Virtual reality is rapidly advancing in a variety of fields, from movies and technology to everyday life, and it’s becoming the next platform to deliver more sophisticated and immersive experiences, especially when combined with CAD.

How far has virtual reality come?

There was an unexpected guest in Hall 3 of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) exhibition center in Barcelona, Spain. It was Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. After a brief exchange of pleasantries with Dong-Jin Koh, president of Samsung Electronics’ wireless division, he gave a brief speech on the topic of “Virtual Reality (VR) is the next platform.” He discussed the endless possibilities of virtual reality and urged people to pay attention to it.
The 88th Academy Awards were held at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. Leonardo DiCaprio finally won the Best Actor award for “The Revenant” after five nominations, and Emmanuel Lubezki, the cinematographer of the same movie, became the first person in history to win the Academy Award for Best Cinematography three years in a row. Notably, a grizzly bear, which was the source of much of the tension in the film and caused DiCaprio’s hardship, appeared in the audience during the Best Actor ceremony, bringing laughter to many onlookers.
These events illustrate the impact of virtual reality and the speed at which it is evolving. At the very time that Zuckerberg was calling for interest in virtual reality, it had already reached the masses through the medium of movies. The grizzly bear in “The Revenant” wowed audiences with its lifelike speed and weight, but it wasn’t a real bear, it was a human-made fake. Facebook’s $2.5 trillion acquisition of Oculus, a virtual reality technology company, was likely driven by the elegance and promise of virtual reality, which minimizes the distance between the monitor and the human eye to create a 360-degree, front-to-back, side-to-side, realistic sense of space, rather than the limitations of a monitor that provides only a flat view.

Why does virtual reality need CAD’s help?

Because the whole point of virtual reality is to give people a lifelike visual experience, it relies heavily on detailed and precise depictions of objects. The modeling of these objects is often implemented by computer-aided design (CAD) programs such as AutoCAD and Shade 3D.
CAD means “computer-aided design or design,” and was originally developed to replace the tedious and repetitive task of hand drawing in the industrial field. The different CAD programs used in industry have different purposes. For example, AutoCAD is used to create two-dimensional drawings of parts, SolidWorks to see how a product works as a whole and whether parts interfere with each other, and CATIA for the exterior of a product with its ability to express curves. These characterizing factors clearly distinguish CAD from common drawing tools like pencils and rulers.
However, CAD has transcended its limited perception as an industrial design technique and is now being used in many areas of our daily lives. The advantage of using CAD is that it allows us to create elaborate representations of the objects we want to create with simple manipulations, which allows us to analyze and feedback on the results without actually building the object. In other words, virtual reality experiences through CAD can save both merchants and consumers money and time.
For example, the American company Invisalign has cleverly solved the problems of traditional braces with wires. They analyze the structure of your teeth in CAD, then consult with your dentist to create an orthodontic plan and fabricate braces. The braces are customized for each customer and are made of clear plastic. This attention to detail provides customers with a comfortable fit and the confidence of a flawless smile. Another example is wig manufacturer Himo. The company takes a CAD representation of a customer’s head and uses it to help them design and try on different hairstyles. This allows consumers to choose the product that best suits them and enjoy an affordable, high-quality service.
To meet the diverse needs of today’s consumers, CAD can satisfy them quickly and inexpensively, especially by allowing them to experience the world of virtual reality in a safe and comfortable time and place.

What is the appeal of CAD?

First of all, contrary to popular belief, CAD is more of an artistic tool than an engineering technology. Designing with CAD is a fine art that takes time to develop, not a math problem with difficult calculations and complex formulas. To be precise, CAD is similar to modeling in art. Just as a sculptor starts with a skeleton of the shape he wants to create and adds parts to it one by one, CAD works by building on top of the basic framework. CAD designers are similar to artisans who create ceramics by carefully crafting each piece.
Second, CAD is flexible enough to be utilized in many different fields. Today, CAD is used in a wide range of fields beyond the engineering disciplines of architecture, mechanics, electrical, and electronics, including advertising, costume design, film, drama, medicine, and beauty. Even in contemporary art, the field of computer art using CAD and other computer programs is emerging. The media art of the late painter Nam June Paik is an example, and CAD is gaining popularity as a useful means of visually representing imaginations that are difficult for humans to express. In this regard, the view that CAD should be viewed from the perspective of art rather than science and technology is also spreading.
Third, CAD is becoming more than just a tool, but an assistant in the human decision-making process. By utilizing the algorithms of artificial intelligence (AI) expert systems, an infinite variety of virtual realities can be created. CAD, which started out as a simple drawing tool, is transforming from an assistant in the creation of virtual reality to a facilitator of the virtual reality world of the future.
As you can see, CAD is evolving from technology to art, from complex industrial sites to our everyday lives, and from a simple drawing tool to a human assistant. What used to be a program to do the hard labor of holding a pencil and doing it by hand is now becoming the human hand itself. The future will be a hyper-realistic society based on virtual reality, which will be realized through CAD. Therefore, I would like to recommend that engineering students have a variety of competencies, but especially CAD literacy as a basic competency.