Editor's Pick: Direct conversion of CAD into AR/VR-ready meshes

Nextech AR Solutions debuts a new technology that offers fast and detailed conversion of CAD data into AR/VR-ready 3D meshes. The Vancouver, Canada, company says its new technology is ready for incorporation into existing CAD programs or for use by product development companies. 

Nextech has been supplying 3D solutions for online point-of-sale sites. Now it has extended its capabilities by creating a patent-pending solution for the direct conversion of CAD data into 3D meshes ready for use in AR/VR. 

The company says this new capability “implies drastically improved scalability associated with Nextech’s 3D models for e-commerce, with the creation of photorealistic, fully textured 3D models” from raw CAD 3D data and reference images. 

 “Most modern products that have ever been built have been manufactured from reference CAD models,” CEO Evan Gappelberg comments. “Think of it: that’s billions of products worldwide, and Nextech has invented an easy way to turn them into 3D models. Instead of using 2D images to create 3D models, we now have the ability to go straight to the source, where the products are actually designed by engineers (CAD files) and render these into perfect 3D models at scale. Our new CAD-to-POLY solution is backed by technology that will prove to be the Holy Grail of scaling 3D content.”

Nextech says it has solved the problem of having to work with existing CAD conversions for use in AR/VR. 

“Rather than relying on native CAD conversion, we have created a CAD conversion technology from scratch, creating new techniques rooted in computational geometry, computer vision and physics,” the company says. When given a CAD file, users are able to create textured, lightweight 3D models at scale to use for real-time AR and 3D viewing.

This new technology is now being offered to CAD vendors and existing Nextech customers. The company plans to offer software as a solution (SaaS) for the new technology sometime in 2022 to complement its existing 3D technologies for e-commerce. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.