Jan 12

Written by: Russ Henke
1/12/2008 11:41 AM 

“Forrester Research is predicting in its “Getting Work Done in Virtual Worlds” report that in five years 3-D Internet will be as important as the Web now is to businesses,” according to SandHill.com. The "Getting Work Done in Virtual Worlds" report released by Forrester during the first week of January 2008 concludes that executives should begin investigating and experimenting with virtual worlds soon because of their promise for remote collaboration, training and the ability to build and share 3-D models.

The virtual model is especially important for professionals like surgeons, architects, engineers and product designers, who use CAD models or visualization systems to explore or create projects, Forrester said. In virtual meetings, these professionals can import models for discussion and modification, according to the report. "You can release near-final designs to a limited group of external users and solicit feedback before starting fabrication," it said.

See http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9056602

Of course, we know hundreds and hundreds of companies who are designing and manufacturing via 3D CAD/CAM models today, let alone five years from now.