INDUSTRY

Using computer platforms for design and engineering is now standard throughout industry. But since many existing tools do not integrate well with each other, extended timescales result. A new system bridging both areas using virtual reality offers hope. The EU IST project Visicade aimed to overcome such handicaps, by developing an innovative simulation framework based on Virtual Reality (VR) technology that would incorporate many CAD (Computer-Aided Design) and CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering) tasks into the VR platform. The intention was to reduce the time required for modelling and evaluation procedures. “When we started,” says project coordinator André Stork of Fraunhofer IGD in Darmstadt, “we examined the process chains, and found a long delay between the CAD stage and final simulation. Visicade is about interpreting all the different steps in the development process, and shortening the chain.” Stork explains that, typically, design and development departments in industry could use any one of three CAD systems and up to 50 CAE simulation tools. "As you can see, there is a huge variety of tools available, especially in the CAE environment. Visicade is able map several CAE tools into the CORBA environment. We chose the most common tools to work with, however the possibility is there to incorporate many more,” he says. The Visicade system runs on a Linux server, with a PC-based front end which can use either Windows or another operating system. Likely users for the system in industry include the automotive industry and its suppliers, the aerospace industry, shipping, urban planning consultancies and more, in fact almost any design and development department. Visicade was completed in March 2005, and the project participants believe that the prototype offers significant advantages over existing non-integrated approaches. “Using the Visicade system, we can see a time-saving improvement by a factor of up to 50 for a single step in the process,” says Stork. “For the overall design and development process chain, the time required can be reduced by as much as half.” The main VR partner in the project, CS of Toulouse in France, has developed additional simulation products from the Visicade technology, and is already marketing the resulting services commercially. Another partner has refined its Diffpack simulation tool within the project, and is using the results to bring further product extensions to the market.