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While Virtual Reality (VR) technologies are commonly used in industrial companies, loading and modifying CAD parts of commercial CAD systems in virtual environments are still challenging. A few VR applications for Computer Aided Design (CAD) enable users to modify native CAD data in an immersive environment. Even if such VR-CAD applications use 3D interaction space, interaction with parameter values of CAD parts could be enhanced. This paper presents ShapeGuide, a technique allowing users to modify native CAD parts using a shape-based 3D interaction technique. With ShapeGuide, users can achieve modification of parameter values by directly pushing or pulling the surface of a CAD object. In addition, force feedback can be integrated into the technique to enhance the precision of the users' hand motions in the 3D space. In a controlled experiment, we compared ShapeGuide to a standard one-dimensional scroll technique to measure its added value for parametric CAD data modification on a simple industrial product example with an adjusted modification capability. We also evaluated the effect of force feedback assistance on both techniques. Results of this experiment demonstrate that ShapeGuide is significantly faster and more efficient than the scroll technique. Furthermore, they show that the force feedback assistance enhances the precision of both techniques, especially of ShapeGuide.

Figure 1. ShapeCompare enables non-CAD experts to generate and explore multiple design alternatives on a wall-sized display.

Companies are now using Virtual Reality (VR) for collaborative design reviews on digital mock-ups. These meetings often involve remote collaborators due to current trends towards decentralization of work organization. While lots of previous works proposed distributed architectures for implementing Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVE), modifying native CAD parts in such environments is challenging. There are two main difficulties: (i) how to directly modify native CAD data (i.e. data used internally in CAD software) from the virtual environment, and (ii) how to manage collaborative modifications of such data by remote users. Most common VR-CAD applications require data conversions before the VR session and post-modifications of original CAD data afterwards. Only a few VR applications allow direct modifications of native CAD data, but they do not support remote collaboration. In this paper, we propose a distributed architecture allowing collaborative modifications of native CAD data from remote and heterogeneous platforms. Technically, a VR-CAD server embedding a CAD engine is included in our architecture to load and modify native CAD data according to remote requests. A proof of concept uses our architecture to connect a wall-sized display and a CAVE-like system.

This paper describes a new concept of bodily experience that may be used in the future museum exhibit. An ordinary museum exhibits objects to make themselves talk with their authenticity to visitors, however it does not provide an interaction and vivid context in which they existed. A virtual experience system which creates multisensory stimuli potentially presents the realistic state of valuable artificial objects in the original environments. We think the experience of objects in a particular space is another theme that a future museum needs to seek. A novel rendering technique of a virtual body of a visitor is introduced where multisensory displays impart the sensation of presence of an environment and objects of interest through a pseudo walking experience. This digital museum device will add a new experience to relive a trip walking around objects based on recorded data from a real tourist.

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