Cintoo’s Dace Campbell explains how full-scale review exposed an installation problem around a boiler that fitted on screen, where VR improves digital twin reviews and which tasks still suit desktop work.
A new boiler fitted inside the mechanical room. The project team’s desktop review appeared to confirm it.
The installation still wouldn’t work though; pipes and mechanical systems behind the proposed unit left too little room to install and connect it properly. The team found the restriction after entering a scan of the room in virtual reality and chose to replace the existing boiler with a larger unit.
In a new interview with The XR Beat, Cintoo Product and Business Manager for XR and Metaverse Dace Campbell explains where full-scale review improves a digital twin decision, how participants can work across desktop and VR, and which jobs remain better suited to a screen.
A Model Can Fit While the Job Still Fails
Installation depends on more than whether equipment occupies the available space. Workers still need access to reach connections, move tools and complete the planned work.
Campbell said the additional boiler “could fit technically”, although the equipment behind it would make installation and connection difficult, if not impossible. Reviewing the room at full scale exposed the access restriction before field work began.
The team chose a larger replacement boiler instead. The revised plan could use the existing concrete housekeeping pad and avoided reaching the site with an installation that only worked on screen.
The XR Beat’s detailed Cintoo Workspace analysis examines the boiler review, mixed-device participation and the evidence buyers still need from the rollout.
Screen Sharing Creates a Bottleneck
Reality-capture projects can contain hundreds or thousands of scans and reach gigabytes or terabytes of point-cloud data, according to Campbell. A technical specialist may know how to navigate the source application, while an owner, contractor or decision-maker depends on screenshots, video clips and verbal directions.
Campbell described the person controlling the desktop as the “high priest behind the keyboard”. Other participants see the location selected for them and rely on one operator to translate the spatial problem.
Cintoo Workspace allows participants to enter through desktop, web, a VR headset or an immersive room. People can inspect the project at full scale or zoom out to view more of the layout, and mixed-device access also allows a designer to remain at a computer while installers or technicians examine clearance and access in VR.
Desktop Work Still Has a Job
Campbell described VR as “a supplement and an extension” to desktop and web workflows.
Individuals may need time to study an issue, compare information or prepare options before meeting other stakeholders. Browser and desktop tools remain suitable for solo work and straightforward reviews.
Shared XR is better suited to spatially complex decisions involving several people. Scale, position, clearance and access can be examined together without asking one participant to drive the screen for everyone else.
Start With a Decision and Measure It
Cintoo hasn’t supplied quantified results for decision time, avoided site visits, rework or issue resolution. Campbell said those results are still being measured during the early Workspace rollout.
A first deployment should focus on a defined decision affected by scale, position or access. Buyers can record the existing review time, number of meetings and site visits, field changes, rework costs and time required to close an issue.
Project teams also need current reality-capture data and a process for bringing the right people into the review. The XR Beat’s guide to digital twin data readiness covers update frequency, ownership and integration before deployment.
The boiler review justified VR because the team found the access restriction before installation. Further customer evidence needs to establish how often Cintoo Workspace changes a decision and whether avoided travel, delay or rework covers the cost of deployment.
