How to Shorten Design Cycle Times of Complex Materials
Industrial designers struggle to get an accurate representation of how a new color will look on their final product, especially with complex materials and finishes. Creating a virtual rendering is a cost-effective and sustainable way to perform meaningful reviews and get stakeholder feedback before production even begins.
Challenges
When presenting new colors on their concepts or products, industrial designers must bridge the gap between design expectations and the manufacturing process.
- Color and appearance attributes can change based on surface shape and viewing conditions
- Prototypes are expensive to produce and require long approval cycles
- Creating and shipping prototypes restricts manufacturers on the number of color samples they can present
- Physical prototypes leave a gap between initial approval and achievable color from concept to production
- Identifying a color issue after production begins wastes time and materials, and slows time to market
Solution
Instead of fabricating prototypes to demonstrate how the material will appear on the final product, industrial designers can use the PANTORA desktop application to create a physically accurate virtual representation. This enables designers, product managers, engineers, manufacturers and other key stakeholders to visualize the color, sparkle, and surface texture of all types of complex samples, and simulate how color, appearance and other special attributes can be visualized on 3-dimensional objects and forms under different lighting conditions.
Powered by X-Rite’s AxF format, this representation can be visualized within PANTORA as well as imported into third-party visualization and simulation tools for use in a range of industries, including durable goods, home goods, and consumer packaged goods.
Results
Creating a virtual rendering that goes beyond color to capture full material appearance is a fast, easy, and economical way to gain stakeholder buy-in.
- Sets realistic expectations by accurately characterizing color and other plastic material attributes like opacity and translucency
- Generates fast approval without the time and material waste of prototypes
- Visualizes multiple components to ensure part to part harmony
- Identifies color issues before production begins by applying to a virtual replica that includes different surfaces, curves, and edges
- Establishes a spectral and texture data audit trail for formulation and production QC to ensure consistency through the process
- Ensures fast and easy material specifications and enables reuse though a digital repository
How it Works
- The designer uses the MA-T12 to measure the coatings, leather or plastic textured sample. With the multi-angle measurement, it fully characterizes both color and special attributes like sparkle, coarseness or other texture characteristics.
- PANTORA locates, acquires, and imports digital materials as AxF files, applies the material to arbitrary geometry, and renders it in real-time in a virtual scene for an immersive digital material evaluation experience.
- The designer can send the digital rendering to engineers, production managers, supply chain partners, and other stakeholders for review and approval through a third-party rendering solution or PLM system.
- These digital materials can be stored, managed, viewed, and edited in AxF from a centralized location for future recipes and to create marketing materials.
Featured Products
A desktop application designed to simplify the management of a large volume of complex color and appearance data. It acts as the epicenter of appearance workflows, connecting digital material input sources with output designations such as third-party rendering software and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Systems.
With twelve angles of measurement and an on-board color calibrated RGB camera, the advanced MA-T12 multi-angle spectrophotometer can fully characterize and verify color, sparkle, coarseness and texture characteristics with the highest level of repeatability and reproducibility.
Third Party Rendering Software
Renderings made using PANTORA can be viewed by brands and designers using AxF-enabled rendering software solutions. Visit our website for the most current list of vendors: https://www.xrite.com/axf.
Conclusion
PANTORA can help automotive, consumer electronics, and other manufacturers visualize the color and appearance of their samples to present more options at the design phase and speed approvals. Learn more at https://www.xrite.com/pantora-software.
