3D graphic simulation of flexible manufacturing systems with Day Dream Daemon and 3DCreate

The paper deals with the problem of the development of 3D graphic representation and simulation of flexible manufacturing systems. A 3D graphic model of a plant can improve the work performed in different control processes during the system life cycle, such as commissioning, monitoring and maintenance. These aspects become more relevant dealing with complex systems. Furthermore, for flexible manufacturing systems, mechanisms to manage the system modularity in the development of the 3D graphic representations are needed. A key factor which is bringing visibility to 3D techniques is the technical improvement of personal computer allowing to have relatively cheap, high graphical performances. Consequently, during last few years, several 3D visualization tools appeared on the marked. Within the paper, two existing simulation tools, 3D create and day dream daemon, are analyzed and compared. Both, have successively been used for the development of a simulation environment for the validation of control functions of a real manufacturing system.