one of the most
exciting technologies for 2017, and
Virtalis sees VR4CAD as a "Gateway to
Professional VR".
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
So what do you need to run VR4CAD?
As a state-of-the-art solution, you will
need an equivalent set-up which will
include either an Oculus Rift version
1.3 and above, an HTC Vive version 1.0
and above, an zSpace version 3.1 and
above, or a 3D capable monitor/TV,
along with a workstation powerful
enough to run 3D CAD software.
www.virtalis.com
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