Technology [ VR ]

Virtual Reality.

Immersive casthouse visualisation for layout verification, safety reviews, operator workflows, and stakeholder decisions before the plant is built.

05 / Review [ VR ]

Decide spatial questions while they are still cheap to change.

Drawings get the dimensions right, but they don't put you inside the room. VR does — at real scale, with the freedom to walk around, look up, look down and ask whether the plant actually works the way it was drawn.

For an aluminium casthouse, the questions VR answers earliest are the ones drawings struggle with: can operators reach the burner without crossing a crane path; does the fume hood clear the structural steel; can a forklift turn a ladle in front of the holding furnace. Spotting these in CAD is hard. Spotting them at 1:1 scale takes seconds.

›Verify layout, access and clearance before the equipment package is tendered
›Walk maintenance zones to check whether tools, hoists and people actually fit
›Catch pipe, duct and structural collisions across disciplines
›Show operators and stakeholders the plant before steel is cut

Capabilities at a glance

What the VR session lets you do.

Four capabilities of every CETAG VR session — turned toward the questions that actually move a casthouse project forward.

Scale

1 : 1 walkthrough

stand inside machines, plants or entire factories at real scale.

Spatial check

Collision & clearance

check pipe-system collisions and maintenance-zone clearances.

In-headset

Measure & photo

measure real distances and take virtual photos without leaving VR.

Customise

Visibility & physics

adjust component visibility, animate parts, apply custom physics.

How it works

From CAD geometry to engineering decisions.

Three phases turn the model the engineers built into review findings the project can act on before drawings are frozen.

01 / PREPARE

Scene preparation

The latest CAD of the plant or equipment package is imported, optimised for real-time use and assembled into a 1:1 scene with the right level of detail for the review questions on the table.

02 / REVIEW

Hosted walkthrough

Engineering, operations and ownership step through the scene with CETAG facilitating. Distances, virtual photos and decision points are captured live, directly in the headset, while the review is still happening.

03 / RESOLVE

Findings into design

Findings are written up with location, photo and owner, then fed back into the engineering revision so the tender package and the shop drawings reflect what was decided at scale.

What the session covers

View, customise and evaluate your CAD data in VR.

A VR session turns your existing CAD data into a space you can walk through at real scale — to review layout, access and safety while the design is still easy to change.

›VR scene built from your existing CAD data

›1:1 walkthrough of machines, systems or entire plants

›Pipe-system collision & maintenance-zone clearance checks

›Real-distance measurement inside the headset

›Component visibility & position adjustment, animated parts

›Virtual photo capture & custom physics on machine parts

What you receive

Four deliverables, one review loop.

Each VR engagement leaves these four work products with the engineering team — ready to fold straight into the next design revision.

Discuss VR review

01 / SCENE

VR-ready plant scene

An optimised scene built from your existing CAD data, ready to load on the headsets you bring to the review.

02 / SESSION

Hosted review

Working sessions facilitated by CETAG, with distances, virtual photos and decision points captured directly in VR.

03 / FINDINGS

Findings list

Issues written up with photo, location and owner — ready to fold into the next engineering revision.

04 / SCENE LIBRARY

Reusable scene variants

Layout alternatives kept as switchable variants for later comparison, stakeholder walk-throughs or pre-commissioning familiarisation.

What an engagement looks like

A typical casthouse VR review, end to end.

A greenfield line or a major retrofit usually starts with a layout review well before tender. CETAG builds the VR scene from the latest CAD, hosts working sessions with engineering, operations and ownership, and folds the documented findings back into the next revision — so the equipment package goes out reflecting decisions made at scale, not on paper.

Scope, session length and headset count are agreed up front based on what the project needs to decide.

Trigger Greenfield line, retrofit or layout uncertainty before tender Input Latest CAD of the plant area or equipment package Sessions From half a day to a few days, agreed with the customer Output Findings list with photos, locations and decisions for the engineering revision

Technology partner

Casthouse know-how meets specialist VR engineering.

CETAG shapes the questions a casthouse review needs to answer. The VR platform that turns those questions into something you can walk inside is built and maintained by HPE-Konstanz, a German specialist in CAD-driven engineering visualisation. Two teams, one review.

Casthouse process know-how

Aluminium casthouse engineering, plant design and operational expertise.

VR engineering technology

CAD-driven visualisation, virtual reality and 3D development across plant engineering.

Related services

Often combined with VR review.

A VR session works best with real model content behind it — engineering, an existing-plant capture, or upcoming fabrication that needs reach and access confirmed.

02 / Engineering

Want to see your next layout in VR before tender?

Send the scope — we'll come back with a session plan, headset setup and a realistic review window.

Discuss your scope All services