CHAPTER 5 ENTIRE SYSTEM REALIZATION, RESULTS, SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Transcription

1 CHAPTER 5 ENTIRE SYSTEM REALIZATION, RESULTS, SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

2 CHAPTER 5 ENTIRE SYSTEM REALIZATION, RESULTS, SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 5.1 A Gist of Final Setup The Computer Based Visualization of Mechanical Components intended to be developed during the research problem definition has finally fulfilled. The primary objective of this work was to provide users a cost effective functional computer based visualization system that allows to explore datasets or to develop prototypes of virtual environments for later use in larger systems without having to use more expensive resources during development. One of the more interesting aspects of this system is, working in 3-D to visualize how the design will look like. The visualization suite developed during the course our research work has following features, It is a cost effective visualization solution for manufacturing industries. This software empowers designers with an ability to perform virtual prototyping before developing the physical prototypes. Parses ASCII files generated by modeling software by fetching the data required for visualization Able to render the VRML and STL model Provides transformation options - Rotation, Panning and Zooming Allows selection of required material properties and lightings Options for rendering the model in various modes i.e. solid, wireframe and point Enable cut section - cutting the model either along XY-plane, XZ-plane, YZ-plane or with any angle Gives different views of the model i.e. front, back, left, right, top, bottom and isometric Provides texture mapping, Permits walkthrough of the model with viewer being at that place itself i.e. only the model is made to come closer or go away

3 Creation of foggy environment Enable to view more than one model through either tiling or cascading the windows. Ability to generate and display high quality images of mechanical components Allows the user to experience 3D stereo vision with low cost passive technology The tool should be able to change viewing angle and viewing mode Provision of editor for selection of different light sources, material properties, color 5.2. Final Layout of this Visualization Suite Present research deals with the visualization of the 3D data imported from CAD packages like AutoCAD, I-DEAS, through open standard STL, VRML format. VRML and STL file formats are the specifically considered in this research. Most of the modeling software can export their data files in VRML and STL formats, thus making this visualization system independent of any modeling software. It has got direct interface to Virtual Reality through stereo glasses. 3D rendering is the key component of this system. This technology provides the capability to immerse the user in the design of virtual product. To enhance the visualization various additional features are incorporated in this suite. The main focus of our research was to develop an effective low cost passive stereo executable on a fairly general-purpose computer used in manufacturing industries. This has achieved in our research by constructing the computer based three-dimensional passive stereo vision solution. Passive stereo is a low cost technique, which requires only red blue eye ware. It is envisioned that the distinction between CAD (Computer-Aided Design) and virtual reality systems converged as new design systems by encompassing features from each of the technologies.

4 5.3 Research Findings The development of this visualization suite was mainly an investigation on the technical practicability of a Virtual Reality System. In this research program CAD has explored as a medium to support early conceptual design through rapid prototyping of mechanical models. Furthermore we were exploring Virtual Reality as a potential design prototyping environment in which prototypes of designs can be constructed, communicated and visually evaluated. The designed interface serves the visualization and evaluation of CAD geometry. This application developed used for the evaluation of the CAD data in a virtual environment is the real advantage of our research work. It is the use of computer graphics systems in combination with various display and interface devices to provide the effect of immersion in the interactive 3D computer-generated environment Role of 3D Visualization in Manufacturing The figure 5.1 shows the role of 3D Visualization Aided Design in manufacturing process of mechanical components. Initially the models are designed in CAD. These designs are viewed in virtual world as virtual prototypes. The visualization suite implemented in our research is used for this purpose. These virtual prototypes are visualized in immersive 3D for analysis and evaluation. If there is any change required, changes are done in the design world and modified CAD data visualized in virtual world further. After the satisfaction of the virtual prototype manufacturing of the physical prototype takes place in the real world.

