Development of a 3D Conceptual Design Environment Using a Head Mounted Display Virtual Reality System

Engineering design is a resource intensive process with over half of a product’s total cost being attributed to design stage decisions. Developing product designs often involves creating complex 3D models in a 2D environment, a non-trivial task. This paper details a proof of concept VR environment displayed in a commodity HMD, specifically the HTC Vive. The environment allows a user to create full-scale, 3D, product geometry at the conceptual phase of the design process. The conceptual design environment contains a World-in-Miniature (WIM) model for enhanced usability. This method allows a user to efficiently manipulate full-scale geometry by adjusting the corresponding parts on a WIM model. Free-form mesh deformation was also implemented to provide designers with flexibility and efficiency not found in traditional design packages. Vital design metrics (e.g., cost, weight, and center of mass) were incorporated to allow a user to perform preliminary design analysis to assess product feasibility. Throughout the development process, the unique challenges and affordances associated with commodity HMDs were identified, explored, and discussed in this paper. Ultimately, the VR application discussed in this paper allows the user to easily create, assess, and view conceptual 3D designs without the constraints of traditional CAD software.