Walkinside lets you visit facilities via interactive 3D walkthroughs in real time – even in the most complex 3D CAD models – making them easy to understand. Walkinside has been developed to fit with the needs of the industry where incredibly complicated designs – like nuclear power plants or large offshore oil platforms – are smoothly visualized without discarding equipment or splitting the model into smaller parts.

Full immersion

Thanks to VRcontext’s breakthrough patented technology, and the latest-generation 3D graphics hardware features, Walkinside creates unprecedented levels of realism.

Interact with the environment

Walkinside lets you review your project through the eyes of a virtual human character as if you were walking inside a real world. With our "gravity" technology, you walk on the ground, you climb stairs and you are conscious of the size and properties of the elements you see. In addition, Walkinside also offers "collision detection" technology where your design instances are obstacles in your path – you cannot walk through walls and you will bang your head on low hanging pipes. Walkinside has been designed to make virtual walkthroughs real.

In order to further enhance the realism of the virtual walkthrough – the Walkinside user can adapt the environment (skyboxes) to the model – e.g. if the model is a ship, the user can select a sea background.

Painless conversion

Walkinside converts existing 3D CAD designs into interactive 3D walkthroughs in no time and without any settings at all, as easily as you print a document. Walkinside's converter is tightly integrated with a number of leading CAD tools within AEC CAD and MCAD. You do not need to simplify your 3D model or rebuild a new model from scratch using specialized tools, nor will you have to prepare any specific collision detection paths – with Walkinside, conversion is painless. Furthermore, Walkinside supports your textured elements and transparencies – these are seamlessly converted.

“I don’t have 3D CAD files – what do I do ?” Walkinside can convert laser scanning data from the major laser manufacturers. As a consequence you can view the resulting point cloud files in Walkinside with the same ease as with 3D CAD data. In addition to just reading and visualizing the point clouds, Walkinside reads RGB values, intensity value, etc., to provide photo realistic 3D environments.

Navigation

“Can I use it ? And can my peers ?” Walkinside has been designed for project stakeholders without any CAD experience. Simply use the mouse and arrow keys to navigate through the 3D model.

Virtual character

Walkinside can be used in first or third person mode. The first person mode sets the camera in the eyes of the virtual character. This function is the closest to real immersion for the user. The third person mode sets the camera above and behind the virtual character.

With gravity and collision detection toggled on (by default), the virtual character behaves as a real person. The actions that the virtual character can perform are Standing, Walking, Running, Jumping, Crouching, Hovering, Flying, Networking, Snorkeling and Swimming.

A further enhancement to the virtual character is that one "skin" does not fit all. The Walkinside user can select between several outfits as well as the same outfit in different colors.

Enriched environment

Walkinside supports dynamic and static construction databases present in the CAD model.

Walkinside supports the database inputs from PDMS (AVEVA) and PDS (Intergraph). The engineering data is statically converted and imported together with the 3D model. By right-clicking the mouse, the user can access the database information stored in the *.vr file.

Merge your CAD files

Often for large projects different CAD tools are used by subcontractors to design the installations. However, reviewing a project, with information residing in several file formats, remains a challenge. Now with Walkinside, the user can merge several files converted from different CAD formats into one consistent 3D model and save the result for future global reviews.

From Desktop to VR centre

Walkinside is a tool for collaboration, communication and coordination – Walkinside is a companion at the workstation where CAD designs can be reviewed by engineers and checked for consistency and adherence to the project documentation. Once the individual stage is completed Walkinside becomes a project review tool – engineers can review the merged designs and check them for integrity in front of a projection screen.

When the engineers have completed the design, the project is presented with Walkinside to the stakeholders review meeting typically in a VR center. This is where engineers meet with management, production & safety teams and suppliers to ensure that the project is designed in accordance with requirements and needs. Because Walkinside is so user-friendly, all parties can navigate in the virtual 3D model without any CAD expertise.

Once the engineering phase is completed, Walkinside becomes a reviewing tool for training, production, maintenance and safety. All disciplines can see, navigate and immerse themselves into the environment for complete understanding of the installation.

Walkinside also supports stereoscopic display from desktops to VR centers to further enhance immersion and give users an even better understanding of their projects.

On-line & Off-line Collaboration

When the users are spread geographically, they can collaborate on-line via LAN, WAN and Internet and see each other in the same model.

Whether connected or not, Walkinside users can outline and comment equipment using the redlining feature. Via this function other users can later access the model and review the comments.

Distribution of knowledge

Using Walkinside gives a good overview of the project and specifics. However, for those who have no access to the Walkinside software, screen images or avi movies can be produced with a single key stroke and distributed e.g. by email along with building instructions, safety procedures and documents.

Special functionality

Walkinside users can loose their way in massive models covering several sq km. To avoid such a situation, a pop-up window with the 2D map of the installation can be displayed indicating the viewer’s location and eye direction.

Integrated in Walkinside is the ability to spawn – i.e. insert – additional models in the current VR model. Spawning is a temporary function and often precedes the merge function for project reviews before decision.

Walkinside allows selecting and moving any piece of equipment anywhere in the model.

A further feature of Walkinside is the ability to take measurements in the virtual model. With a right click user can select the measurement tool and measure distances while walking in the environment.

 

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