5 Figure 5.1: The Role of 3D Visualization Aided Design in Manufacturing The simulated virtual manufacturing environment generated by our research enables to develop and optimize production, assembly, machining, and other manual and mechanized manufacturing processes eliminate the need for physical product prototypes This visualization suite offers affordable 3D interface for manufacturing industries. It involves viewing and manipulation of 3D models, of manufactured components and large assemblies of products. It is a key part of Product Lifecycle Management. Product visualization typically provides high levels of photorealism so that a product can be viewed before it is actually manufactured Synthesis Result Present research pertains to development of visualization platform for manufacturing industries. It demonstrates how a low end, inexpensive viewing technique can be used as a quick trick to produce stereo viewing on a general

6 purpose computer. In the course of our research work a cost effective software platform has developed for easy visualization of the mechanical components without much intricacies of the sophisticated computing platform. Moreover it has planned to make this tool as an Open Source, so that any one can use it freely. This visualization suit parses and renders the 3D models of VRML and STL files which are generated from modeling software, I-deas and AutoCAD. 3D models designed in modeling software leads to very heavy file size. This is due to the fact that the modeler not only holds the geometric information, but also topological information of the object. Therefore it requires a powerful computer system to view the components. Since the file contains data sets, which are not required for visualization, manipulating such files solely for visualizing stereo mode results in slow operation on a general-purpose computer. This requires visualization solution to parse these files and fetch only the required data sets for visualization in order to obtain the desired displays. As an example the VRML file Cylinder.wrl generated from I-Deas having the size 456KB. This file contains nearly 150KB of data which are not needed for visualization. Execution of such file in stereo mode in modeling software results in slow operation on general purpose computer. But this tool fetches only the required data sets for visualization, thus makes the suit efficient. The table 5.1 explains the comparison of.wrl files in-terms of its original size and size of the unwanted data for visualization. Table 5.1 Comparison of VRML files File Name Original Size Redundant Dtata Cylinder.wrl 456KB 150KB Strahltriebwerk_cutway.wrl 574KB 130KB Bearing.wrl 789KB 174KB Crank_case.wrl 309KB 128KB Block.wrl 772KB 168KB Shaft.wrl 1169KB 243KB

7 Complete details about parsing and rendering of the CAD model has already explained in the Chapter 3 and 4. Various.stl and.wrl files are tested in this visualization suite. Selected snapshots of this visualization suit s user interface are shown in the Figure 5.2 to Figure These shows the display of the model with additional visualization features. The anaglyph method has been used to represent stereo pairs. Colored filters cover each eye, red/green, red/blue or red/cyan filters being the most common. One eye image is displayed in red and the other in green, blue or cyan so that the appropriate eye sees the correct image. Since both images appear simultaneously, it is a time-parallel method. The technique is easy to produce using simple image processing techniques and the cost of viewing glasses is very low. This is an effective method for presenting stereo images. The Red-Blue method displays the scene in the same frame with red for the left eye, blue for the right eye. It requires red-blue glasses. It works best with objects displayed in wire frame. The 3D effect cannot be perceived in the paper since the images are meant to be viewed on a computer display through colored glasses. Figure 5.2: Selecting VRML Model for Display

8 Figure 5.3: Display of VRML Model Figure 5.4: Applying Various Material Properties Figure 5.5: Changing Background Color

9 Figure 5.6: Display of the Model in Wireframe Mode Figure 5.7: Display of the Model in Point Mode Figure 5.8: Options for Selecting Different Camera Views

10 Figure 5.9: Display of the VRML Model in Foggy Environment Figure 5.10: Applying Cutsection to the Model Figure 5.11: Applying Texture Mapping to the Model

11 Figure 5.12: Performing Walkthrough Figure 5.13: Display of STL Model in Passive Stereo Mode Figure 5.14: Display of VRML Model in Passive Stereo

12 Figure 5.15: Display of VRML Model in Passive Stereo and Wireframe Figure 5.16: Display of VRML 2.0 Model - carrier.wrl Figure 5.17: Display of VRML 2.0 Model bearing.wrl in Wireframe Mode

13 5.3.3 Immersion of CAD Data Two achieve 3D effect two images of a same model are drawn on a scene. Left and right eye images are combined into a single image consisting of blues for the left eye portion of the scene, reds for the right eye portion of the scene, and shades of magenta for portions of the scene occupied by both images. The viewer wears a pair of glasses with red over left eye and blue over the right eye. Each eyepiece causes line work destined for its own eye to appear black. The system works so that both eyes have a different color filter in front of them. This causes that left eye can only see few colors and right eye some other colors. When the left eye's colors are used to draw the image which it should see and same is used for right eye, the combined image can be viewed with suitable glasses in 3D. The most common color combinations are red+blue and red+green. The color filtering limits that there are only few possible colors in use in the picture so the images made using this method are not very nice to look. The main advantage of anaglyphs which is used in our research is that one can view the scene with a minimum of hardware and expense. The glasses are very inexpensive because it needs very cheap plastic filters for them. It can be made from piece of cardboard and suitable filters. The largest benefit of passive stereo is its low costs. The active stereo applications require high frequencies (typically > 96Hz) in order to guarantee a flicker free image, limiting to use either CRT projectors or very new (and very expensive) DLP projectors. But passive stereo can use LCD or DLP projectors. Also being able to use LCD (or DLP) projectors is a benefit to image brightness. Another benefit is that the glasses used by passive stereo system are of less cost whereas glasses for active stereo systems cost a few hundred dollars. The glasses are also a lot less fragile, which makes the system more suitable for use in a classroom. Anybody with normal vision can see 3D in an anaglyph. The image covers the whole computer screen, not just half the screen. Spatial and stereoscopic resolution is twice as good as image pairs.

14 A singe digital projector can show anaglyphs on a screen for a large audience, who see three dimensions through the same, cheap, colored glasses used. This avoids the hassle and expense of two separate projectors as used for polarized viewing. The passive method of displaying stereoscopic images is better suited for large groups because of its less cost. This is the method that this research utilizes. When visually immersed within a virtual environment, it creates a natural temptation to touch virtual models but there is nothing to touch and to feel. In this immersed Virtual Environment user can walk around it, inside the object, look up, and see features that are not directly accessible using two dimensional representations of a three dimensional object. Just this benefit is significant since a better front end for computers signifies better understanding of the model and a reduction in design time through a reduction of design iterations. Although other stereoscopic visualization methods such as those using polarized or shuttered glasses can give better results, the anaglyph method is the only way that stereoscopic images can be viewed on ordinary television sets or computer screens with no special hardware other than inexpensive colored glasses. 5.4 Execution Requirements of this Visualization Suite The visualization solution developed in the course of this research work is a Visual C++ application using OpenGL. Execution of this tool requires installation of following, Microsoft Visual C Windows comes with OpenGL, and Visual Studio comes with the OpenGL libraries, but neither of them comes with GLUT. So files from GLUT required to be placed as given in the table 5.2. STL and VRML files are considered as input for our visualization suite. These files are obtained from modeling software, I-deas and AutoCAD, after the design of the model.

15 Red-Blue eyewear is used as an external interface to perceive the 3D effect in passive stereo mode, Executable file of this tool doesn t require the installation of Visual C++ and GLUT files. File glut32.dll glut32.lib glut.h Table 5.2: Location of the GLUT Files Location C:\WINDOWS\system C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio \Vc98\Lib C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio \Vc98\Include\gl 5.5 Estimation of the Storage Space Required The details about storage requirement for the execution of this visualization tool is explained in the table 5.3, Table 5.3, Storage Space Requirement File Size Entire Visualization Suite 10MB Executable (.exe) file 156KB glut32.dll 232KB glut32.lib 28KB Glut.h 28KB STL, VRML Files as Input Size varies 5.6 System Testing Issues Various STL and VRML files are tested in this visualization suite along with the intrinsic details of using each and every option. To perceive the 3D effect in passive stereo mode, red-blue eyewear is used as an external interface. Selected snapshots of the models during execution were shown in section The results

