Thoughts on Stereoscopic Displays

[Michael Alba]

Has anyone here tried modeling with a stereoscopic display, like the Acer ConceptD 7 SpatialLabs Edition laptop? The idea is that 3D content will "float" in front of the screen, like a 3D movie but with no glasses required.

They're marketing it to CAD designers but it seems like a gimmick. Could anyone with hands-on experience share their thoughts?

 

[ctopher]

I only saw a concept similar to it. It doesn't jump off the screen like the web page you linked to. It only has a stereo effect. Not anything I would use. I would prefer to spend my money on a very good graphics card.

ctopher, CSWP
SolidWorks '19
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[Michael Alba]

Thanks ctopher, and good point, especially since these displays are not cheap. Acer has a couple standalone SpatialLabs displays starting at $1100. Sony has something similar too and it costs $5000.

 

[TheTick]

I worked in the belly of the beast, designing for a well-established VR gear manufacturer. I never saw anyone even try to CAD on VR there.

Personally, I'd rather not. Extended VR exposure leaves me off balance and overly tense from loss of external balance cues.

 

[drawoh]

Michael Alba,

Rotating your model creates an excellent 3D effect.

You need goggles to do 3D, right? I have just done a Zoom meeting where I shared my screen and demonstrated my SolidWorks model. 3D would not have worked.

--
JHG

 

[3DDave]

Autostereoscopic displays exist and need no eye wear to use. I expect that's what these are from the price given.

True, Zoom probably won't support those or the polarized or alternate frame shutter glasses.

3D is quite useful for tightly packed routing as even spinning the model around doesn't give an instantaneous impression for most clearances. That's a problem created by parallel/orthographic projection and is what gives the illusion of compression due to telephoto images. It would have been useful in routing cables and so forth inside military vehicles. Not so much for hand held gadgets.

 

[Michael Alba]

Thanks, I should have been more specific--as 3DDave pointed out, these are autostereographic displays, no headset or glasses required. Like the Nintendo 3DS from back in the day (but presumably better, for those prices).

Very interesting point about tightly packed routing. Have you actually used an autostereographic display for that work before? I'm curious if there's any other finnicky design work that might be slightly easier with these displays.

 

[3DDave]

I have not - however I have used eyeballs on actual 3D assemblies and can see problems I know aren't visible from non-perspective views or the really weird results from using perspective projection on typical CAD systems where the camera point and eye-crossing intersection point aren't easily controlled.

 

[Michael Alba]

In that case, hypothetically, would you spend the extra money on an autostereographic display ($1k+) to do such work?

 

[3DDave]

It's like recommending a pet to someone else. I can suggest that the people who do under-hood routing must use them to figure out how to make servicing engines almost impossible without taking everything apart.