CAE/VR integration - a qualitative assessment of advanced visualization for interactive conceptual simulations (ICS) in industrial use

One of the key driving technologies for a better communication, representation, interaction, and visualization of design and engineering data has been Virtual Reality (VR). The idea of Interactive Conceptual Simulations (ICS) combines real-time interaction and visualization in a turn-around loop with the CAE simulation. However, the automation of the processes between the changes of the domain and the resulting simulation requires update rates within min 30 Hz, in order to remain interactive, not blocking the CG engine redrawing the update. Here, the overall simulation requires an advanced CAE process chain from model import, model manipulation, simulation results generation and visual preparation. Although many publications have been addressing the CAD/VR and only few the CAE/VR process chain, one might assume that endeavors for this are regarded as unnecessary, as a tidy showcase with a low-level quality visualization would be sufficient for engineers. This paper will object this hypothesis by presenting the results of a qualitative validation based on industrial use of our established VR environment for ICS. It follows the methodology and complements the quantitative analysis presented in earlier work providing the results of a qualitative assessment of engineers for our established VR based ICS post-processing unit (IDEFix - Immersive Data Explorer for CAx Integration).