16 were compared with original designs. The objectives specified in the problem statement were fulfilled. The key theme of our research was parsing the ASCII files generated by modeling software (AutoCAD and I-deas) and to render the corresponding image. Even though these files contains huge details about the model, this visualization solution fetch only the data, which are required for visualization. This will lead to faster execution as contrasted with the existing software manipulating the entire file for visualization. The primary goal of the research work was to empower the designers with a fully functional stereovision facilitating them that to explore their datasets in a graphical manner. This visualization tool works efficiently. 5.7 Summary The thesis portrays design and development of computer based threedimensional cost effective visualization of mechanical components. The background of this research has covered in Chapter 1. Since this research is a Computer Based Visualization technique for manufacturing industries, all the related fields were discussed in this chapter. It covers the motivation of research problem and briefs developmental phases of this research. The required literature review in the field of Computer Based Visualization was discussed in Chapter 2. The technical characteristics of standard file formats and the design aspects of this visualization system have covered in Chapter 3. The complete detail about Implementation of Parser and Renderer for STL and VRML Visualization was provided in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 discusses the results, summarizes the work, covers the conclusion and gives directions for future research. 5.8 Conclusion This thesis describes the development of low cost visualization suit for manufacturing industries. This software architecture provides detailed visual information for manufacturing team before products to go in to final production stage. This approach helps to arrive at better decisions in less time, providing enormous cost savings while enhancing productivity. With a combination of

17 inexpensive hardware and easy to use software, this development enables manufacturing industries to perform virtual prototyping. The key theme of our research was parsing the ASCII files generated by modeling software and to render the corresponding image. Even though this file contains huge details about the model, the tool fetches only the data, which are required for visualization. This leads to faster execution as contrasted with the existing software manipulating the entire file for visualization. This interface supports passive stereo, a low cost technique, which requires only red blue eye ware. Development of an effective low cost passive stereo executing on a fairly general-purpose computer was a major goal of this research. Reduction of manufacturing time & cost, improvement in the design efficiency are the major contributions of visualization system in manufacturing process Objectives Revisited Various STL and VRML files are tested in this visualization suite along with the intrinsic details of using each and every option. The objectives specified in the problem statement were fulfilled as follow, Parsing - 3D models designed in modeling software leads to very heavy file size. This is due to the fact that the modeler not only holds the geometric information, but also topological information of the object. Therefore it requires a powerful computer system to view the components. Since the file contains data sets, which are not required for visualization, manipulating such files solely for visualizing stereo mode results in slow operation on a general-purpose computer. The visualization solution designed in the course of our research work parses these files and fetches only the required data sets for visualization in order to obtain the desired displays. Rendering - This visualization suite is a VC++ application which demonstrates 3D interface for STL and VRML models. This interface can be used to represent complex datasets in 3D with additional visualization facilities. This suite reads a smooth three dimensional object that has been approximated by triangles. The program reads in this triangle mesh, calculate normal for each triangle, and display

18 the object with lighting enabled. The user will be able to manipulate the model using the mouse. The triangle meshes for each object which is in either STL or VRML format; the program reads these files and displays them using OpenGL. After loading the triangle mesh data, the program displays it. The projection and modelview transformations are set using perspective projection so that the object is completely visible on the screen, with no parts cut off by the near or far clipping planes. The different models don't have the same scale, so the program does some way of accounting for that, setting the camera and projection values correctly and automatically. This can be done by setting parameters for glulookat and the projection transformation. Transformation Options - The model displayed can be able to rotate, translate and scale using transformation options like Rotation, Panning and Zooming, Dragging the mouse with left button down work to translate the object in the direction in which the mouse is moved Dragging the mouse with right button down work to zoom the object (in or out) in the direction in which the mouse is moved. Zoom in and zoom out depends on how the user drags. Dragging the mouse with left and right button down work to rotate the object in the direction in which the mouse is moved. Rotation along axis depends on how the mouse moves. Change of Material Properties - This feature allows selecting the required material properties and lightings. The standard specified materials are (gold, silver, chrome, emerald, perl, copper, brass, bronze etc.) put up and the provision is given to the user to select whichever material he likes. The selected material is then applied for the object. One of the more interesting aspects of working in 3-D is that to visualize how the design will look like. The realistic effect can be achieved by adding lighting and materials to the design. Applying the materials makes the model to look exactly the way how it is required. Once the materials are added, getting the lights and shadows to look realistic is another task.

