Business Advantage Group has ranked augmented and virtual reality as the eleventh most important of 15 CAD trends in its Worldwide CAD Trends 2016 Survey.

But the technology’s rather low-ranking showing—at number 11—is deceptive, said Chris Turner, the firm’s chief executive officer. The reality technology could rightfully be said to be coming in this year at number 11 with a bullet, to paraphrase the late, great, disc jockey Casey Kasem.

The business-to-business market firm predicts use of the reality technologies by engineering organizations will grow by 60 percent in the coming year and by 140 percent over the next five years, Turner said.

From late 2014 to late 2015, engineering awareness of both augmented and virtual reality tools increased from 18 to 22 percent, he added. Use also increased during that time, with five percent of those surveyed having adopted some form of the technology by year-end 2015, up two percent from year-end 2014, according to the survey.

The number of users should reach 12 percent within five years, Turner added.

“About one in 20 CAD users is using augmented and virtual reality technology and this applies across all industry sectors, company sizes and geographic regions,” Turner said. “There is no particular standout area for the predicted future growth–similar levels are seen across all subgroups.”

Augmented reality (AR) differs from virtual reality (VR) in that—when using an AR technology–users wear a headset or use a tablet that shows them their normal surroundings, but with an image overlaid on that view. Google Glass, which is being retooled presently, is an example of AR. The popularity of Pokémon GO, which is an example of AR (as the Pokémon appear in real-life surroundings like a park) shows users are willing to adapt this type of technology.

VR, on the other hand, completely engulfs the viewer in a virtual world; no part of his or her everyday surroundings is visible. Sometimes engineers enter a CAVE system that features screens that surround the room, to view a VR demonstration.

Via the CAVE demonstrations, which have been used to depict potential engineering designs and to let viewers walk through them and manipulate them, VR has been shown to be useful to engineers.

Now it’s up to those developing AR applications to step up to the plate with a killer design app for engineers.

That day, according to Turner, may not be too far away. But, he said, developers are still trying to determine a user interface for accessing an AR application that most engineers would welcome.

“A key point for CAD software developers, who are under pressure to figure out what they’re doing with AR, is the user interface which, of course, needs to be very different from the UI we all so familiarly use on a flat computer screen,” Turner said. “Compare the simplicity of the new Pokémon Go game to AR visions in CAD that have sometimes been too complicated and haven’t taken off.

“Based on other recent research we’ve done, we predict many more AR software apps in the market in the coming years,” he added.