Lockheed Martin adopts 3D visualisation
Defence giant Lockheed Martin has installed a virtual reality system in its UK facility to help the design and review of a major land vehicle being developed. The ActiveWall by virtual reality (VR) company Virtalis will enable engineers to view 3D CAD models in a more realistic physical environment and improve time to market.
Ryan Neal, a research engineer at Lockheed Martin, explained: "Our customer, the UK's Ministry of Defence, as well as our engineers and business development people, was able to prove-out views of the 3D model through visualisation. This meant that instead of producing detailed performance reports over several months, we were able to view a 3D mock-up of the model using Virtalis' Visionary Render. In effect, words were replaced with interactive 3D pictures."
Lockheed Martin has been an early adopter of Visionary Render software, which allows users to access and experience a real-time, interactive and immersive VR environment created from huge 3D datasets. Users can work alone, in small groups, or collaborate with distant colleagues in a common virtual environment to perform detailed design reviews, rehearse in-depth training tasks, validate maintenance procedures or verify assembly and manufacturing processes.
Lockheed Martin use a transportable version of the ActiveWall that features a 3D digital light projector (DLP) projector, a custom screen and a PC workstation to generate the active stereo images.