19 Display Mode - This feature provides options for rendering the model in various modes i.e. solid, wireframe and point, Solid The default mode in which object has rendered. Here the object has filled up and it gives the viewer the feeling that it is made of hard solid. Wireframe Only the wire mesh is displayed with no part of it being filled up as in the solid mode. It displays the triangularly linked vertices Point Only the vertices are displayed without connecting them to one another Camera Views The viewer can view the rendered model through different angles along different axes. Different camera views displays the model s front, back, left, right, top, bottom and isometric view, Front Default placement of the 3D scene, i.e., viewed along the XY plane Back Along the YX plane Top Along the XZ plane Bottom Along the ZX plane Left Along the ZY plane Right Along the YZ plane Isometric Along the three axes having a mutual inclination of an angle of 45. Isometric view is the simplest way to give a 3D representation of 2-D drawing. This has been the usual way of doing things before CAD allowed true 3-D work to be done. Many times an isometric drawing is used to compliment a 3 view orthographic drawing. Texture Mapping - This tool adds the realism by wrapping the user defined texture over the object. A dialog box pop ups and asks the user to select any image file. After the selection of image file it shows how the object looks if it is wrapped by such an image. Texture is important to provide the illusion of reality. It is a method of wallpapering the existing polygons. Texturing makes it possible to quickly create very complex object surfaces.

20 Before a model is released with any coating, the manufacturer does not know how the product will emerge, hence in such situations he can use textures and look at the object it really looks good if at all it is done so. Instead of manually going on to the hard work developing such an object with the unknown look which at the minimum may take few days, the developer can just view it in stereo mode itself which may hardly take few minutes. If the manufacturer is not satisfied with his previous selection, he can change his option there only by applying another texture that otherwise he should do by manufacturing such a textured product. Cut Section - Cutting the model either along XY-plane, XZ-plane, YZ-plane or with any angle. After the vertices of the objects in the scene have been transformed, any primitives that lie outside the viewing volume are clipped. This is useful for removing extraneous objects in the scene, for example to display a cut away view of an object. Always the object is made to view as a whole and whenever the user needs that a part of it is just sufficient to visualize, either along any plane or by any specified angle then this tool finds its way. XY Plane It gives the view of the object with XY plane cuts it. When it cut so, it leads to Far and Near sections of the model. XZ Plane - It gives the view of the object with XZ plane cuts it. When it cut so, it leads to Bottom and Top sections of the model. YZ Plane - It gives the view of the object with YZ plane cuts it. When it cut so, it leads to Left and right sections of the model. Application of Foggy Environment - This feature gives the user an illusion of a product being placed in a foggy environment. This technique is used in flight simulators, where the object as it goes far away, it gets faded also. Fog allows visualizing the object where limited visibility also needed to approximate. It aids the designer to give the various density values as input so that as the distance of the object goes away from the user it goes faded away finally disappearing from the field of view. Walkthrough - Walkthrough of the model with viewer being at that place itself i.e. only the model is made to come closer or go away. Often the viewer may like to go inside the object and he also may wish to go inside (virtually) the inner details of the

