How BMW Group Speeds Up Prototyping with Augmented Reality
Fewer test setups. Faster validation. Up to one year saved in development – with Hololight Space and Hololight Stream.
BMW Group: Case Study Overview
BMW Group accelerated vehicle concept evaluation by up to 12 months at its Munich pilot plant by implementing Hololight Space. By overlaying 1:1 scale holographic 3D CAD models onto real car bodies, engineers can detect design errors in the early prototyping phase without the need for resource-intensive physical mockups.
- Organization: BMW Group (Munich Pilot Plant)
- Challenge: Costly, time-consuming physical prototype production.
- Solution: Hololight Space (Industrial 3D CAD Viewer) and Hololight Stream (XR Streaming technology for AR and VR)
- Result: Up to 12 months saved in the development cycle.
Hololight Space opens new ways for industrial designers and engineers (Copyright BMW Group)
Digitizing the Intersection of Development and Production
Speeding up product development, detecting easily overlooked design errors early, and ensuring that expectations and reality match on the target object are critical goals in modern automotive engineering. With Augmented Reality (AR), these engineering workflows can be completely digitized and optimized.
At its Munich pilot plant, the BMW Group tests vehicle concept and prototype designs by using Hololight Space to superimpose real components—such as a car body—with true-to-scale holographic 3D CAD models. This "digital-to-physical" alignment allows for immediate validation of complex assemblies.
Shorter Development Cycles Through Digital Processes
New assemblies must always be tested for viability, but the production of precisely fitting physical prototypes is time-consuming and resource-intensive. It often requires the same manufacturing processes as the final product, making prototypes uneconomical, especially for small series or large series with high variance.
Virtual design models in Augmented Reality improve the design and implementation of new vehicle models while saving significant costs. By shifting the validation process into a spatial computing environment, the need for multiple physical iteration steps is drastically reduced.
“The AR goggles and CAD data allow us to find out much faster, whether the production worker will be able to fit the component properly later on, in series production. That way, we need far fewer test setups.”
– Michael Schneider, Head of Complete Vehicle at the BMW Pilot Plant Munich
Product Development with Spatial Computing
At the Munich pilot plant, prototype vehicles and components are visualized in real-time. Hololight Space enables engineers to visualize, manipulate, and share 3D CAD data in real-world environments.
In this optimized workflow, vehicle experts load CAD files of components from a web-based database into the application. Using an XR headset, they can visualize the CAD data in a three-dimensional and full-size manner in the real environment. The expert operates the application using simple hand gestures, allowing direct interaction with the virtual components. In this way, developers can quickly understand whether components can be optimally assembled without expensive physical test setups.
Time Savings of Up to One Year
With Hololight Space, engineers are able to overlay complex holographic objects with real geometries and edit them in a variety of ways. Not only the size, but also the position or angle can be changed via simple gestures. Users can create a real-time cross-section—a sectional view for the inspection of internal structures—and individual components can be individually shown or hidden from the complete hierarchy tree of the CAD file.
This functionality allows engineers to quickly evaluate:
- Accessibility: Can a technician reach the part?
- Installation options: Are there physical collisions in the assembly path?
- Visibility: Are relevant assembly points visible to the worker?
Collaborative design reviews in multi-user mode also help identify inconsistent details or design errors early in the development process. Time savings of up to one year are thus possible during prototype development and the integration of vehicles into production.
“Another key advantage is that it saves us time and money when we integrate new vehicles into production.”– Christoph Leibetseder, Head of Digitalization, Prototyping and Measurement Technologies at the BMW Pilot Plant Munich
High-Performance Visualization and Global Security
To handle the massive amounts of data inherent in BMW’s complex CAD models, Hololight ensures that even high-polygon 3D data can be processed in real-time and in high quality. Whether visualizing a detailed engine or a complete car with millions of polygons, the level of detail remains high enough for professional engineering validation.
Furthermore, the security of sensitive design data is paramount. In a globalized engineering landscape where decentralized teams collaborate across borders, our architecture ensures that sensitive data is handled within a secure, controlled infrastructure. This "data-on-premise" approach protects intellectual property while enabling the next generation of industrial collaboration.
Thanks to Hololight Stream, the entire application runs on secure local servers. Only encrypted image data is transmitted — the CAD data stays within BMW’s infrastructure.
Holograms can be overlaid with real geometry (Copyright BMW Group)
Conclusion
Prototypes can be planned and implemented more efficiently through visualization and interaction with CAD data in Hololight Space. It enables error detection at an early stage and allows engineers to work collaboratively on holograms. Especially in the early product development processes, where mainly concept work is done, the technology adds a new efficiency factor. Iteration steps and logistical efforts are significantly shortened, while the level of detail and options for possible modifications increase.
With Hololight Space, BMW accelerates development, minimizes physical effort, and streamlines the path from concept to production. Complementing this, Hololight Stream ensures that the high-performance rendering remains 100% secure by keeping all sensitive 3D CAD data on the company's own servers at all times.
Source: BMW Group