HoloLens Viewer

Interpreting CAD drawings requires a lot of imagination and needs to be trained. Today there are technical possibilities to merge virtual 3D objects with reality. A concept for displaying CAD data on augmented reality glasses was developed and implemented in an application.
 

Master's thesis by Lukas Werz, Advisor Prof. Dr. sc. techn. Norbert Frei, Expert Dr. Rainer Weigel

For the recently released augmented reality glasses HoloLens, a concept was developed on how CAD components can be displayed easily and efficiently. This concept was successfully applied in the ClassCADViewClient prototype application.
 

Standard STEP CAD files are uploaded to a server on which a CAD system is installed. The HoloLens application logs on to this server, starts the CAD application and sends commands to load STEP files. The files are loaded and the representation is calculated. The tessellated data of the representation is transferred to the HoloLens application.
 

The HoloLens application can display these CAD components graphically. As the application processes the user's current environment, the CAD components can be placed on real work surfaces. The user can move and rotate the CAD components. If the components have reference systems, the CAD components can be built together.

Thanks to a library used, the HoloLens application recognizes defined images in the current camera field of view. This allows the CAD components to be mounted on real objects and follow them when they are moved. The application has been developed in such a way that several users are shown the same display on their devices. Each user sees the scene from their own perspective.