A light-weight CAAD-VR bridge

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) has been proven an effective media for design communications. VR-enabled design environments allow laypersons to join in various stages of design process and achieve a wide range of participatory designs. However, most of these environments are developed for research purposes and not easily accessible to architects. This research aims to bridge the gap of VR hardware and design software to make VR easily accessible to architects. We develop a set of 4 use cases for implementing VR-enabled design environment: (1) Export Design Elements to VR; (2) Authorizing VR co-design environment; (3) Design Manipulation in VR; and (4) Output VR Objects to CAAD. A prototype has been implemented using HTC Vive and Unity to test these use cases. The data exchange between VR environment and CAAD environment is achieved through the JSON format. The prototype is tested by students in a graduate-level design studio with promising results.