Project Orchestra · Project

Real-Time Collaborative 3D Design Tool Across VR, Desktop, Tablet and Mobile

digitalPilotedTRL 8

Imagine Google Docs, but instead of editing a text document together, your whole design team is sculpting a 3D car or sneaker at the same time — one person in VR goggles, another on a laptop, a third on a tablet. Gravity Sketch built a platform that lets designers, engineers, and decision-makers all jump into the same 3D model in real time, skip the old-school 2D sketching phase, and export straight into CAD software. They already had over 20,000 professional customers and major automotive clients before this project, and Orchestra was about making that experience truly multiplayer across every device.

By the numbers

90%

Efficiency savings in design workflows (up to)

20,000+

Professional SME and freelance customers (pre-project)

Multi-billion EUR

Global market size for collaborative 3D design tools

The business problem

What needed solving

Design-intensive industries like automotive, consumer products, and entertainment waste enormous time translating 2D concept sketches into 3D models and passing files between disconnected team members. Cross-functional teams — designers, engineers, managers — cannot work on the same 3D design simultaneously, creating bottlenecks and miscommunication. The manual 2D-to-CAD pipeline is slow, expensive, and error-prone.

The solution

What was built

A working prototype of a collaborative 3D design platform accessible through VR headsets, desktop computers, tablets, and mobile phones. The software allows multiple team members to create and edit the same 3D model in real time, with direct export to industry-standard CAD software.

Audience

Who needs this

Automotive design studios and OEM styling departmentsConsumer product and footwear design companiesArchitecture and industrial design firmsFilm and game studios creating 3D contentEngineering consultancies running cross-functional design reviews

Business applications

Who can put this to work

Automotive Design

enterprise

Target: Car manufacturers and automotive design studios

If you are an automotive design studio dealing with slow back-and-forth between 2D concept sketches and 3D CAD models — this project developed a real-time collaborative 3D tool that lets your designers, engineers, and managers work on the same model simultaneously across VR, desktop, and tablet. The platform claims up to 90% efficiency savings in design workflows by eliminating the manual 2D-to-CAD translation step.

Consumer Product Design

mid-size

Target: Footwear and consumer goods design firms

If you are a consumer product company spending weeks translating concept sketches into 3D prototypes — this project built a cross-platform tool where your design team can create directly in 3D from day one. Multiple team members collaborate in real time regardless of device, and the output exports directly to industry-standard CAD software for manufacturing refinement.

Film and Game Production

any

Target: Film studios and game development companies

If you are a game studio or film production house where concept artists, 3D modelers, and art directors work in disconnected tools — this project developed a shared 3D workspace accessible through VR headsets, laptops, tablets, and phones. Teams can co-create environments and characters together in real time, cutting iteration cycles dramatically.

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What does the software cost and how is it licensed?

The project data does not include pricing details. Gravity Sketch operates as a commercial software company with over 20,000 existing professional customers, suggesting an established pricing model. Contact the company directly via gravitysketch.com for current licensing terms.

Can this handle enterprise-scale design teams working on complex products?

The platform was specifically designed for cross-functional teams including designers, managers, engineers, and marketers collaborating on the same 3D design simultaneously. The technical challenge the project solved was rendering and manipulating 3D data in real time with multiple participants — a problem that grows exponentially with each added user.

Who owns the intellectual property and can we license this technology?

Gravity Sketch Limited owns the IP. The project was funded through the EU SME Instrument with a single-partner consortium, meaning all IP stays with the company. The technology is built on proprietary technical know-how in real-time 3D collaboration.

Does the tool integrate with our existing CAD software?

Yes — the platform was built to export directly to industry-standard CAD software for further refinement. This is a core design principle, not an afterthought, since the goal is to replace the 2D sketching phase while keeping the rest of the engineering pipeline intact.

How mature is the technology — is this still experimental?

Gravity Sketch already had paying customers from some of the largest automotive manufacturers in the world and over 20,000 professional users before this EU project. Project Orchestra expanded the platform to full cross-device collaboration. The project ran from 2020 to 2022 and is now closed.

What efficiency gains can we actually expect?

The project objective states up to 90% efficiency savings in design workflows by reducing the 2D stage and eliminating manual translation to CAD. These savings come from teams designing directly in 3D and collaborating in real time rather than passing files back and forth.

Which industries is this designed for?

The project explicitly targets transportation, industrial design, consumer products, footwear, architecture, and the film and computer games markets. It expands the user base from designers alone to all team members involved in the design process.

Consortium

Who built it

This is a single-company project: Gravity Sketch Limited, a UK-based SME, is the sole partner. Funded through the EIC SME Instrument (designed for high-growth startups), the 100% industry composition signals this is a commercially driven venture, not academic research. The team combines industrial designers, advanced mathematicians, software engineers with multiplayer game development backgrounds, and business managers with venture capital experience — a startup profile built for product delivery and market scaling rather than publishing papers.

GRAVITY SKETCH LIMITEDCoordinator · UK

How to reach the team

Gravity Sketch Limited (UK) — reach the commercial team through gravitysketch.com

Order a report on this consortium See GRAVITY SKETCH LIMITED profile →

Next steps

Talk to the team behind this work.

Want to explore how collaborative 3D design tools could accelerate your product development? SciTransfer can arrange a direct introduction to the Gravity Sketch team.

Order a report on this topic More in Digital & ICT