Visual Components introduced FactoryLens at FABTECH 2026 as a new visualization tool for plant layouts. The company positions it as a way to add a higher level of realism to 3D manufacturing simulations while keeping the workflow inside its existing simulation environment.
According to the announcement, FactoryLens is built directly into the Visual Components simulation platform and uses NVIDIA Omniverse libraries. The software is intended to convert existing factory layouts into photorealistic, real-time digital twin environments. Visual Components described the launch as the latest step in its ongoing collaboration with NVIDIA.
At the show, the company demonstrated FactoryLens with simulated welding cells. The example was used to show how manufacturers can visualize and present automation concepts before implementation. A key point in the workflow is that users can shift from the platform’s standard engineering view to a higher-fidelity visual mode without rebuilding layouts in a separate application.
That approach is aimed at manufacturers, system integrators and machine builders that need to explain proposed production layouts and automation systems during design reviews or customer presentations. Instead of maintaining a technical model for engineering and another model for presentation, users can work from the same simulation base and improve the visual output when needed.
Visual Components said its users can build factory and warehouse simulations from a library of more than 4,000 components, including industrial robots, machine tools, conveyors, autonomous mobile robots, forklifts and other production equipment. FactoryLens adds photorealistic rendering through NVIDIA RTX, while NVIDIA PhysX is used to support realistic physics in the virtual environment. For companies evaluating line changes or new cells, the combination could make simulation results easier to interpret and discuss across engineering, sales and customer teams.
