Though high resolution images and videos can communicate architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) projects in vivid detail, there’s just something about interacting with a digital object that makes it that much more tangible. The physical world around us is interactive, so why shouldn’t our media be?
ItooSoft’s RailClone and ForestPack Pro are converted into appropriate UE4 assets. (Image courtesy of Epic Games.)
Well, creating interactive media from CAD, building information modeling (BIM) or other file types meant for fabrication in the real world isn’t so easy. The worlds of CAD and BIM don’t occupy the same space as software made for virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and other interactive media types.
However, with the realization that technologies like AR and VR likely better serve an industrial audience than a consumer one, we’re starting to see an increasing amount of overlap between interactive media and CAD. Here to drive that trend is Epic Games, makers of the Unreal game engine.
The company has just announced the open beta for Unreal Studio, a new software that helps bring interactivity to CAD and other industrial data. To learn more, Engineering.com spoke to Marc Petit, General Manager of Unreal Engine Enterprise at Epic Games.
Interactivity in CAD
Viewing and rotating a 3D architectural model is useful, but becoming fully immersed in a model provides an even richer experience. Most CAD tools, however, don’t make…