| Abstract | Often generating training instructions for virtual environments is a long and tedious process. In thispaper, we discuss the development of a virtual environment (VE) instruction generating tool called
Virtual Author which is the main component of the Virtual Training Studio (VTS). VTS is a virtual
environment-based training system that provides instructors with a tool to create training instructions
and allows trainees to learn assembly operations in a personal virtual environment. The Virtual
Author tool is designed to allow an instructor to perform virtual demonstrations using CAD models
in the virtual environment in order to quickly generate VE-based training instructions for use in VTS.
This paper describes the algorithms used to carry out motion smoothening of instructor’s actions,
automated text instruction generation based on part and assembly motions, and extraction of
alignment constraints from 3D CAD models to support instruction generation. We also present
examples to illustrate how the use of the Virtual Author tool leads to a significant reduction in the
training instruction generation time.
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