Automating the CAD to Virtual Reality Pipeline for Assembly Simulation

Abstract: Virtual reality is emerging as a valuable tool in the manufacturing industry, as it allows engineers to place themselves in a virtual environment in which they can inspect and evaluate their 3D designs, providing a sense of scale not available through a 2D screen. Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB currently uses physical prototypes to assess whether their designs work from an assembly perspective, which can be expensive and time consuming to make and are often downscaled. Therefore, an interest in exploring the possibility of using virtual reality as a tool for simulating and evaluating assembly sequences has emerged, as well as training operators on said sequences, which lays the foundation for this thesis work. The thesis explores the possibility of using virtual reality to simulate assembly sequences using imported CAD models. Emphasis is put on automating the CAD to virtual reality pipeline, as well as how arbitrary CAD models can be presented in virtual reality and how assembly evaluation and training of said CAD models can be simulated in VR. An application is developed in Unreal Engine to explore the possibilities of using the program for virtual reality assembly simulation, as well as identifying potential problem areas. A solution to each of the problems are proposed, and these solutions together make up the application. The application is evaluated with end users to identify areas of improvement. The general conclusions that can be drawn from the results are that there are differences in how CAD programs and Unreal Engine handle and make use of 3D geometry which can cause issues, and that the number of parts and the size of these parts are the two most prominent parameters that can cause problems when importing, handling and using arbitrary CAD models in Unreal Engine.