chapter 5 e s r s conclusion -...
TRANSCRIPT
CHAPTER 5
ENTIRE SYSTEM
REALIZATION ,
RESULTS, SUMMARY
AND CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 5
ENTIRE SYSTEM REALIZATION , RESULTS, SUMMARY AND
CONCLUSION
5.1 A Gist of Final Setup
The Computer Based Visualization of Mechanical Components intended to
be developed during the research problem definition has finally fulfilled. The
primary objective of this work was to provide users a cost effective functional
computer based visualization system that allows to explore datasets or to develop
prototypes of virtual environments for later use in larger systems without having to
use more expensive resources during development. One of the more interesting
aspects of this system is, working in 3-D to visualize how the design will look like.
The visualization suite developed during the course our research work has
following features,
� It is a cost effective visualization solution for manufacturing industries. This
software empowers designers with an ability to perform virtual prototyping
before developing the physical prototypes.
� Parses ASCII files generated by modeling software by fetching the data
required for visualization
� Able to render the VRML and STL model
� Provides transformation options - Rotation, Panning and Zooming
� Allows selection of required material properties and lightings
� Options for rendering the model in various modes i.e. solid, wireframe and
point
� Enable cut section - cutting the model either along XY-plane, XZ-plane,
YZ-plane or with any angle
� Gives different views of the model i.e. front, back, left, right, top, bottom
and isometric
� Provides texture mapping,
� Permits walkthrough of the model with viewer being at that place itself i.e.
only the model is made to come closer or go away
� Creation of foggy environment
� Enable to view more than one model through either tiling or cascading the
windows.
� Ability to generate and display high quality images of mechanical
components
� Allows the user to experience 3D stereo vision with low cost passive
technology
� The tool should be able to change viewing angle and viewing mode
� Provision of editor for selection of different light sources, material
properties, color
5.2. Final Layout of this Visualization Suite
Present research deals with the visualization of the 3D data imported from
CAD packages like AutoCAD, I-DEAS, through open standard STL, VRML
format. VRML and STL file formats are the specifically considered in this research.
Most of the modeling software can export their data files in VRML and STL
formats, thus making this visualization system independent of any modeling
software.
It has got direct interface to Virtual Reality through stereo glasses. 3D
rendering is the key component of this system. This technology provides the
capability to immerse the user in the design of virtual product. To enhance the
visualization various additional features are incorporated in this suite.
The main focus of our research was to develop an effective low cost passive
stereo executable on a fairly general-purpose computer used in manufacturing
industries. This has achieved in our research by constructing the computer based
three-dimensional passive stereo vision solution. Passive stereo is a low cost
technique, which requires only red blue eye ware. It is envisioned that the
distinction between CAD (Computer-Aided Design) and virtual reality systems
converged as new design systems by encompassing features from each of the
technologies.
5.3 Research Findings
The development of this visualization suite was mainly an investigation on
the technical practicability of a Virtual Reality System. In this research program
CAD has explored as a medium to support early conceptual design through rapid
prototyping of mechanical models. Furthermore we were exploring Virtual Reality
as a potential design prototyping environment in which prototypes of designs can be
constructed, communicated and visually evaluated. The designed interface serves
the visualization and evaluation of CAD geometry. This application developed used
for the evaluation of the CAD data in a virtual environment is the real advantage of
our research work. It is the use of computer graphics systems in combination with
various display and interface devices to provide the effect of immersion in the
interactive 3D computer-generated environment.
5.3.1 Role of 3D Visualization in Manufacturing
The figure 5.1 shows the role of 3D Visualization Aided Design in
manufacturing process of mechanical components. Initially the models are designed
in CAD. These designs are viewed in virtual world as virtual prototypes. The
visualization suite implemented in our research is used for this purpose. These
virtual prototypes are visualized in immersive 3D for analysis and evaluation. If
there is any change required, changes are done in the design world and modified
CAD data visualized in virtual world further. After the satisfaction of the virtual
prototype manufacturing of the physical prototype takes place in the real world.
