Generating Automatic 2D Hotspots Using AI in SAP Integrated Product Development

Many companies have a significant amount of legacy 2D data, such as assembly exploded views and engineering documents. This data holds valuable information that can be linked to business data. Manually adding interactive hotspots to these images is a time-consuming process. SAP Integrated Product Development Visualization offers a solution by enabling the automatic generation of hotspots for 2D assembly exploded views using AI. This significantly accelerates the process of augmenting these images with relevant business data.

Organizations often possess extensive collections of legacy 2D data. Connecting this data to relevant business information can unlock significant value. However, manually adding selectable hotspots to these 2D images can be prohibitively time-consuming and resource intensive. By employing an AI-powered tool to automate hotspot creation, the time of investment required by authors is dramatically reduced, enabling faster integration of 2D data with business systems.

The initial step involves importing a 2D image into SAP Integrated Product Development Visualization. After the import is complete, you can create an editable 2D drawing from the image. This process mirrors the creation of editable 3D scenes from a source of CAD import scene. Note that the button used to create the editable scene is labeled differently for 2D images.

Once the 2D editable scene is open in the Author tool, to access the hotspot creation functionalities, select the Hotspots tab. In the Hotspots tool, manual hotspot creation options are available. You can create rectangle, square, circle, ellipse, or polygon hotspots manually. However, this manual method can be slow and tedious, especially for images with numerous callouts.

The Generate hotspots with AI tool offers a significantly faster and more efficient alternative to manual creation. By using AI algorithms, the tool automatically identifies and tags callouts within the 2D image. This automated approach drastically reduces the time and effort required for hotspot creation.

After processing, each identified callout is marked with a yellow circle. The corresponding number from the image will be automatically assigned as the hotspot Name. The Properties side-panel also displays this number, providing a clear indication of the automatically assigned hotspot names.

With the hotspots automatically generated and named, the author can then review each hotspot individually. The next step involves enriching each hotspot with additional data. This crucial step allows the hotspots to be correctly connected to relevant back-end data sources, completing the integration of the 2D image with business information. This connection enables users to access related information directly from the 2D image, enhancing its value and usability.