Design review of complex mechanical systems using advanced virtual reality tools

Engineering companies involved in the design of complex mechanical systems have done significant effort to reduce time-to-market and development costs for new products and to reach total quality, in order to realize products that are closer to the customer's needs and, therefore, to gain more competitiveness. The emerging software technology, well known as virtual reality, gives the designers very sophisticated tools to handle the new concept of Universal Virtual Product. The goal of such tools is to provide designers, as well as decision makers, to review a new design evaluating functional performances. Exploiting existing 3D MCAD and Plant Design databases, virtual reality tools, can easily bring designs to life for faster and better understanding. This paper describes issues about design review using virtual reality tools as well as a few custom functionalities under development by our company.