Good workflow from OnShape to Virtual Reality (VR) Design Review using KeyVR

Ryan_McClelland

I thought folks might be interested that I have found a pretty good workflow for taking an OnShape CAD model, and viewing it in full scale in Virtual Reality (VR). Looking at my designs in VR gives me a whole different perspective, and often leads to finding errors or generating ideas I would not have had otherwise.

The KeyShot plug-in for OnShape works very smoothly, allowing you to open a model directly in the software. Then, if desired, you can add materials and an environment in KeyShot. Finally, just click the KeyVR button and you are there. I was able to view a model with ~5M triangles without dropping frames (VR needs ~90 fps). Having realistic materials was surprisingly impact-full on the utility of VR. There is also a collaboration mode in beta so people can review the design in VR in the same space, which should be very useful, given the current pandemic situation.

I've also experiment with Gravity Sketch for VR Design review, which also has geometry creation features, but it currently only imports OBJ files, which OnShape does not export naively.

Anyone else have experience with VR Design Review software? Good headsets can be had for ~$400 these days.

Theo_R

@Ryan_McClelland
Tried magic leap headset with an experimental Onshape demo. It was single user - if AR, then I see multi-user experiences as pretty helpful.

I have a quest and will try this out. Thank you for the tip - I'll let you know my findings.

Ryan_McClelland

@Theo_R You can get free trails of KeyShot and KeyVR if you don't have a license. The other VR Design Review app I have test a lot is Gravity Sketch. It has more features, but not a great workflow for CAD files. It is really designed for free form model creation, but imports OBJ. There is a co-creation beta. OnShape/PTC doesn't seen very interested in VR Design Review, but my organization has a lot of applications for it.

Theo_R

@Ryan_McClelland
Finally had a chance to try this out. My licenses are not upto date - tried the demo on an older PC and the frame rates were ~36/s on 4.6M traingles and a bit twitchy (I do not have the fastest usb-c tether cable either, but I would assume the rest of the hardware is a limitation).

Textures (meshes, perforations) did not reproduce in VR.
.AXF materials similarly unsupported.
I think once this gets a little further along it will be more applicable for us - an interesting aspect here is the need for a powerful workstation which has otherwise been entirely eliminated from our present workflow.

Gravity Sketch - I haven't made anything of value in this yet. I think be able to run Onshape (or simplified?) in VR with the same measured extrudes, sketches, sweeps would be valuable to rough things out and then deal with refinement later on.
This guy Nick has the hang of it https://www.instagram.com/nickpbaker/

Heard good things about tiltbrush.

Thanks for the tip.

tomasz_domanski

Hi, I have tried Microsoft Maquette (free) , opens stl but works best with obj in my experience as then assembly components can be manipulated separately which is handy when you want to look what's behind some cover etc. You can explode for example and save scenes at different visibility of components and so on. One drawback for me is that there is no shared experience/ multiplayer option in Microsoft Maquette yet but I definitely find Maquette easier to use than Gravity Sketch. 

Ryan_McClelland

I didn't know about Microsoft Maquette, I'll test that out. Gravity Sketch is also now free, unless you want the collaboration tools.