Virtual Reality based Collaboration

May 27, 2020

How can virtual reality (VR) be used to enhance collaboration and coordination of building design? Until recently, VR experiences were mostly solo flights – users wear a headset and delve deep into a three-dimensional model. While extremely powerful for visualization, these solo VR experiences necessarily result in isolation of the user from other team members. It was hard to have a real “meeting” in virtual space.

We are now using new tools that enable multi-user VR experiences in cloud based models. Imagine seeing avatars of your co-workers, clients, or other project partners in virtual space as the team walks through design issues right inside the model. Users can participate with a headset, or right on their computer screen if they prefer. This powerful technology includes the ability to point at objects, create markups, and even move objects around to illustrate different designs. Odeh Engineers has hosted meetings for clients in VR to enable design coordination of new buildings, troubleshooting of detailed design problems, and even fabrication model/shop drawing review.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, cloud based VR models have also become a great way for us to coordinate our designs and collaborate with team members.

Huntington Tower Case Study