Design with Depth
This article discusses that how mechanical engineers will pair their already-familiar computer-aided design software with not-so-familiar three-dimensional (3D) displays for true 3D design. This is in accordance to a number of vendors' intent on supplying the newfangled computer monitors, within the next two decades. Although some of the devices are already on the market, affordable 3D monitors and displays seem to be more than a decade away, according to one university professor at work on such a project. Widespread adoption is still hindered by factors such as cost, software availability, and lack of a mouse-like device needed to interact with what’s on screen. Over the past 25 years, mechanical engineers have witnessed evolutionary change in design methods-from pen and paper to two-dimensional software and now to 3-D computer-aided design. While software makers have stepped up with sleeker and faster modeling capabilities, visualization lags. Computer users two decades out will carry out all business, web surfing, and gaming on 3-D displays. That next generation may well find the very idea of 2-D monitors to be as dated as record albums seem to teenagers today.