As every year, SKYREAL took part in the Unreal Fest, where Epic Games showcases its latest innovations and roadmap to Unreal Engine power users from all around the world.
This edition was particularly special for us, as Hugo Falgarone (CEO) and Benjamin Ray (CTO) led a session to present how SKYREAL unlocks the power of Unreal Engine for industrial applications leveraging data from PLM solutions.
Connecting Unreal Engine with PLM is our core expertise, a topic we’re passionate about and dedicated exclusively to industrial professionals.
Here’s a recap of the session we had the pleasure of hosting last October at Seattle’s Unreal Fest, which attempts to highlight the highlights of the event. It begins with an introduction to SKYREAL, followed by an overview of the challenges we face, an explanation of the parallels between UEFN and SKYREAL, a deep dive into the Ariane 6 use case, and concludes with a live demo specially designed for the festival.
(If you’d like to watch the full session, click here!)
1/ Our Vision
At SKYREAL, our vision is to accelerate the development of tomorrow’s world by empowering teams to collaborate efficiently on complex projects, using 3D as a universal language.
Our mission is to simplify complexity by unlocking the untapped potential of existing 3D data, enabling enterprises to harness it in new and impactful ways.
With a cutting-edge solution built on game engine architecture, we seamlessly integrate CAD models into a customizable platform, providing industries with the tools they need to innovate and thrive in an increasingly intricate industrial landscape.
2/ Challenges deploying UE content in engineering industries
This chapter highlights the importance of PLM for our clients and the many challenges that must be addressed to industrialize solutions and content based on Unreal Engine.
The PLM serves as the single source of truth for industries, acting like a Git tailored for Industrial Engineers. It plays a fundamental role in managing the complexities of large-scale models with over a million objects, handling multiple instances and configurations, and ensuring precise versioning.
PLM also supports high-fidelity meshes, including defeaturing processes, and efficiently organizes a vast number of 3D meshes with hierarchical relationships. It excels in attribute management and accommodates a variety of file formats, making it indispensable for maintaining order and precision in industrial engineering projects.
Industrializing Unreal Engine-based solutions presents several challenges that must be addressed to meet the demands of complex industries. These include :
- Managing diverse 3D data sources and effectively authoring PLM data
- Ensuring seamless live updates from CAD data
- Overcoming cost and effort barriers — such as the need to design individual applications for each CAD model.
- Scalability, security, and deployment are critical considerations, alongside authentication processes that respect CAD user rights.
- Finally, enabling cross-application collaboration is essential to create a cohesive and efficient ecosystem for industrial teams.
3/ Our platform approach
Here is a quick overview of the SKYREAL platform in perspective with UEFN :
From a technical standpoint :
SKYREAL in a nutshell is a solution that leverages :
- The massive development of virtual reality
- The incredible progress of game engine technologies
- The availability of CAD models across all industries.
These three factors combined unlock the power of SKYREAL, enabling its use in four main areas: engineering, manufacturing, training, and marketing.
4/ Ariane 6 use case
As part of the Ariane 6 program, the SKYREAL platform is used to design mechanical parts more quickly, validate robotic cells upstream and train operators located in French Guiana remotely.
This optimizes collaboration, reduces lead times by up to 6 months on the production schedule, and secures preparations for space launches.
5/ Live demos
Demo STEP 1 – Import CAD data
This step shows how to import a 3D model of a space plane into the SKYREAL platform to create an interactive experience.
The model is integrated into a realistic environment that can be manipulated in real time. Numerous functionalities are then available, such as the addition of a virtual manikin to simulate postures, and the modification of numerous technical details such as object rotation, transparency, etc.
Demo STEP 2 – Update CAD data (Design iteration)
In this stage, it is possible to simulate a content update and “hot reload” with great flexibility, within an ongoing VR experience.
The product structure can be modified live, and various CAD formats can be merged (CATIA, JT, STEP, etc.), for example.
Demo STEP 3 – Customize content in Unreal Editor
The aim here is to create a new experience based on the same spaceplane, but set in a different environment.
The idea is to demonstrate the full flexibility of the SKYREAL platform, thanks to its integrated editor which allows you to modify a scene, add content, then return to the application and view the modifications live.
Demo STEP 4 – Create your own plugin
The aim in this final stage is to easily create a custom plugin (in this case, a small interactive game) from an industrial 3D model (CAD) and run it in the Unreal ecosystem, thanks to rapid development in just a few days.
Take aways :
Thanks to the power and flexibility of the SKYREAL platform, the same CAD model can be used to create 4 different experiences in the blink of an eye:
- Technical visualization
- Immersive training
- Launch simulation
- Customized plug-in
6/ Conclusions
What’s most striking about this presentation is SKYREAL’s ability to exploit CAD models, integrate them into Unreal Engine and build high-value immersive experiences. The examples of Airbus and ATR illustrate this in different ways.
Thanks to SKYREAL, Airbus was able to secure the start of production in its factories and identify potential defects before the actual launch. Aircraft manufacturer ATR, for its part, relied on the same platform to create a low-cost cabin configurator, but with high-quality visual rendering, thus becoming a genuine sales tool.