21 object just to have a closer look at its minute structure. Here the object should be at rest but the viewer should be allowed to go towards it in whichever direction he likes and also give a provision to take a turn at the corners, or to go to its extreme ends or to retrace back. The viewer is allowed to go towards it rather than object coming closer to the viewer. So this acts as a means to the viewer of walking thro the object. It provides closer look at it if at all one finds it that attractive. Walking inside the model helps to get a closer view. Cost Effective Passive Stereo vision - The main focus of our research was the development of an effective low cost passive stereo-based visualization solution that would run on a fairly general-purpose computer used in manufacturing industries for virtual prototyping. Three-dimensional stereo vision is achieved by drawing image two times on the scene with a small degree of overlapping. To perceive the 3D effect in passive stereo mode, red-blue eyewear is used as an external interface. The visualization suite implemented in our research is a low cost passive stereo technique that simply requires a red blue eye ware CAD Model Visualization in Virtual 3D World Presence is closely related to the sensation of immersion. It can be described as the feeling of being in the same space as the Virtual Environment, which gives a sense of the reality of objects in the computer-generated scene and the user s presence with those objects. Both immersion and presence are enhanced by a wider field of view than is available on desktop displays. This helps to provide situation awareness, aids spatial judgments, and enhances navigation and locomotion. Stereoscopic rendering techniques exploit the ability of the human visual system to integrate two slightly translated perspective images of a scene representing the left and the right eye into a three-dimensional representation. Although other stereoscopic visualization methods such as those using polarized or shuttered glasses can give better results, the anaglyph method is the only way that stereoscopic images can be viewed on ordinary television sets or computer screens with no special hardware other than inexpensive colored glasses.

22 The real trick is figuring out the best way to present the left and right eye images to just the left and right eyes, respectively. In our research, we have developed passive stereo technique which uses Red-Blue anaglyph to view the 3D scene. Left and right eye images are combined into a single image consisting of blues for the left eye portion of the scene, reds for the right eye portion of the scene, and shades of magenta for portions of the scene occupied by both images The viewer wears a pair of glasses with red over the left eye and blue over the right eye. Each eyepiece causes the line work destined for the other eye meld into the background and causes line work destined for its own eye to appear black. The key fact of stereo viewing is to generate two views of the scene, one from each eye position. This can be achieved by maintaining separate drawing buffers for the left and right eyes. Both the images are drawn on the screen. Left eye sees one image and the right eye sees another image. Combination of this in brain gives the 3D effect. The human brain processes received information from two eyes and displays 3D visualization system. To get the suitable effect of 3D, there will be overlapping of images drawn on the screen. Actually second image is not exactly placed on the first. After drawing the left image, the viewpoint is translated little and then right image is drawn. This distance between left and right image is called as eye separation factor or interocular distance. To perceive proper 3D effect eye separation value can be changed. Left and Right arrow buttons are used to increase and decrease interocular distance between the two rendered scenes Insight of 3D Stereo Visualization Suite The rapid growth of computer technology has made CAD software an essential in product design. It is observed that the manufacturing industries make heavy use of the modeling software to facilitate a concurrent engineering approach for the product design, 3D modeling, analysis and manufacturing applications. The models are designed using CAD software like Cad/Cam, Catia, Pro/E, I-deas, and Solid Works etc. Many of the commercially available modeling software require expensive license fees, large computer storage space and memory consumption. 3D models designed using these modeling software leads to very heavy file size. This is

23 due to the fact that the modeler not only holds the geometric information, but also topological information of the object. Therefore it requires a powerful computer system to view the components. Since the file contains data sets, which are not required for visualization, manipulating such files solely for visualizing stereo mode results in slow operation on a general-purpose computer. But visualization suite developed in our research fetches only the required data sets for visualization, thus makes the suit efficient. This visualization solution to parses these files and fetches only the required data sets for visualization in order to obtain the desired displays. Although such software available in the market, they require sophisticated computing environment, which are out of reach. The visualization suite developed in our research attempts to bridge this gap. It is a low cost passive stereo technique that simply requires a red blue eye ware. The sequence of operations carried out in the implementation of this research is shown as a flow chart in the figure Figure 5.18: Visualization Suite Development Flow Graph

