Development of design tools for the evaluation of complex CAD models

The goal of this thesis is to invent means to enable 3D-models, created in SOLIDWORKS CAD-software, to be explored in a low-cost head-mounted display device Oculus Rift. Such a design tool would make possible to study 3D CAD-models in Virtual Reality with a very low cost and share design information for people who are not so familiar with CAD-models. As a result this can lower the product development effort for new products enabling, lower working time and improve both the quality of the final product and customer satisfaction. CAD-models as well as exported graphics format from SOLIDWORKS can’t directly be imported to Oculus Rift device. Therefore transformation pipeline need to be invented between the SOLIDWORKS and Oculus Rift. There are some options for this and their issues are studied in this thesis. As a best option it was found to use a conversion plugin tool to SOLIDWORKS which convert CAD-models to FBX-format. This format can be imported to Unity game engine software which is supported by Oculus Rift device. Graphics file conversion process in known to be imperfect. Therefore conversion of three SOLIDWORKS CAD-models have been analyzed; a Crane, a Pipe system, and a Hydraulic cylinder. This testing gave a good overview of possibilities and limitations of the graphics pipeline. It was found that ordinary CAD-models can be transferred to Oculus Rift without problems. However, there are some special features in CAD models which cause problems for in graphics file conversion