UC San Diego

Computer Aided Design and Engineering (CAD/ CAE) tools currently available in the market have dramatically improved since their inception. In product development, CAD/ CAE has enabled the user to design, test, analyze and optimize the product virtually even before the first prototype is built. Use of direct modeling for product conceptualization allows the designer to create concept design iterations freely, quickly, flexibly and fast optimization. While modeling geometric databases have been 3D since long time, the interaction technology still uses 2D input devices like mouse, with Virtual Reality (VR) as a standalone visualization tool. Over the years, it has been recognized that the conventional 2D input devices for entering 3D shape information makes the interaction cumbersome and negatively affect creativity. This research focuses on design of virtual reality based user interface for automotive chassis design

Virtual reality based user interface is developed to iteratively design and prototype various automotive chassis concepts. The tools for ergonomic analysis and center of mass visualization enable the user to rapidly optimize the design in VR. The VR environment is interfaced with commercial finite element software to test the design concepts for structural integrity. Virtual constrains aid modeling tasks and minimize the processing effort required on the conceptual model to a parametric model.

The thesis is concluded with a preliminary cognitive walkthrough study. The VR based user interface can allow the user to rapidly test various design concepts quickly, and flexibly. The user interface can reduce the concept to market time, enhance creativity, and reduce the total cost of product development. This interface can be a stepping stone for the future VR based CAD interfaces.