24 An attempt has made in our research to design the development of an efficient, easy to use, cost effective visualization system for manufacturing industries. The visualization tool developed in the course of our research work is an ASCII text file driven system to visually simulate the modeled operation in 3D virtual space. The interface documented in this thesis provides three-dimensional effect of the CAD model for enhanced visualization. This visualization suit is able to browse the STL, VRML files, fetches the data sets that are required for visualization and renders the model on the screen. This tool supports additional properties like editor for light, material properties and color, options for various kinds of views, texture mapping, transformation of model etc Contributions The primary goal of the development of the 3D Visualization suite reported in the present communication was to empower the designers with a fully functional stereovision and facilitating them to explore their datasets in a graphical manner that too at low cost. This will realize the collaborative decision-making and interdepartmental communication. The features of the reported suit can be fairly executed on general purpose computing platform. Computer Based Visualization is an efficient development tool for manufacturing industries. As the programs for computer systems such as CAD has become standardized, these steps have increasingly been linked into one system. For example, the same database can be used to create Visualization of the model. The visualization technique shortens the time frame for the construction of a model. In the past, the model was designed out of clay. The initial design required many subsequent stages of work to develop the basic needs. Visualization simplifies these steps through the creation of simulations from a database that is gathered from CAD programs. This thesis verifies the feasibility of using Stereo Visualization technology for improving the productivity of manufacturing industries. It plays an important role in virtual prototyping. The Virtual prototyping Simulation is the advanced production planning system applicable to the manufacturing industries. It has

25 potential for different optimization techniques, which takes less time. Since the user feels more comfortable with Stereo Visualization technology while performing manufacturing tasks, this technique is used for assembly training to improve the productivity in manufacturing industries. This tool is used for prototyping, testing and later in conceptual stages also. To increase throughput in manufacturing industries this is a suitable solution. By incorporating Stereo Visualization along with other Virtual Reality techniques, manufacturing industries can save lot of time and effort in developing products. The primary goal of our research work was to authorize the designers with a fully functional stereovision facilitating them that to explore their datasets in a graphical manner. This will realize the collaborative decision-making and interdepartmental communication. The software visualization solutions enable the design teams to identify and resolve design and manufacturing problems earlier. Further by making the right decisions based on digital data, companies can optimize their designs and reduce the number of physical prototypes built, thus saving both time and money. Since the present research pertains to development of visualization platform for mechanical industries, it is worthwhile to see some of the advantages in this context. By rapidly simulating the performance of mechanical systems on the computer, functional virtual prototyping enables to troubleshoot problems within existing designs and to significantly reduce the risk associated with developing new designs. By facilitating collaborative decision-making, the visualization solutions enable teams to identify and resolve design and manufacturing problems earlier. By making the right decisions based on digital data, companies can optimize their designs and reduce the number of physical prototypes built, thus saving both time and money. In the course of our research work the cost effective software platform has developed for easy visualization of the mechanical components without much intricacies of the sophisticated computing platform. A significant advantage of visualization is that it enables user to navigate easily in 3D space and hence position the user at any convenient position during the visualization process. The capability of visualize the future planned designs in 3D will facilitate greater understanding about the model among the designers. It is much more cost effective to make changes on a virtual prototype as opposed to reworking a traditional prototype.

26 Our research work demonstrates how a low end, inexpensive viewing technique can be used as a quick trick to produce many of the same affects as highend stereo viewing. Although such software readily available in the market, they require sophisticated computing platforms that are out of the reach of the small firms and independent designers. The main reason for the small firms or independent designer is difficult to compete with the big players is lack of such software. The proposed research work solves this problem. It aims at designing a general-purpose software platform for visualization of the mechanical components executable on fairly available computer architecture. This is a major contribution of our research. 5.9 Scope for Future Work The additional features and further improvement that have to be done in our visualization suite are, Should openly support other CAD file formats such as STEP, XML, IGES etc. Supply assembly, disassembly animations Implement auto stereoscopic vision i.e., perceiving 3D effect without the use of any external interface Provide mass property calculation Interface with other VR devices Picking and selection of desired part of the component Changing the material properties, light color etc., should be allowed to be done on the parts displayed