Viewing CAD data online

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Viewing CAD data online

Viewing files via the net poses several issues. Things related to your preferred OS, browser versions, and what software you actually have installed on your local computer. So, while these pointers are a good place to get started, there may be other factors you will need to consider.

Important: At the end of this article there are links to further information and free downloads of all the items we talk about here.

VRML

Most CAD systems can now export VRML files which can be shared and viewed within dissimilar CAD systems. VRML is a text file format where, e.g., vertices and edges for a 3D polygon can be specified along with the surface color, image-mapped textures, shininess, transparency, and so on. VRML is an excellent format that provides simple 3D view of a part. You can zoom, pan, and spin to get a pretty good feel for the part. (VRML files typically use .wrl extension)

There are several good free plugins that easily self-install within your browser than enable you to view VRML files. The Cortona VRML viewer is one of them. Once installed, viewing over the net or from your desktop is easy.

However, VRML is an old technology. VRML reached the height of its popularity after the release of VRML2 in 1997. The format had been championed by SGI. When SGI restructured in 1998 the division was sold to Platinum Technologies, which was then taken over by Computer Associates. However Computer Associates did not develop or distribute the software.

While VRML still enjoys widespread use, in part because of it's open specification. Read free. It has now been superseded by X3D which is based on VRML (now on X3D), and X3D is largely back-compatible with it. That being said, VRML is still widely used today as a file format for interchange of 3D models.

X3D

To fill the void a variety of proprietary Web 3D formats emerged over the next few years, including Microsoft Chrome and Adobe Atmosphere, neither of which is supported today. VRML's capabilities remained largely the same while realtime 3D graphics kept improving. The VRML Consortium changed its name to the Web3D Consortium, and began work on the successor to VRML, that being, X3D.

The X3D format is related to the XML format. As it is name implies X3D is primarily used for 3D geometry. Without getting too technical it's a mash-up of 3D and XML.

Most CAD vendors are jumping on the X3D format. Alas, each thinks they have a Better Way.

Dassault Systemes uses 3DXML. UGS has JT2Go. The list goes on and on. The good side is that all offer free browser plugins that allow one to view 3D files, The bad news is that most support Microsoft Internet Explorer only, and you need to install each one into your browser. Thankfully, the installs are easy and painless.

The X3D specification supports not only 3D viewing, but also measuring, and sectioning. Assemblies are also supported. In fact, you can do some pretty slick stuff with exploded views, BOM's, and the assembly tree. Review some of the links at the end of this article for more details on this.

At this point in time, using any of the X3D formats from within any given CAD system is a very easy process. Most of the major CAD vendors have simply added the function within the "File -> Save As" dialog

There is also an added bonus with the XML format. Both Microsoft and Adobe also support it. This means that data from your CAD system exported as X3D can be placed inside of Microsoft documents and Adobe Acrobat files. Yes, a 3D model in an Adobe PDF.

eDrawings

Lastly, there is eDrawings. SolidWorks was the first major vendor to use eDrawings to export and view 2D and 3D Data. Like most software vendors, Geometric Software, the eDrawings publisher, also has a free viewer that installs within Internet Explorer. Further, eDrawings is now available for not only SolidWorks, but also Pro Engineer, Catia V5, Unigraphics NX, Autodesk Inventor, and Solid Edge.

Links - Further Reading

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2041558,00.asp

http://www.web3d.org/about/overview/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X3D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VRML

http://www.3ds.com/3dxml

http://www.jtopen.com/technology/jt2go.shtml

Links - Supported Viewers

JT2Go
http://www.jt2go.ugs.com/help/faq.shtml

Dassault Systemes 3D XML
http://www.3ds.com/3dxml

eDrawings
http://www.solidworks.com/pages/products/edrawings/eDrawings.html

eDrawings - publishers site
http://edrawings.geometricsoftware.com/

Cortona VRML Viewer
http://www.parallelgraphics.com/products/cortona/

Authored by: mroberts This question has been viewed 2515 times so far.

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