Figure 5.1: The Role of 3D Visualization Aided Design in Manufacturing
The simulated virtual manufacturing environment generated by our research
enables to develop and optimize production, assembly, machining, and other
manual and mechanized manufacturing processes eliminate the need for physical
product prototypes
This visualization suite offers affordable 3D interface for manufacturing
industries. It involves viewing and manipulation of 3D models, of manufactured
components and large assemblies of products. It is a key part of Product Lifecycle
Management. Product visualization typically provides high levels of photorealism
so that a product can be viewed before it is actually manufactured.
5.3.2 Synthesis Result
Present research pertains to development of visualization platform for
manufacturing industries. It demonstrates how a low end, inexpensive viewing
technique can be used as a quick trick to produce stereo viewing on a general
purpose computer. In the course of our research work a cost effective software
platform has developed for easy visualization of the mechanical components
without much intricacies of the sophisticated computing platform. Moreover it has
planned to make this tool as an Open Source, so that any one can use it freely.
This visualization suit parses and renders the 3D models of VRML and STL
files which are generated from modeling software, I-deas and AutoCAD. 3D models
designed in modeling software leads to very heavy file size. This is due to the fact
that the modeler not only holds the geometric information, but also topological
information of the object. Therefore it requires a powerful computer system to view
the components. Since the file contains data sets, which are not required for
visualization, manipulating such files solely for visualizing stereo mode results in
slow operation on a general-purpose computer. This requires visualization solution
to parse these files and fetch only the required data sets for visualization in order to
obtain the desired displays.
As an example the VRML file Cylinder.wrl generated from I-Deas having
the size 456KB. This file contains nearly 150KB of data which are not needed for
visualization. Execution of such file in stereo mode in modeling software results in
slow operation on general purpose computer. But this tool fetches only the required
data sets for visualization, thus makes the suit efficient. The table 5.1 explains the
comparison of .wrl files in-terms of its original size and size of the unwanted data
for visualization.
Table 5.1 Comparison of VRML files
File Name Original Size Redundant Dtata
Cylinder.wrl 456KB 150KB
Strahltriebwerk_cutway.wrl 574KB 130KB
Bearing.wrl 789KB 174KB
Crank_case.wrl 309KB 128KB
Block.wrl 772KB 168KB
Shaft.wrl 1169KB 243KB
Complete details about parsing and rendering of the CAD model has already
explained in the Chapter 3 and 4. Various .stl and .wrl files are tested in this
visualization suite. Selected snapshots of this visualization suit’s user interface are
shown in the Figure 5.2 to Figure 5.17. These shows the display of the model with
additional visualization features.
The anaglyph method has been used to represent stereo pairs. Colored filters
cover each eye, red/green, red/blue or red/cyan filters being the most common. One
eye image is displayed in red and the other in green, blue or cyan so that the
appropriate eye sees the correct image. Since both images appear simultaneously, it
is a time-parallel method. The technique is easy to produce using simple image
processing techniques and the cost of viewing glasses is very low. This is an
effective method for presenting stereo images. The Red-Blue method displays the
scene in the same frame with red for the left eye, blue for the right eye. It requires
red-blue glasses. It works best with objects displayed in wire frame. The 3D effect
cannot be perceived in the paper since the images are meant to be viewed on a
computer display through colored glasses.
Figure 5.2: Selecting VRML Model for Display
Figure 5.3: Display of VRML Model
Figure 5.4: Applying Various Material Properties
Figure 5.5: Changing Background Color
Figure 5.6: Display of the Model in Wireframe Mode
Figure 5.7: Display of the Model in Point Mode
Figure 5.8: Options for Selecting Different Camera Views
Figure 5.9: Display of the VRML Model in Foggy Environment
Figure 5.10: Applying Cutsection to the Model
Figure 5.11: Applying Texture Mapping to the Model
Figure 5.12: Performing Walkthrough
Figure 5.13: Display of STL Model in Passive Stereo Mode
Figure 5.14: Display of VRML Model in Passive Stereo
Figure 5.15: Display of VRML Model in Passive Stereo and Wireframe
Figure 5.16: Display of VRML 2.0 Model - carrier.wrl
Figure 5.17: Display of VRML 2.0 Model – bearing.wrl in Wireframe Mode
5.3.3 Immersion of CAD Data
Two achieve 3D effect two images of a same model are drawn on a scene.
