Prototyping of Designs in Virtual Reality

Conventional CAD systems have not yet proven their ability to provide support for activities which characterise the early conceptual phase of design. We propose to refer to this set of capabilities of the human designer in conventional design as, design prototyping. We define the theoretical limitations of current CAD systems for supporting design prototyping, and postulate the potential of functionally dedicated, task related, CAD modules in Virtual Reality as a means to provide a unique form of a knowledge-based, visual design support environment for design prototyping support. We are currently engaged in a research program in which we explore CAD as a medium to support early conceptual design through rapid prototyping of architectural form. Furthermore we are exploring Virtual Reality as a potential design prototyping environment in which prototypes of designs can be constructed, communicated and visually evaluated at a high level of verisimilitude. In the first phase we have built the prototype system VIDE. This system has been used for extensive internal evaluation. In the ongoing second phase we are constructing an empirical research to observe designers at work on design prototyping in the Virtual Reality environment.