A virtual design platform for interactive product design and visualization

An Interactive Design Visualization System (IDVS) to facilitate interactive product design is proposed. This innovative approach is suitable for developing new industrial products and satisfies the essential needs in modem manufacturing environment. In today's product design, there is a need to communicate the design concept and to share the production data interactively in a real-time has become the most challenging problem in present day manufacturing industry. In fact, there are systems currently available for product design that provides the sharing of design data and interactive environments for undertaking the design process at different physical locations. However, a comprehensive system for developing new products that satisfies all the necessary requirements is still unavailable. In this respect, this paper examines the necessary requirements for nowadays industrial product design with the discussion of the major problems encountered. An integrated system-the IDVS that incorporates the concept of virtual product design, concurrent engineering, design visualization and job allocation is proposed to facilitate and streamline the effective design of modem industrial products. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.