Left and right eye images are combined into a single image consisting of blues for
the left eye portion of the scene, reds for the right eye portion of the scene, and
shades of magenta for portions of the scene occupied by both images. The viewer
wears a pair of glasses with red over left eye and blue over the right eye. Each
eyepiece causes line work destined for its own eye to appear black. The system
works so that both eyes have a different color filter in front of them. This causes
that left eye can only see few colors and right eye some other colors. When the left
eye's colors are used to draw the image which it should see and same is used for
right eye, the combined image can be viewed with suitable glasses in 3D. The most
common color combinations are red+blue and red+green. The color filtering limits
that there are only few possible colors in use in the picture so the images made
using this method are not very nice to look.
The main advantage of anaglyphs which is used in our research is that one
can view the scene with a minimum of hardware and expense. The glasses are very
inexpensive because it needs very cheap plastic filters for them. It can be made from
piece of cardboard and suitable filters.
� The largest benefit of passive stereo is its low costs. The active stereo
applications require high frequencies (typically > 96Hz) in order to
guarantee a flicker free image, limiting to use either CRT projectors or
very new (and very expensive) DLP projectors. But passive stereo can
use LCD or DLP projectors. Also being able to use LCD (or DLP)
projectors is a benefit to image brightness. Another benefit is that the
glasses used by passive stereo system are of less cost whereas glasses for
active stereo systems cost a few hundred dollars. The glasses are also a
lot less fragile, which makes the system more suitable for use in a
classroom.
� Anybody with normal vision can see 3D in an anaglyph.
� The image covers the whole computer screen, not just half the screen.
Spatial and stereoscopic resolution is twice as good as image pairs.
� A singe digital projector can show anaglyphs on a screen for a large
audience, who see three dimensions through the same, cheap, colored
glasses used. This avoids the hassle and expense of two separate
projectors as used for polarized viewing.
� The passive method of displaying stereoscopic images is better suited for
large groups because of its less cost. This is the method that this research
utilizes.
When visually immersed within a virtual environment, it creates a natural
temptation to touch virtual models but there is nothing to touch and to feel. In this
immersed Virtual Environment user can walk around it, inside the object, look up,
and see features that are not directly accessible using two dimensional
representations of a three dimensional object. Just this benefit is significant since a
better front end for computers signifies better understanding of the model and a
reduction in design time through a reduction of design iterations.
Although other stereoscopic visualization methods such as those using
polarized or shuttered glasses can give better results, the anaglyph method is the
only way that stereoscopic images can be viewed on ordinary television sets or
computer screens with no special hardware other than inexpensive colored glasses.
5.4 Execution Requirements of this Visualization Suite
The visualization solution developed in the course of this research work is a
Visual C++ application using OpenGL. Execution of this tool requires installation
of following,
� Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0
� Windows comes with OpenGL, and Visual Studio comes with the
OpenGL libraries, but neither of them comes with GLUT. So files from
GLUT required to be placed as given in the table 5.2.
� STL and VRML files are considered as input for our visualization suite.
These files are obtained from modeling software, I-deas and AutoCAD,
after the design of the model.
� Red-Blue eyewear is used as an external interface to perceive the 3D
effect in passive stereo mode,
Executable file of this tool doesn’t require the installation of Visual C++ and GLUT
files.
Table 5.2: Location of the GLUT Files
File Location
glut32.dll C:\WINDOWS\system
glut32.lib C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio \Vc98\Lib
glut.h C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio \Vc98\Include\gl
5.5 Estimation of the Storage Space Required
The details about storage requirement for the execution of this visualization
tool is explained in the table 5.3,
Table 5.3, Storage Space Requirement
File Size
Entire Visualization Suite 10MB
Executable (.exe) file 156KB
glut32.dll 232KB
glut32.lib 28KB
Glut.h 28KB
STL, VRML Files as Input Size varies
5.6 System Testing Issues
Various STL and VRML files are tested in this visualization suite along with
the intrinsic details of using each and every option. To perceive the 3D effect in
passive stereo mode, red-blue eyewear is used as an external interface. Selected
snapshots of the models during execution were shown in section 5.3.2. The results
were compared with original designs. The objectives specified in the problem
statement were fulfilled.
The key theme of our research was parsing the ASCII files generated by
modeling software (AutoCAD and I-deas) and to render the corresponding image.
Even though these files contains huge details about the model, this visualization
solution fetch only the data, which are required for visualization. This will lead to
faster execution as contrasted with the existing software manipulating the entire file
for visualization. The primary goal of the research work was to empower the
designers with a fully functional stereovision facilitating them that to explore their
datasets in a graphical manner. This visualization tool works efficiently.
5.7 Summary
The thesis portrays design and development of computer based three-
dimensional cost effective visualization of mechanical components. The
background of this research has covered in Chapter 1. Since this research is a
Computer Based Visualization technique for manufacturing industries, all the
related fields were discussed in this chapter. It covers the motivation of research
problem and briefs developmental phases of this research. The required literature
review in the field of Computer Based Visualization was discussed in Chapter 2.
The technical characteristics of standard file formats and the design aspects of this
visualization system have covered in Chapter 3. The complete detail about
Implementation of Parser and Renderer for STL and VRML Visualization was
provided in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 discusses the results, summarizes the work, covers
the conclusion and gives directions for future research.
5.8 Conclusion
This thesis describes the development of low cost visualization suit for
manufacturing industries. This software architecture provides detailed visual
information for manufacturing team before products to go in to final production
stage. This approach helps to arrive at better decisions in less time, providing
enormous cost savings while enhancing productivity. With a combination of
inexpensive hardware and easy to use software, this development enables
manufacturing industries to perform virtual prototyping. The key theme of our
research was parsing the ASCII files generated by modeling software and to render
the corresponding image. Even though this file contains huge details about the
model, the tool fetches only the data, which are required for visualization. This
leads to faster execution as contrasted with the existing software manipulating the
entire file for visualization. This interface supports passive stereo, a low cost
technique, which requires only red blue eye ware. Development of an effective low
cost passive stereo executing on a fairly general-purpose computer was a major goal
of this research. Reduction of manufacturing time & cost, improvement in the
design efficiency are the major contributions of visualization system in
manufacturing process.
5.8.1 Objectives Revisited
Various STL and VRML files are tested in this visualization suite along with
the intrinsic details of using each and every option. The objectives specified in the
problem statement were fulfilled as follow,
Parsing - 3D models designed in modeling software leads to very heavy file size.
This is due to the fact that the modeler not only holds the geometric information, but
also topological information of the object. Therefore it requires a powerful
computer system to view the components. Since the file contains data sets, which
are not required for visualization, manipulating such files solely for visualizing
stereo mode results in slow operation on a general-purpose computer. The
visualization solution designed in the course of our research work parses these files
and fetches only the required data sets for visualization in order to obtain the desired
displays.
Rendering - This visualization suite is a VC++ application which demonstrates 3D
interface for STL and VRML models. This interface can be used to represent
complex datasets in 3D with additional visualization facilities. This suite reads a
smooth three dimensional object that has been approximated by triangles. The
program reads in this triangle mesh, calculate normal for each triangle, and display
the object with lighting enabled. The user will be able to manipulate the model
using the mouse. The triangle meshes for each object which is in either STL or
VRML format; the program reads these files and displays them using OpenGL.
After loading the triangle mesh data, the program displays it. The projection
and modelview transformations are set using perspective projection so that the
object is completely visible on the screen, with no parts cut off by the near or far
clipping planes. The different models don't have the same scale, so the program
does some way of accounting for that, setting the camera and projection values
correctly and automatically. This can be done by setting parameters for gluLookAt
and the projection transformation.
Transformation Options - The model displayed can be able to rotate, translate and
scale using transformation options like Rotation, Panning and Zooming,
� Dragging the mouse with left button down work to translate the object in
the direction in which the mouse is moved
� Dragging the mouse with right button down work to zoom the object (in
or out) in the direction in which the mouse is moved. Zoom in and zoom
out depends on how the user drags.
� Dragging the mouse with left and right button down work to rotate the
object in the direction in which the mouse is moved. Rotation along axis
depends on how the mouse moves.
