has developed a process for translating CAD designs directly into a virtual environment, web.alive, based on the Unreal game infrastructure. Step into the Furnace demo yourself here:
http://furnace.projectchainsaw.com/
The environment showcases a precise model of an industrial copper refining furnace built by a company in Pittsburgh, and is another example of the increasing interplay between physical and digital design realms, with implications for product design, marketing, simulation, modeling at “digiphys” convergence.
FURNACE (via copper13)