SENER brings Virtual Reality to CAD/CAM/CAE

JULY 31, 2012 — SENER is pushing ahead with development of Virtual Reality (VR) applications for shipbuilding. The applications allow virtual navigation through the ship 3D model generated by SENER’s FORAN CAD/CAM/CAE. which is in use in 50 shipyards and design offices worldwide.

At the recent FORAN users’ meeting in Toledo, Spain, SENER  showed two new approaches to VR, including  a VR room, with a high res screen of 6 m length and 3 m width, a an interactive demo with a Head Mounting Display (HMD with an optical tracking solution. Both environments were used to navigate around ship 3D models.

Wearing the HMD, the user can view and interact with the ship 3D models. The HMD unit shown at the Toledo meeting offers a wide field-of-view that covers 102 degrees horizontally and 64 degrees vertically.  An optical tracking system using four sensors (or infrared cameras) located in each of the four corners of the area to be covered allows a precise location in three dimensional space of the active LED marker located in the HMD. In addition, a gyroscope (shelf inertial orientation tracker) gives information about the rotations and revolutions of the HMD.  Sener says that LED marker data, as well as rotations are transmitted to the workstation very quickly so that the experience is very real. A wand configured for wireless use allows the user interact and navigate through the ship 3D virtual model