Table Of ContentVirtual Prototyping
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Virtual Prototyping
Virtual environments and the
product design process
Proceedings of the IFIP WG 5.10 workshops on virtual
environments and their applications and virtual
prototyping, 1994
Edited by
Joachim Rix
Fraunhofer Institut fur Graphische Datenverarbeitung
Darmstadt
Germany
Stefan Haas
Fraunhofer Center for Research in Computer Graphics
Providence
USA
and
Jose Teixeira
Centro de Computacao Grafica
Coimbra
Portugal
~~n[
SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING, CHAM
First edition 1995
© 1995 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
Originally published by Chapman & Hall in 1995
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 199 5
ISBN 978-1-5041-2927-5 ISBN 978-0-387-34904-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-34904-6
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CONTENTS
Preface viii
Part One Perspectives for Virtual Prototyping
2 About "Plato's Cave" 3
J. C. Teixeira and V.B. Murtinho
2 Information technology, a catalyst for process optimization 21
A. Jain and K. Fliess
3 Rapid prototyping: an approach beyond manufacturing technology 32
J. Wagner and W. Steger
4 Cooperative working on virtual prototypes 48
S. Haas and U. Jasnoch
5 Integration of virtual prototyping applications with a distributed
conferencing system 58
N. Schiffner
Part Two Advanced Product Modeling Techniques
6 Product and shape representation for virtual prototyping 69
M.S. Bloor, A. McKay, M.I.G. Bloor and M. J. Wilson
7 Virtual prototyping through feature processing 78
J. Ovtcharova and A.S. Vieira
8 Dynamic and semantic modeling-a new approach to model products 91
K.-P. Greipel and J. Colpaert
9 Solid modeling as a framework in virtual environments 99
M. Figueirdo and J. Teixeira
10 Virtual prototypes and product models in mechanical engineering 113
M.J. Pratt
11 A feature-based framework for transforming and representing 129
multiple format CAD for virtual prototyping
R. Ganesan and V. Devarajan
VI Contents
12 A reference model for product information sharing in
concurrent engineering environment 146
T. De Martino, B. Falcidieno and F. Giannini
Part Three Architectures for Distributed Systems
(Architectures for Virtual Prototyping Environments)
13 Supporting multidisciplinary team in concurrent engineering 159
J.H. Mcvifield, L.T.P. Fernando and P.M. Dew
14 Towards a virtual prototyping environment 173
U. Jasnoch, H. Kress and J. Rix
15 Network requirements for large distributed virtual environments 184
R.B. Araujo and C. Kirner
Part Four Advances in Virtual Reality Technologies
16 Interacting with virtual reality 199
M.M. Wloka
17 Building simulations for virtual environments 213
J.F. Cremer and G. Vanecek
18 Task performance using 3D displays 228
T. N. Bardsley and/. Sexton
19 Virtual reality for enhanced computer vision 247
B. Burger and M. J. Barth
Part Five Industrial Applications
20 Physical models for solving off-road vehicle motion planning 261
M. Cherif
21 Integrating applications into a virtual prototyping environment 271
U. Jasnoch, H. Kress and J. Rix
22 Virtual prototyping - design and realistic presentation of
industrial products 280
J. Gausemeier, A. Sabin and W. Lewe
23 Virtual prototyping using graphical simulation and
advanced programming techniques 296
K.-D. Thoben, U. Berger; J. Bauer and A. Schmidt
24 Prototype validation in virtual environments - vision
and first implementation 313
K. Bohm, H. Wirth and W. John
Contents Vll
25 Applying virtual reality to electronic prototyping:
concepts and first results 326
F. Dai, W. Felger and M. Gobel
Part Six Workshop Summaries
26 IFIP workshop on virtual environments 339
J. Teixeira
27 IFIP workshop on virtual prototyping: virtual prototyping -
expectations and realizations of a new working paradigm 341
S. Haas
Index of contributors 346
Keyword index 347
Preface
Virtual Prototyping -a new keyword from the applications point of view!
Based on the enormous developments in the areas of CAD, CAM or CIM as well as in visual
ization and interaction techniques, a development towards virtual environments is on its way.
The computer technology more and more provides the possibilities to support the needs of
industrial applications. Design support, planning and simulation tools, presentation and inter
action mechanisms, and group work support are building the environment for product design
and manufacturing. The major goal is the integration of the product development process with
the support of theCA-techniques.
A Virtual Prototype is a major interim step towards the final product. Based on the design
information, like geometry and topology, simulation results, like FEM or kinematic calcula
tions, combined with material, tolerances and other information, it will be possible to generate
a prototyp with the computer ready for realistic presentations as well as interaction with the
product even in an early stage of the development.
Developing this technology and the integration in the product development process promises
major advantages for the industrial process:
• Reduction of time - the time parameter is somehow the most important factor today, as
time-to-market is a key marketing issue related to the competitors.
• Saving cost -virtual prototyps will reduce the number of physical prototyps needed, which
reduces not only the development time, but also the manpower as well as the tools and
material. Also early prototyping results can feedback to the design stage in time before the
production costs are already fixed.
• Increase of quality -the evaluation of different alternatives of the design can be realised in
the virtual environment much faster and cheaper. This allows for a better evaluation of the
appropriate solution to serve the given requirements best.
To support these developments the Working Group 5.10 of IFIP TC 5 (Computer Applications
in Technology) organised two workshops in the fall of 1994.
The first one addressed the more general issue of "Virtual Environments and its Applications".
Topics like simulation, interaction, concepts and tools, as well as support services were
addressed besides the application perspectives of Virtual Reality. This workshop was orga
nized by the Centro de Computacao Grafica (CCG) and took place in Coimbra, Portugal on
October 24 and 25, 1994.
The second workshop was more focussed on the application of the "Virtual Prototyping". From
this point of view the conceptual design and framework aspects of an environment, new mod
elling and data management needs for an integrated product modelling, and the basic technolo
gies for rapid prototyping, interaction and virtual environments were presented. These
presentation sessions were followed by small group discussion sessions on specific topics. This
workshop was organized in cooperation by the Fraunhofer-Institut fiir Graphische Datenverar
beitung (IGD) in Darmstadt, Germany and the Fraunhofer Center for Research in Computer
Graphics (CRCG) in Providence, RI, USA. It took place in Providence, RI on September 21 -
23, 1994.
Preface ix
As the two workshops addressed related areas and covered common topics of interest, after the
events it was decided to put the two results together in one volume of an IFIP publication, as it
is presented in here.
The book is set up in six separate sections:
o Perspectives for Virtual Prototyping
This section describes the developments towards the use of Virtual Prototyping. A historical
view towards virtual reality, information technology as an enabler for process optimization
and going beyond manufacturing technology are basic aspects leading to new architectures
for cooperative environments supporting virtual prototyping.
o Advanced Product Modelling Techniques
Two major aspects are addressed in this section. First, the importance of an integrated prod
uct model, as under development with the STEP standard, was stated to support a virtual
prototyping system on the data integration level. Second, new modelling techniques for
semantic modelling were presented from different perspectives. The further needs for geo
metric representations and the integration of features in the object specification, as well as
the needs to integrate in a concurrent engineering and virtual prototyping environment were
discussed.
o Architectures for Distributed Systems
With the perspective to allow the use of virtual environments also for distributed applica
tions, the support of cooperative work among the users was discussed. This section presents
different architectures based on the application requirements for cooperation, real-time
needs and network support.
o Advances in Virtual Reality Technologies
Interaction with and presentation of the information in real-time are the major goals to dive
into your immersive environment. This section addresses these issues and describes some
advances in interaction techniques in a 3D environment and in using simulation results in
the virtual world. Also the task performance using 3D displays and the enhancement of
computer vision using virtual reality and vice versa are covered by two papers.
o Industrial Applications
This section demonstrates the potential application scenarios for Virtual Prototyping.
In addition, the issues of system and data integration of different applications in the virtual
environment are addressed in these papers. The scenarios are showing a variety of applica
tion areas of virtual prototyping, from visual evaluation, design and product development to
robot or kinematic simulation, vehicle motion planning and assembly.
o Workshop Summaries
This section is summarizing the results of the two workshops and is reflecting the discus
sions during the workshops.
Both of the workshops had a good international participation from 8 different countries and 56
respectively 35 participants. Based on the review of the submitted papers, the programme
committees selected 15 and 17 papers for presentation at the workshop, as a mix of scientific
and application oriented contributions. The papers as well as the discussions offered a great
opportunity for this field of development.
