Integrating VR into your CAD Drawings

Since the beginning of drafting, 2D drawings have always been a bit confusing. To see the different views on a 2D plane is a difficult task for a lot of people to do. If you don’t know what you’re supposed to be looking at. 

Autodesk (The company that makes AutoCAD), came up with a few solutions to that problem. One solution being is AutoCAD’s 3D equivalent, inventor. Inventor is a 3D modeling software that people in the mechanical design industry use to be able to read a drawing with more precise input. Being able to see the model in a 3D view is more efficient than seeing it in three to five 2D views. Now I’m not saying 2D drawings are useless. They serve a purpose when a drafter prints to paper. Inventor also shows the user how parts they’ve designed go together using assemblies and presentation files.  

There is still a bit of confusion on seeing these 3D drawings. It takes years of experience to understand both Autocad and Inventor. Let alone use both corresponding softwares efficiently and in a timely manner. However, with the release of Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2 in 2020, Autodesk released its own virtual reality system called Create VR. This Plug in for Autodesk’s 3D animation software, Maya, lets you see your CAD drawings in a virtual reality compound. This plug in makes it possible to see a cad drawing in your own hands, being able to manipulate features and see how parts correspond with each other in more of a perspective view.

This new Maya feature has potential in other forms of design that’s not just for designers. It can also be used for demonstrating designs to clients. Referring to what was previously stated about CAD drawings being hard to follow, clients have a hard time reading drawings, and looking at 3D models. With Create VR, drafters have the ability to show their client designs in their hands before it’s even fabricated.

I used this software to make a mock broadcast room to show clients how large the room is, and where all the computers, chairs, and desks are positioned. I first started in Inventor, creating the room itself, then importing CAD files into the broadcast room (mounts, monitors, chairs, desks, etc…). Once the room was assembled in an assembly file, I was able to export it as an .stl, which is a file normally used to export 3D printing files into a gcode. There is a caveat to exporting these files. You can’t just export it in inventor, you need to open the file on Maya, and export it as an ..fbx file, this file is for importing VR file into the CreateVR system Now that the easy part is over, on to integrating a VR headset onto the PC. There are multiple ways of integrating a VR head set onto a desktop. The best option being, using the SteamVR app. This app connects a headset to a computer using a cloud game streaming service. Now this is somewhat challenging, working through the steps on getting the software and the headset. After connecting to headset. Set up a Virtual Desktop on your headset. That will allow you to open different applications on your computer using VR. The drafter now have access to CreateVR.

The final steps to integrating CreateVR are importing your .fbx file into the software, and exploring the world of VR CAD! There are so many pros to this new CAD innovation. But there are some drawbacks to this software. when I tried opening the broadcast room into the VR platform, the only thing that was able to be opened was the computer mice on the desk. This is due to the fact that the file has too many objects and parts and the short wireless link between the VR headset to the computer is a little too unstable for files with a lot of information on them. Now this can be fixed with either a more powerful computer or a tethered connection. I was able to see a simple gear assembly. I was able to move parts around and manipulate features using my hands. I can see a better use of this software with a headset more like the Apple Vision Pro with more of an augmented reality feel. With Apple’s headset, it would be possible to see a VR part in the real world. Virtual reality is an interesting new technology that has an unknown potential in a lot of fields, hopefully making the future a lot more clear.