Surface design in virtual reality as industrial application

Styling and ergonomic design should be preserved along the product development process, but converting physical data to digital is usually done by others, introducing the risk is of misunderstanding and error. According to our vision, VR can offer the ideal unconstrained interface for free artistic expression and bridge the gap between creative experimentation and precise manufacturing-oriented modelling. The main contribution of this article is to present a VR-based Free-Form Surface modeller called SpaceDesign, which is seamless integrated in the manufacturing process and do not require any specific knowledge about the mathematic of the generated surfaces, because the software handles such complexity in transparent way. Spacedesign is historically based on ARCADE, from which inherits most of the functionalities related to the surfaces, but introduces many new features: a navigation tool, a improved real-time visual feedback, an enhanced algorithm for the Coons Patch tool, an interactive help, and support of industrystandard file formats. Moreover, previously made engineering models can be imported and used as a visual reference, a kind of "soft" constraint. The article is organized as follow: in the second section is presented the state of the art in VR-based free form modelling, then in the third the industrial requirements are explained. The fourth section describes the implementation of SpaceDesign, focusing on the new functionalities introduced. At the end an example of application and conclusions are provided