VR In Design

Imagine being in your office or place of work and being able to place on a headset and connect with people from all over the world who can all view and walk around a model that has been created, being able to annotate a model and spin it around for people to view and examine. A seamless experience where you can fully immerse yourself in the design as if you had the real-life prototype in front of you!

Well as dreamy as this sounds it’s not a million miles away, companies such as Mindesk, SolidWorks VR for eDrawing and Onshape as well as many more have taken the plunge and are now exploring the possibilities of both VR and AR within the CAD world. Looking at utilising the cloud world as well as network working to help generate these models in real time for people to view simultaneously. Still in the development stages there is still a lot of work to do but the vision of where this could go is clear and really exciting to see how it develops.

Something that has really grabbed my attention is the use of AR within a company. Being able to sit down for a design review with your clients, managers and designers and have a 3D representation of the design appear on the meeting table. A system where everyone can place on simple pair of glasses and be able to see the model projected onto the table. Although more of a fantasy at the minute this could dramatically speed up meeting times and let everyone see the details meaning issues can be resolved faster and essentially save time and money on development costs.

There is so much exciting technology out there that is constantly being updated and developed, I can’t wait to see what the next 5-10 years brings us and you never know maybe my dream of an AR or VR meeting room might become a reality!