IDEV Promotes Design Effectiveness, Real-Time Collaboration Published Nov. 2, 2010 By Heyward Burnette Materials and Manufacturing WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- A team comprising members from government, industry, and academia developed technology to combat the long acquisition cycles, development cost overruns, and field support issues plaguing Department of Defense procurement. Through the Office of the Secretary of Defense's Defense-Wide Manufacturing Science and Technology program, the Improved Design Effectiveness Through Next-Generation Visualization program creates commercial software for the integration of disparate design models with a virtual reality system that enables real-time collaboration. The expected benefits are fewer design iterations, fewer hardware prototypes, and robust fielded designs. The IDEV program enables supply chain team members to effectively implement innovative solutions for demanding performance requirements using visual prototypes. It provides the designer with a means to identify producibility issues early in the design phase, thus allowing faster deployment to the field. Researchers also expect design phase improvements to generate reduced product costs through virtual, rather than physical, prototyping. Beyond initial design, IDEV has the potential to substantially improve design model visualization and integration throughout the life cycle of a weapon system. IDEV develops technologies for integrating different computer-aided design files into a format-neutral VR environment and provides users with the capability to manipulate the integrated model. To date, a team of AFRL Manufacturing Technology Division, Raytheon Missile Systems, Rockwell Collins, Mechdyne, Iowa State University, and In Tolerance participants has successfully completed Phase I of the IDEV program. The researchers have demonstrated the capacity to pull models created in different CAD systems into a top-level assembly, display it in a VR environment, and make real-time changes. The researchers translated CAD models from ProE and Catia to NX using STEP and then combined them with a native NX model in a virtual environment using Mechdyne's Conduit software. Within the VR environment, they used a prototype interface called VRNC to make changes to the CAD models. The achievements made in Phase I will provide the foundation for realizing more advanced capabilities during Phase II. The initial Phase II objective is to develop technologies that couple VR user interfaces with CAD packages. The team will also be developing the capability for multiple sites and suppliers to view the same virtual prototype simultaneously and to expand this integration capability across engineering disciplines (e.g., mechatronics). The plan is to achieve distributed VR control via a cost-effective system based on commercially available hardware. The IDEV program's ultimate goal is to create and validate a cost-effective and commercially viable software solution for enhanced design visualization and integration.