ProCon3D is a perfect candidate for real-life applications within consumer product’s industry. ProCon3D ideal use is for the definition of an interactive product layout system based on 3D models made with commercial application.

Marketing departments today are facing growing pressure from a globalized market. Customers’ expectations are higher and overall product quality becomes of great importance. Having interactive tools capable of quickly and effectively verify configurations, check different solutions without the need for physical prototypes, is key to fast time-to-market and reduced costs. ProCon3D (a 3D Product Configurator)is the results of an industrial project which has lead to the development of a fully customisable 3D product configurator. The system can be used to generate a complex database of 3D objects and associated product attributes as well as to configure several product configurations and sales/use layout.

The easy to use and its interactive features allow use by non CAD/3D modellers specialists, making it the ideal tool for consumer product companies which want to streamline their product development process.

The main functionalities

As soon as the users start the system they are asked to insert their username and login. At this stage the main software window is started and the user can select a number of features. As visible from Figure 1 the system offers five different main features, each activating a different GUI:

• A first section shows where they can load data into a database, associate a 3D model, define attributes, link other documents.
• The second option is used by the user to configure a scenario. This is a fully configured environment where products contained in the database are placed and rendered interactively to create different product configurations or layouts.
• Further the ProCon3D let users define privileges according to the different operator’s working profile. At this stage it is possible to authorise each single user to the system and define the portion of the system visible to them.
• A fourth option can be used to configure technical aspects of the system such as its graphical layout.
• Last but not least the user can manage the database, by defining its location within the file system. This feature becomes important when working with different databases across several machines.

Given their importance, the following sections will focus on the first and second option, showing how to populate the database and how to configure a scenario.

Figure 1: The main interface showing the five main option of the system.

Population of the database

Whenever the user selects the “database” option the window in Figure 2 is shown. At this stage the interface is divided into three main sections. The bottom part can be used to create new objects, to define their category, their product type, their production year, their product code etc. The content of the drop-down menus can be customised by editing a simple .ini file.

Most importantly it is possible to associate a 3D model to the product itself. This has to be an EON Prototype, previously exported by the operator using standard EON software (www.eonreality.com). A preview window, placed on the top-right corner, shows the 3D object selected by the user. The 3D object can be fully interactive, that is it can contain interactions as well as other features supported by any EON prototype. In fact the whole set of interactions supported by standard EON applications are supported by ProCon3D. Usually in an ideal workflow, the operator creates a customised library of EON prototypes which can be used both within standard EON software and within ProCon3D.

At this stage the user then selects the 3D model to be associated to the database entry. This becomes the means to interact with the object within ProCon3D and fully represent the product within the system. Two buttons are shown in overlay to the 3D environment: these allow zoom-all and orbit functionalities. At this stage the user can also associate other documents such as CAD files, documents, PowerPoint presentations, Videos of the product’s advertisement etc. This allows the creation of a complete database associated with the 3D model whereby the user can specify product details as well as all other related documents which are necessary to track the product’s evolution.

The table at the top-right corner shows the whole set of objects present within the database and their features. The table can be ordered by any of the elements in the table which represent the features of the product. Whenever an item is selected from the database the user can see its 3D representation and they can edit the product’s properties.

ProCon3D tracks each database entry therefore it is possible at any time to ask the system to recall the product’s action history which details the date of creation and the author as well as any further modification to the product.

Figure 2: the database interface

The configuration of the scenario

Once a few products are inserted into the database the user can start configuring a product’s scenario. To do so he/she activates the appropriate window shown in Figure 3. The interface is now divided into 4 areas. At the top-right corner a number of drop-down menus can be used to compose a query by defining the most appropriate filters. The products which meet the filter constraints are shown in the table below. Whenever an object is selected from the table the user can show an interactive preview of the 3D model in the bottom-right window and further the product can be placed into the scene.

To create a scenario the user first chooses a scene. This can be added to the database just like any other object; however by defining an object as a “scene” it has consequences from the performance point of view since, as it will be illustrated later, this allows some major optimisation of the SceneGraph. Once the scene is added to the environment the user can then add the furniture. Similarly to scenes, furniture-objects are items in the database defined with a special tag. This allows them to be added onto a scene; however furniture are subject to gravity and they have mass property therefore it is possible to place products onto them during the configuration of the scene. Instead scene objects do not have mass property. This was chosen in order to optimise performances. However to avoid undesired effects such as object indefinitely free falling once dropped from a table, an invisible plane with mass property has been placed at the ground level.

Once both scene and furniture have been selected from the database, the user can start adding their products. These can be selected from the top-right panel and dropped into the scene. Once added they appear floating next to the user and following them during their movements within the scene. The user can navigate the scene and then place the objects at the proper position. To help them during the task an additional top-view windows can appear in overlay to the scene, centred on the user showing the surroundings. This feature is available together others such as activation of gravity on each single object, reset of the position of an object, freezing of the object and full screen mode. The object can also be placed through a pointer shown at the centre of the window.

Every time an object is added to the scene this is included in the table below the scene. The operator can decide to view the complete list of objects or to group the objects present in the scene according to their type. Once the operator has defined a product configuration/layout they can save it on the disk to retrieve it at later time.

Figure 3: the scenario interface




Figure 4a-4b: the scenario (fullscreen mode)