A digital mockup (or digital mock-up) is the digital description of a product, usually in three dimensions. The product design engineers, the manufacturing engineers, and the support engineers work together to create and manage the mock-up. As an extension it is also frequently referred to as digital prototyping or virtual prototyping. Digital mock-ups allows engineers to design and configure complex product prototypes and validate their designs without ever needing to build a physical model.
Mockups can be convincing and closely resemble the final product, allowing early revisions rather than changes much later in the production stage.