Tangent recently partnered with market leading luxury RV manufacturer Entegra Coach, to design and develop, from the ground up, their top-of-the-line diesel Class-A dashboard. Faced with an increasingly competitive luxury coach market, Entegra reached out to Tangent to modernize their highest-level offering, giving their Entegra Coach line an automotive level instrument panel fit for the 21^st century RV user.

This new coach dash features modern amenities like a digital gauge cluster, and a center 15-inch touch screen, with advanced safety features, HVAC controls and blind spot monitoring. Critical to the design of this new dash, is the significantly lowered instrument panel, giving the driver improved sightlines over the previous generation’s dash, as well as the competition. Tangent worked closely with the Entegra team to ensure that all of the important information and touch points would remain in the driver’s sight lines while operating the coach. Other features include clever storage units tucked into the passenger side footwell, and an ergonomically improved handrail for better ingress egress.

Starting from a blank sheet of paper, Tangent worked with the Entegra team to create 2D sketches of a dash that would bring safety and technology to the forefront. By incorporating the Entegra dash’s 3D elements into our underlays, Tangent was able to ensure each sketch was ergonomically accurate and reflective of each component’s real-world scale.

After selecting a 2D design direction, Tangent took to Autodesk Alias, to further develop the Entegra dash’s numerous parts in 3D CAD. Working closely with Entegra’s engineering team, as well as engineers from heating and cooling specialists Bergstrom, Tangent developed each part to match the styling from the sketch, while ensuring that they would be mold ready, and fit together seamlessly during production.

Crucial to the 3D design phase, was Tangent’s use of our in-house virtual reality set up, which allowed Tangent, as well as Entegra, to gleam critical insights into the layout and ergonomics of the Entegra Coach dash. By utilizing this technology, Tangent was able to ensure that each user interface would be within the sight lines of the coach operator, making the dash experience as safe as possible.

Check out the video below to learn more about the Entegra Coach Safe View Dash’s features: