3D models – facilitating engineers’ work

Creating a new device is much faster if you have a 3D model

Today, engineers and designers in every field work with virtual objects. No device gets built before having its model created and perfected in the virtual space. Such 3D model is an exact projection of the physical thing which can be adjusted, amended and refined until it’s ready for production.

Having a 3D model of a part that you will be placing in a device allows you to implement it in your 3D software automatically. If all you get is a technical drawing, you have to redraw it as it is only a flat structure with many different projections: front, side, back, etc. Today, 3D programs allow you to build a whole device in space. You don’t have to build it on many flat drawings anymore, instead, you build a spatial model.

3D model of a display

Normally, a device with a display will have a housing, a plastic frame, a PCB, etc. A 3D software allows you to turn all the pieces in any direction as a whole or to take it apart; you can also turn off certain elements and see how they work together. If you are making a housing, for example, with a board and power supply inside, you can download a ready 3D model of a Riverdi display and just put it in. As if it were a physical object, but virtually.

Then, you can immediately see if something does not fit; maybe something needs to be moved, maybe a connector, maybe the PCB, maybe the FFC tape, maybe the cables are too long, maybe the glass is too thick – you can easily measure distances, arrange your own board, see how to route the cables, estimate connection lengths… There is no need for guessing, everything is there, ready. You don’t make the physical device until your 3D model is perfect.

3D simulation straight to production

In 3D simulation, the possibility of committing a serious error is very small. Once you finish the design, you start to produce. If the 3D models were correct, the chances of anything being wrong is close to zero. There might be some functional corrections that need to be made but as for the assembly, it should correspond to the physical element designed in 3D.

Another great point is that with a 3D model, you can prepare an animation for the client. We are all visual creatures and seeing a virtual model of a device really helps us understand what it will look like in reality. A technical drawing can only show the tolerance range and illustrate dimensions.

A ready-made 3D model straight from the manufacturer is a great facilitation and acceleration of work for engineers and mechanics. At Riverdi, we make the process as seamless as possible so you can download a 3D model for every display we have in store straight from the website.