Northrop Grumman [NOC] has developed software called 3D Visualization to help optimize the use of data in the sustainment environment.
3D Visualization is animated software that develops renderings that can be used in interactive electronic technical manuals, instructor-led courseware, computer-based training and manufacturing shop floor instructions, according to Northrop Grumman spokeswoman Amy Akmal.
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| Rendering of Northrop Grumman-built Global Hawk airframe and Firebird engine using 3D Visualization animated software. Photo: Northrop Grumman. |
Northrop Grumman Corporate Vice President and President for Technical Services Christopher Jones said yesterday at a press briefing in Washington the sustainment environment can be inefficient. Jones said, in the past, if an engineer designed a part, perhaps using a 3D drawing, another person working on a publication would convert that drawing into a 2D drawing. Then yet another engineer, Jones said, would convert that 3D drawing into another 2D drawing.
Now, with 3D Visualization, one model can be used multiple times.
“That same 3D model can be used in training,” Jones said. “Then if there’s a modification or an upgrade, that same 3D model can be used so that no one has to re-create that model.”
Jones said being able to use data that exists, create it once and use it throughout the lifecycle is a big development. It can then be used, Jones said, not just in sustainment, but design, development, testing production and modernization.
“Then at some point, when the system needs to be eventually replaced, we have that data as well to help us to do the designs,” Jones said.
Northrop Grumman Sector Vice President for Global Logistics and Operational Support James Zortman yesterday described 3D Visualization as a visual thread connecting the various points in the sustainment environment. Zortman said allowing someone to make a change electronically and allowing it to flow through that thread is a big difference.
“For that guy or girl who, 10 years down the road, is maintaining that, it is huge to be able to see…a real picture that way and understand why a change is being made,” Zortman said. “It makes all the difference about keeping the system modernized.”
Jones said that 3D Visualization isn’t a product to be sold, but an “enabler” for the company’s components or platforms it is designing or systems it is sustaining.
“We’re not in the business of selling the technology in and of itself for the government or somebody else to use,” Jones said. “It’s an enabler for us to provide sustainment and modernization upgrades for our programs and for programs that we would perform sustainment and modernization on.”