Change of Material Properties - This feature allows selecting the required
material properties and lightings. The standard specified materials are (gold, silver,
chrome, emerald, perl, copper, brass, bronze etc.) put up and the provision is given
to the user to select whichever material he likes. The selected material is then
applied for the object. One of the more interesting aspects of working in 3-D is that
to visualize how the design will look like. The realistic effect can be achieved by
adding lighting and materials to the design. Applying the materials makes the model
to look exactly the way how it is required. Once the materials are added, getting the
lights and shadows to look realistic is another task.
Display Mode - This feature provides options for rendering the model in various
modes i.e. solid, wireframe and point,
� Solid – The default mode in which object has rendered. Here the object
has filled up and it gives the viewer the feeling that it is made of hard
solid.
� Wireframe – Only the wire mesh is displayed with no part of it being
filled up as in the solid mode. It displays the triangularly linked vertices
� Point – Only the vertices are displayed without connecting them to one
another
Camera Views – The viewer can view the rendered model through different angles
along different axes. Different camera views displays the model’s front, back, left,
right, top, bottom and isometric view,
� Front – Default placement of the 3D scene, i.e., viewed along the XY
plane
� Back – Along the YX plane
� Top – Along the XZ plane
� Bottom – Along the ZX plane
� Left – Along the ZY plane
� Right – Along the YZ plane
� Isometric – Along the three axes having a mutual inclination of an angle
of 45. Isometric view is the simplest way to give a 3D representation of
2-D drawing. This has been the usual way of doing things before CAD
allowed true 3-D work to be done. Many times an isometric drawing is
used to compliment a 3 view orthographic drawing.
Texture Mapping - This tool adds the realism by wrapping the user defined texture
over the object. A dialog box pop ups and asks the user to select any image file.
After the selection of image file it shows how the object looks if it is wrapped by
such an image. Texture is important to provide the illusion of reality. It is a method
of wallpapering the existing polygons. Texturing makes it possible to quickly
create very complex object surfaces.
Before a model is released with any coating, the manufacturer does not
know how the product will emerge, hence in such situations he can use textures and
look at the object it really looks good if at all it is done so. Instead of manually
going on to the hard work developing such an object with the unknown look which
at the minimum may take few days, the developer can just view it in stereo mode
itself which may hardly take few minutes. If the manufacturer is not satisfied with
his previous selection, he can change his option there only by applying another
texture that otherwise he should do by manufacturing such a textured product.
Cut Section - Cutting the model either along XY-plane, XZ-plane, YZ-plane or
with any angle. After the vertices of the objects in the scene have been transformed,
any primitives that lie outside the viewing volume are clipped. This is useful for
removing extraneous objects in the scene, for example to display a cut away view of
an object. Always the object is made to view as a whole and whenever the user
needs that a part of it is just sufficient to visualize, either along any plane or by any
specified angle then this tool finds its way.
� XY Plane – It gives the view of the object with XY plane cuts it. When it
cut so, it leads to Far and Near sections of the model.
� XZ Plane - It gives the view of the object with XZ plane cuts it. When it
cut so, it leads to Bottom and Top sections of the model.
� YZ Plane - It gives the view of the object with YZ plane cuts it. When it
cut so, it leads to Left and right sections of the model.
Application of Foggy Environment - This feature gives the user an illusion of a
product being placed in a foggy environment. This technique is used in flight
simulators, where the object as it goes far away, it gets faded also. Fog allows
visualizing the object where limited visibility also needed to approximate. It aids the
designer to give the various density values as input so that as the distance of the
object goes away from the user it goes faded away finally disappearing from the
field of view.
Walkthrough - Walkthrough of the model with viewer being at that place itself i.e.
only the model is made to come closer or go away. Often the viewer may like to go
inside the object and he also may wish to go inside (virtually) the inner details of the
object just to have a closer look at its minute structure. Here the object should be at
rest but the viewer should be allowed to go towards it in whichever direction he
likes and also give a provision to take a turn at the corners, or to go to its extreme
ends or to retrace back. The viewer is allowed to go towards it rather than object
coming closer to the viewer. So this acts as a means to the viewer of walking thro
the object. It provides closer look at it if at all one finds it that attractive. Walking
inside the model helps to get a closer view.
