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Virtual Manufacturing / Maintenance Process Demonstration at Iowa State University Dassault Systèmes' DELMIA Software Integrated With Full Body Motion Capture and Large Screen Virtual Reality Provide Life-Size, Real-Time Process Visualization & Validation Ames, IA - June 20, 2007 - The Virtual Reality Applications Center (VRAC) at Iowa State University was the site of a landmark achievement last week for virtual manufacturing and maintenance process simulation. In a multidisciplinary, large-scale collaborative effort with industry and technology leaders, Dassault Systèmes' DELMIA, Mechdyne Corporation, and Motion Analysis Corporation, kicked-off a series of open house demonstrations to delineate the value proposal and benefits of having the V5 PLM architecture of Dassault Systemes' DELMIA V5 DPM (Digital Process Modeling) software suite enabled for a fully immersive virtual reality display solution. The June 14 demonstration – first in a series that will take place at VRAC during the next few months – illustrated that Delmia users can not only experience room-scale simulations of their prototype manufacturing and maintenance processes, but that several people can also work within the simulation by wearing full body motion tracking systems that interact with the virtual world. DELMIA V5 can now run natively, in real time, in a virtual reality environment when integrated with Conduit, an enabling software from Mechdyne's VRCO software division. Conduit enables DELMIA V5 to operate on PC clusters which are used to drive a large scale virtual reality environment. The tracking system, a Motion Analysis 8-camera Hawk-i system is configured to saturate the interactive volume of the virtual room providing the capability to track the user's entire body and movements, in real-time, and map them directly to the DELMIA V5 Human solution within the DELMIA V5 DPM environment. The user sees and interacts with realistic, stereoscopic surround screen images as if they were present in the real process. Since the solution is V5 compliant, this virtual environment solution is extensible across the Dassault Systemes' V5 PLM portfolio, which includes CATIA and ENOVIA. Enabling manufacturing engineers and plant designers to step inside their manufacturing process concepts before equipment is installed and operational, can generate significant savings and help with large scale cost avoidance. Creating an optimal design faster can increase speed to volume production which in turn can accelerate time to market. Virtually prototyping production assets and processes can eliminate the need to build physical mock-ups of the assembly floor and equipment. Identifying potential roadblocks in a process earlier can maximize production efficiency from start up. The immersive virtual solution was demonstrated using a Mechdyne FLEX™ system that uses three rear-projected side walls and a top-projected floor to create an immersive, synthetic environment. The system can be easily and readily reconfigured to function as a "U-shaped" room or as a 36 foot wide by 9 foot high PowerWall™ by swinging the movable sidewalls out by 90 degrees. The system uses four stereoscopic (three-dimensional) projectors and a three-dimensional sound system. Within the motion tracked environment of the Mechdyne FLEX system, a user is able to move around, navigate through and manipulate virtual worlds and even connect with users in other simulated environments. From a tracking perspective, this capability is an industry exclusive, not just for full-body articulation, but multiple, concurrent users have the ability to enter and exit the tracking volume without effecting the system calibration or subject setup. "By integrating the DELMIA V5 Human and DELMIA V5 DPM as part of the immersive virtual reality solution, Human Factors becomes an integrated, intuitive component in the design process, truly supporting the concept of ‘user-centered design", said Bob Brown, DELMIA CEO Advisor. "This allows engineers to analyze worker processes early in the manufacturing and maintenance planning lifecycle by creating detailed, virtual simulations to analyze how the human workers will interact with objects and to determine the technician's comfort and performance in the context of a maintenance or manufacturing operation." Additional demonstration days are planned for June 19th & 20th; June 25th & 26th, and July 11th & 12th, 2007. Further dates will be announced for later in July and August. Appointments can be set by contacting your DELMIA, Motion Analysis, or Mechdyne Account Representatives. ### About Mechdyne Corporation Mechdyne Corporation is the world’s largest company dedicated to consulting and development of immersive, networked and collaborative visualization systems. The company addresses complex projects where an in-depth understanding of user requirements leads to the development of products and customized solutions involving elements of visual, software and support systems. Mechdyne’s product divisions provide advanced display technology, audio/visual systems design, and implementation services, as well as immersive and interactive software development and support. Headquartered in Marshalltown, Iowa, Mechdyne’s customers include leading government laboratories, military research programs, energy companies and a variety of ‘edutainment,’ manufacturing, and other users of visualization technology. More information is available at www.mechdyne.com. About DELMIA DELMIA is a premier brand for digital manufacturing solutions, focused on two unique software applications that can be used to streamline manufacturing processes. DELMIA Automation provides solutions to digitally design, test and validate the control of a machine, workcell, or entire factory line and DELMIA PLM provides the process and resource capability to enable continuous creation and validation of manufacturing and maintenance processes as related to the product throughout the entire product lifecycle. DELMIA serves industries where the optimization of manufacturing processes is critical, including automotive, aerospace, fabrication and assembly, electrical and electronics, consumer goods, plant, and shipbuilding sectors. Information about DELMIA is available at http://www.delmia.com. About Motion Analysis Corporation (MAC) Motion Analysis Corporation is the worldwide industry leader and provider of advanced optical motion tracking systems for animation production, clinical & medical, sports, broadcasting, virtual reality, and industrial research applications with the unique capability to accurately map and preserve, live, in real-time, the kinematics of full-body, anthropometric human movement. The company was formed in 1982 and has its headquarters in Santa Rosa, California, USA. The company's technology solution incorporates proprietary optical hardware and bespoke software. About Dassault Systèmes As a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, Dassault Systèmes brings value to more than 90,000 customers in 80 countries. A pioneer in the 3D software market since 1981, Dassault Systèmes develops and markets PLM application software and services that support industrial processes and provide a 3D vision of the entire lifecycle of products from conception to maintenance. The Dassault Systèmes portfolio consists of CATIA for designing the virtual product - SolidWorks for 3D mechanical design - DELMIA for virtual production and maintenance - SIMULIA for virtual testing and ENOVIA for global collaborative lifecycle management, including ENOVIA VPLM, ENOVIA MatrixOne and ENOVIA SmarTeam. Dassault Systèmes is listed on the Nasdaq (DASTY) and Euronext Paris (#13065, DSY.PA) stock exchanges. For more information, visit http://www.3ds.com. Mechdyne Press Contact Jeff Brum Matt Schmidt |
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