Using Immersive Engineering for industrial machinery

By Jamie Tyler

Rapid technological advancements are changing the world as we know it. Supply chain logistics and changes to consumer demands are adding a level of complexity to products we’ve never seen before. To stay ahead of the competition, companies must move with the times and ensure they have the tools needed to create products for the future.

Immersive Engineering in Designcenter NX™ software is the next step in product design, allowing teams to go beyond traditional 2D practices. It’s a revolutionary approach that combines the real and digital worlds, enabling global design teams to visualize the complex digital twins of new products.

There’s a clear benefit for companies operating in the Industrial Machinery industry. Planning, refining and optimizing production lines before they are assembled is essential. Done poorly, production lines may be sub-optimal, leading to a loss of productivity and affecting company’s bottom lines.

Imagine the value of being able to visualize a production line months before physically fitting it? Immersive Engineering is what makes this possible; it’s unconstrained collaborative visualization, not limited by the size of a PC monitor. The following blog explores key functionality in Immersive Engineering, and how this creates the future design environment for all product engineers.

Moving around the digital twin has never been easier

Seamless movement in an immersive environment is absolutely essential. Yes, creating a high-fidelity immersive environment is key, but what happens if the movement options aren’t at the same level of quality? If the movement feels clunky, users lose patience, and will default back to what they know best.

Within an Immersive Environment, users can use the out-of-the-box controllers to intuitively navigate a model. The Ring controller enables everyone complete freedom of movement, whilst the Pointing controller makes it easy to interact with a products’ digital twin.

What’s more, for anyone viewing an immersive session on a monitor, simple navigation can be achieved by using any compatible controller; (think the DualSense PS5 controller). Teleporting around a production line could reveal new issues previously overlooked; a vital element to consider when optimizing machinery layout.

The importance of the Virtual Monitor

Virtual Monitors underpin several game changing capabilities available in Immersive Engineering. The use of Virtual Monitors makes it possible to interact with models and uncover issues that can be overlooked when using traditional CAD methods.

Flexibility with Virtual Monitors are key; they can be re-positioned and re-sized for anyone’s liking. Using Virtual Monitors when working in Industrial Machinery makes it much easier to visualize a fully integrated kinematics simulation. Machine movement, product clearance and collision detection can all be identified when running kinematic studies, shifting left production and allowing design teams to identify costly errors earlier on in the process.

Collaboration is key

Being able to conduct an immersive design review session is crucial, but Immersive Engineering takes this one step further. It’s entirely possible to virtually connect all stakeholders from shop-floor to boardroom, from anywhere in the world to make smarter, faster decisions.

Working together in an immersive environment allows team members to discover potential ergonomic issues at 1:1 scale, a vital consideration for the development of new industrial machinery equipment. In this use case, it’s determined that the bin collecting the rejected pucks was too small. So, using the virtual monitor, the dimensions are altered,, making it easier for anyone to reach into the bin and retrieve the pucks.

It’s also important to bear in mind that any required design decisions can be captured in the immersive experience too. Since this use case is focused on rejected pucks, the sticky notes feature allows anyone to capture key design feedback, which can be relayed to colleagues directly in an immersive session.