Cost Effective Passive Stereo vision - The main focus of our research was the
development of an effective low cost passive stereo-based visualization solution that
would run on a fairly general-purpose computer used in manufacturing industries
for virtual prototyping. Three-dimensional stereo vision is achieved by drawing
image two times on the scene with a small degree of overlapping. To perceive the
3D effect in passive stereo mode, red-blue eyewear is used as an external interface.
The visualization suite implemented in our research is a low cost passive stereo
technique that simply requires a red blue eye ware.
5.8.2 CAD Model Visualization in Virtual 3D World
Presence is closely related to the sensation of immersion. It can be described
as the feeling of being in the same space as the Virtual Environment, which gives a
sense of the reality of objects in the computer-generated scene and the user’s
presence with those objects. Both immersion and presence are enhanced by a wider
field of view than is available on desktop displays. This helps to provide situation
awareness, aids spatial judgments, and enhances navigation and locomotion.
Stereoscopic rendering techniques exploit the ability of the human visual
system to integrate two slightly translated perspective images of a scene –
representing the left and the right eye – into a three-dimensional representation.
Although other stereoscopic visualization methods such as those using polarized or
shuttered glasses can give better results, the anaglyph method is the only way that
stereoscopic images can be viewed on ordinary television sets or computer screens
with no special hardware other than inexpensive colored glasses.
The real trick is figuring out the best way to present the left and right eye
images to just the left and right eyes, respectively. In our research, we have
developed passive stereo technique which uses Red-Blue anaglyph to view the 3D
scene. Left and right eye images are combined into a single image consisting of
blues for the left eye portion of the scene, reds for the right eye portion of the scene,
and shades of magenta for portions of the scene occupied by both images The
viewer wears a pair of glasses with red over the left eye and blue over the right eye.
Each eyepiece causes the line work destined for the other eye meld into the
background and causes line work destined for its own eye to appear black. The key
fact of stereo viewing is to generate two views of the scene, one from each eye
position. This can be achieved by maintaining separate drawing buffers for the left
and right eyes. Both the images are drawn on the screen. Left eye sees one image
and the right eye sees another image. Combination of this in brain gives the 3D
effect. The human brain processes received information from two eyes and displays
3D visualization system.
To get the suitable effect of 3D, there will be overlapping of images drawn
on the screen. Actually second image is not exactly placed on the first. After
drawing the left image, the viewpoint is translated little and then right image is
drawn. This distance between left and right image is called as ‘eye separation
factor’ or ‘interocular distance’. To perceive proper 3D effect eye separation value
can be changed. Left and Right arrow buttons are used to increase and decrease
interocular distance between the two rendered scenes.
5.8.3 Insight of 3D Stereo Visualization Suite
The rapid growth of computer technology has made CAD software an
essential in product design. It is observed that the manufacturing industries make
heavy use of the modeling software to facilitate a concurrent engineering approach
for the product design, 3D modeling, analysis and manufacturing applications. The
models are designed using CAD software like Cad/Cam, Catia, Pro/E, I-deas, and
Solid Works etc. Many of the commercially available modeling software require
expensive license fees, large computer storage space and memory consumption. 3D
models designed using these modeling software leads to very heavy file size. This is
due to the fact that the modeler not only holds the geometric information, but also
topological information of the object. Therefore it requires a powerful computer
system to view the components. Since the file contains data sets, which are not
required for visualization, manipulating such files solely for visualizing stereo mode
results in slow operation on a general-purpose computer. But visualization suite
developed in our research fetches only the required data sets for visualization, thus
makes the suit efficient.
This visualization solution to parses these files and fetches only the required
data sets for visualization in order to obtain the desired displays. Although such
software available in the market, they require sophisticated computing environment,
which are out of reach. The visualization suite developed in our research attempts to
bridge this gap. It is a low cost passive stereo technique that simply requires a red
blue eye ware. The sequence of operations carried out in the implementation of this
research is shown as a flow chart in the figure 5.18.
