CAD2Vis

Today product developers can't abandon an efficient connection to computer aided design (CAD) and technologies of Virtual Reality. They increasingly employ VR-Models which are based on CAD raw data of the constructors for design reviews and presentations.For the conversion of these CAD data in VR-Models there are conversion programmes which are at present only available in a set with often expensive VR data preparation tools.

The department Industrial Applications of Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics (IGD) developes the conversion software CAD2Vis. The user doesn't need any license environment for a certain CAD or VR system. In contrast to other available products on the market, CAD2Vis enables converting data independent from a special provider. In doing so the software supports the impotant CAD formats CATIA V4, CATIA V5, Pro/E, SAT, STEP, IGES and VDA-FS as well as the VR-formats OpenInventor, VRML97 and soon X3D and OpenSG.

If the target data format supports a NURBS representation (e.g. OpenInventor and X3D), CAD2Vis can save the loaded CAD model as precise NURBS model. Then such NURBS models can flexibly be triangulated in the target system. If CAD models are converted into data formats which don't support parametric areas (NURBS) the accuracy of triangulation can be set.

The software of Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics IGD particularly suits for product developers who include VR technologies of Digital Mock Ups (DMU) in their process chain and look for a independent solution for converting CAD into VR data. In the same way it suits to service providers who edit VR or web presentations on the basis of CAD data or for VR provider who want to offer a CAD import.