Virtual engineering
Encyclopedia
Virtual engineering is defined as integrating geometric models and related engineering tools such as analysis, simulation
, optimization
, and decision making
tools, etc., within a computer-generated
environment that facilitates multidisciplinary collaborative product development. Virtual engineering shares many characteristics with software engineering
, such as the ability to obtain many different results through different implementations.
The key components of such an environment include:
Virtual engineering allows engineers to work with objects in a virtual space without having to think about the objects' underlying technical information. When an engineer takes hold of a virtual component and moves or alters it, he or she should only have to think about the consequences of such a move in the component's real world counterpart. Engineers must also be able to create a picture of the system, the various parts of the system, and how the parts will interact with each other. When engineers can focus on the making decisions for particular engineering issues rather than the underlying technical information, design cycles and costs are reduced.
Other modules can exist performing various other tasks, such as prototype manufacturing, product life cycle management, etc.
Simulation
Simulation is the imitation of some real thing available, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system....
, optimization
Optimization (mathematics)
In mathematics, computational science, or management science, mathematical optimization refers to the selection of a best element from some set of available alternatives....
, and decision making
Decision making
Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.- Overview :Human performance in decision terms...
tools, etc., within a computer-generated
Computer-generated
The term computer-generated most often refers to a sound or visual that has been created in whole or in part with the aid of computer software...
environment that facilitates multidisciplinary collaborative product development. Virtual engineering shares many characteristics with software engineering
Software engineering
Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...
, such as the ability to obtain many different results through different implementations.
The concept
A virtual engineering environment provides a user-centered, first-person perspective that enables users to interact with an engineered system naturally and provides users with a wide range of accessible tools. This requires an engineering model that includes the geometry, physics, and any quantitative or qualitative data from the real system. The user should be able to walk through the operating system and observe how it works and how it responds to changes in design, operation, or any other engineering modification. Interaction within the virtual environment should provide an easily understood interface, appropriate to the user's technical background and expertise, that enables the user to explore and discover unexpected but critical details about the system's behavior. Similarly, engineering tools and software should fit naturally into the environment and allow the user to maintain her or his focus on the engineering problem at hand. A key aim of virtual engineering is to engage the human capacity for complex evaluation.The key components of such an environment include:
- User-centered virtual realityVirtual realityVirtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
visualization techniques. When presented in a familiar and natural interfaceUser interfaceThe user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
, complex three-dimensional data becomes more understandable and usable, enhancing the user's understanding. Coupled with an appropriate expert (e.g., a design engineer, a plant engineer, or a construction manager), virtual reality can reduce design time for better solutions. - Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) Interactive analysis and engineering. Today nearly all aspects of power plant simulation require extensive off-line setup, calculation, and iteration. The time required for each iteration can range from one day to several weeks. Tools for interactive collaborative engineering in which the engineer can establish a dynamic thinking process are needed to permit real-time exploration of the “what-if” questions that are essential to the engineering process. In nearly all circumstances, an engineering answer now has much greater value than an answer tomorrow, next week, or next month. Although many excellent engineering analysis techniques have been developed, they are not routinely used as a fundamental part of engineering design, operations, control, and maintenance. The time required to set up, compute, and understand the result, then repeat the process until an adequate answer is obtained, significantly exceeds the time available. This includes techniques such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD), finite elements analysis (FEA), and optimization of complex systems. Instead, these engineering tools are used to provide limited insight to the problem, to sharpen an answer, or to understand what went wrong after a bad design and how to improve the results next time. This is particularly true of CFD analysis.
- Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) : Integration of real processes into the virtual environment. Engineering is more than analysis and design. A methodology for storage and rapid access to engineering analyses, plant data, geometry, and all other qualitative and quantitative engineering data related to plant operation still needs to be developed.
- Engineering decision support tools. Optimization, cost analysis, scheduling, and knowledge-based tools need to be integrated into the engineering processes.
Virtual engineering allows engineers to work with objects in a virtual space without having to think about the objects' underlying technical information. When an engineer takes hold of a virtual component and moves or alters it, he or she should only have to think about the consequences of such a move in the component's real world counterpart. Engineers must also be able to create a picture of the system, the various parts of the system, and how the parts will interact with each other. When engineers can focus on the making decisions for particular engineering issues rather than the underlying technical information, design cycles and costs are reduced.
Usual denomination
Usually, the modules of Virtual Engineering are named as such :- Computed Aided Design (CAD) : It designate the capability to model a geometry using geometric operations that can be close to real life industrial machining process such as revolution, dressing, extruding. The CAD module is made to ease the generation of a geometrical shape. It comes usually with other modules, such as an engineering drawing making tool.
- Computed Aided Manfufacturing (CAM) : Even if the CAD provide an accurate virtual shape of the objects or parts, the manufacturing of these can be far different, just because the previous tool just dealt with perfect mathematical operation (perfect point, lines, plan, volumes). To take into account in a more realistic manner of the succession of manufacturing operations and to be able to certify that the end product will be close to the virtual model, engineers make use of a manufacturing module which represent a tool that machine the parts.
- Computed Aided Engineering (CAE) : Another aspect is integrated in a Virtual engineering tool, which is the engineering analysis (finite element analysis of strains, stress, temperature distribution, flow etc.). Such tool can be integrated to the main software or separated. It is usual that the CAE modules software dedicated to that task, having less features in the CAD aspect. Often the tools can perform import/export to make the most of the each tool.
Other modules can exist performing various other tasks, such as prototype manufacturing, product life cycle management, etc.
Resources
- Virtual Engineering Inc.,
- http://www.veng.com/
- TrianzTrianzTrianz is a Consulting, IT services and BPO services company, providing turnkey solutions to clients.Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, United States, Trianz is founded by Sri Manchala in 2000 with a focus to provide management consulting to large corporates...
- www.trianz.com
- V-businessV-businessv-Business is the sale of real or virtual products from a virtual world. v-Business or virtual business is a term was first mentioned in "E-Commerce and V-Business: Business Models for Global Success" by Stuart Barnes, Brian Hunt, et al....
- VESuiteVesuiteVE-Suite is an open source virtual engineering software toolkit that simplifies information management so users can simultaneously interact with engineering analyses and graphical models to create a virtual decision-making environment...
- Mark Bryden