Figure 5.18: Visualization Suite Development Flow Graph
An attempt has made in our research to design the development of an
efficient, easy to use, cost effective visualization system for manufacturing
industries. The visualization tool developed in the course of our research work is an
ASCII text file driven system to visually simulate the modeled operation in 3D
virtual space. The interface documented in this thesis provides three-dimensional
effect of the CAD model for enhanced visualization. This visualization suit is able
to browse the STL, VRML files, fetches the data sets that are required for
visualization and renders the model on the screen. This tool supports additional
properties like editor for light, material properties and color, options for various
kinds of views, texture mapping, transformation of model etc.
5.8.4 Contributions
The primary goal of the development of the 3D Visualization suite reported
in the present communication was to empower the designers with a fully functional
stereovision and facilitating them to explore their datasets in a graphical manner that
too at low cost. This will realize the collaborative decision-making and
interdepartmental communication. The features of the reported suit can be fairly
executed on general purpose computing platform.
Computer Based Visualization is an efficient development tool for
manufacturing industries. As the programs for computer systems such as CAD has
become standardized, these steps have increasingly been linked into one system. For
example, the same database can be used to create Visualization of the model. The
visualization technique shortens the time frame for the construction of a model. In
the past, the model was designed out of clay. The initial design required many
subsequent stages of work to develop the basic needs. Visualization simplifies these
steps through the creation of simulations from a database that is gathered from CAD
programs.
This thesis verifies the feasibility of using Stereo Visualization technology
for improving the productivity of manufacturing industries. It plays an important
role in virtual prototyping. The Virtual prototyping Simulation is the advanced
production planning system applicable to the manufacturing industries. It has
potential for different optimization techniques, which takes less time. Since the user
feels more comfortable with Stereo Visualization technology while performing
manufacturing tasks, this technique is used for assembly training to improve the
productivity in manufacturing industries. This tool is used for prototyping, testing
and later in conceptual stages also. To increase throughput in manufacturing
industries this is a suitable solution. By incorporating Stereo Visualization along
with other Virtual Reality techniques, manufacturing industries can save lot of time
and effort in developing products. The primary goal of our research work was to
authorize the designers with a fully functional stereovision facilitating them that to
explore their datasets in a graphical manner. This will realize the collaborative
decision-making and interdepartmental communication. The software visualization
solutions enable the design teams to identify and resolve design and manufacturing
problems earlier. Further by making the right decisions based on digital data,
companies can optimize their designs and reduce the number of physical prototypes
built, thus saving both time and money.
Since the present research pertains to development of visualization platform
for mechanical industries, it is worthwhile to see some of the advantages in this
context. By rapidly simulating the performance of mechanical systems on the
computer, functional virtual prototyping enables to troubleshoot problems within
existing designs and to significantly reduce the risk associated with developing new
designs. By facilitating collaborative decision-making, the visualization solutions
enable teams to identify and resolve design and manufacturing problems earlier. By
making the right decisions based on digital data, companies can optimize their
designs and reduce the number of physical prototypes built, thus saving both time
and money. In the course of our research work the cost effective software platform
has developed for easy visualization of the mechanical components without much
intricacies of the sophisticated computing platform. A significant advantage of
visualization is that it enables user to navigate easily in 3D space and hence position
the user at any convenient position during the visualization process. The capability
of visualize the future planned designs in 3D will facilitate greater understanding
about the model among the designers. It is much more cost effective to make
changes on a virtual prototype as opposed to reworking a traditional prototype.
Our research work demonstrates how a low end, inexpensive viewing
technique can be used as a quick trick to produce many of the same affects as high-
end stereo viewing. Although such software readily available in the market, they
require sophisticated computing platforms that are out of the reach of the small
firms and independent designers. The main reason for the small firms or
independent designer is difficult to compete with the big players is lack of such
software. The proposed research work solves this problem. It aims at designing a
general-purpose software platform for visualization of the mechanical components
executable on fairly available computer architecture. This is a major contribution of
our research.
5.9 Scope for Future Work
The additional features and further improvement that have to be done in our
visualization suite are,
� Should openly support other CAD file formats such as STEP, XML,
IGES etc.
� Supply assembly, disassembly animations
� Implement auto stereoscopic vision i.e., perceiving 3D effect without the
use of any external interface
� Provide mass property calculation
� Interface with other VR devices
� Picking and selection of desired part of the component
� Changing the material properties, light color etc., should be allowed to be
done on the parts displayed