Many of those who are passionate about 3D printing sometimes underestimate the importance of 3D visualization environments; however, before 3D printing a prototype to test it in real world conditions, it can be very useful to “play” with the CAD design in simulated virtual environments. That is what theConstruct, a Swiss startup that was just voted among the top 8 at the Startup Fair – Swiss Startup Convention, wants to enable you to do.
The main innovation in theConstruct’s project, other than the fact that they are developing a highly accessible virtual reality collaborative environment, is that the system will enable you to visualize and interact with any type of 3D CAD file. “Our vision is to provide a simple and effective way to automatically virtualize 3D Models regardless of the format or tools with which they are created,” the company explained. “We can enable users without any VR experience to see and actually live their products and ideas in a Virtual World that we create together!”
So far, the project has resulted in a working proof-of-concept, a technical prototype which enables users of CAD software to watch their 3D models in any of the existing formats or applications, both simple and complex, in virtual reality. The next step is the development of theConstruct 0.1, which will allow for full simulated interaction.
As it stands right now (voting closed on June 18th), theConstruct has won the popular vote by a long run, with close to 800 votes, preceding the mobile social app Crowd and custom clothing ecommerce platform EyeFitU. With theConstruct, engineering and computer aided design (CAD), review can become a fun and social process, based within a social setting, and tear down the boundaries of physical presence in doing so. This is a necessary step to set the context in which 3D printed manufacturing can truly take hold.
