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Newbie Q#4 - Generic Model Viewer (#1545)
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Brian Crowe  
#1 Posted : Monday, August 25, 2008 8:42:53 AM(UTC)
Brian Crowe

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Joined: 8/9/2008(UTC)
Posts: 29
Hi Folks,

Is there a generic ViaCAD model viewer? What is the best export strategy?

My objective is to send an "unsophisticated" other party my model to view and comment back. I want them to be able to manipulate my model to view it from any direction and distance without installing any new software. By "unsophisticated", I mean that there will be a stock web browser (Explorer, Firefox or Safari) with Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader and Apple Quicktime plugins, Adobe Reader application and Apple Quicktime application installed.

What do you folks do to send a model to a friend who is not tech savvy?

Tim, can your folks please work on a Quicktime virtual reality QTVR export feature?

Thanks,

Brian
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Tim Olson  
#2 Posted : Monday, August 25, 2008 11:32:19 AM(UTC)
Tim Olson

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>> Is there a generic ViaCAD model viewer?

Sorry no. They could use the ViaCAD trial as a viewer.

>>Tim, can your folks please work on a Quicktime virtual reality QTVR export >>feature?

We support QTVR panoramic and object in Shark FX. But its based on Lightworks for photorealistic QTVR and limited to FX.

Regards

Tim
Tim Olson
IMSI Design/Encore
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ianjkirby  
#3 Posted : Tuesday, August 26, 2008 7:39:14 AM(UTC)
ianjkirby

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Joined: 6/20/2007(UTC)
Posts: 107
Hi Brian,
The use of the trial version as suggested by Tim has a serious drawback - it only works for 30 days!
I have heard of, but not used myself, edrawings viewer at [URL="http://www.edrawingsviewer.com/"]http://www.edrawingsviewer.com/[/URL].
I believe it will open, perhaps in read-only mode, a wide variety of drawing formats. Sure, this will mean your client may have to purchase and install the software, but I think it is probably unreasonable to expect modern drawings to be easily read by generic software, imho!
Best of luck!
Ian.
Ian Kirby
Wollongong Australia
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jol  
#4 Posted : Tuesday, August 26, 2008 8:31:54 AM(UTC)
jol

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Tim, for the benefit of our clients .. is it not possible to provide a simple elegant (very) chopped down version of ViaCAD - with only viewing and measuring capabilities ?

This could be distributed for free to the business associates of your users

You may even get some sales from it !?

Just a thought - is it even possible to take all the licensed stuff out to leave the bare bones ?
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posh.de  
#5 Posted : Tuesday, August 26, 2008 9:19:23 AM(UTC)
posh.de

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Originally Posted by: Brian Crowe Go to Quoted Post
What is the best export strategy?


check this [URL="http://forum.punchcad.com/showthread.php?t=1288"]thread[/URL] too discussing several options concerning this issue.


Norbert
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Tim Olson  
#6 Posted : Tuesday, August 26, 2008 9:36:22 AM(UTC)
Tim Olson

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>>The use of the trial version as suggested by Tim has a serious drawback - >>it only works for 30 days!


I believe after 14 days the fully functional trial version will turn into a demo version. Demo versions do not expire, allow printing, exporting or saving but you can view.

Shark installers are all demo versions which never expire.


Tim
Tim Olson
IMSI Design/Encore
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Brian Crowe  
#7 Posted : Friday, August 29, 2008 7:43:44 AM(UTC)
Brian Crowe

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Joined: 8/9/2008(UTC)
Posts: 29
I have tried a number of model viewing technologies. VRML was disappointing as I could never get shading to display at all - maybe this is simply not a VRML feature. VRML export from ViaCAD and an open source viewer did display the shape correctly and allow spin/rotate and zoom, but the subtleties of the shape are lost without shading. Worse, the object may not be visible right away - you have to find it in the display space...

DXF export from ViaCAD works reliably as far as my experience goes, and the SolidWorks eDrawings viewer works Quite Well. To now, this is clearly the best export & viewing strategy I have found. The Viewer is free. On my computing resources (all MacOSX), eDrawings launches immediately and quickly, doesn't pause for registration, and works intuitively with a strip of simple controls.

Does AutoCAD have a viewer? I think there is one, but I have not found it - I have not looked with "determination" yet - I'll post a link if I find one!

Thanks for the lead to eDrawings, Ian.

Brian
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jdi000  
#8 Posted : Friday, August 29, 2008 8:34:49 AM(UTC)
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HI, Brian


Have you tried the 3d web export out of ViaCAD it creates a file viewable in web browser with the viewpoint media plugin added?

For windows you can view, rotate etc. 3d models and shade in the Autodesk free program called DWG TrueView. Export out of ViaCAD as dwg's


Regards
Jason
Windows 11, 10
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Tim Olson  
#9 Posted : Friday, August 29, 2008 10:48:16 AM(UTC)
Tim Olson

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>>3d models and shade in the Autodesk free program called DWG TrueView.

We use DWG TrueView as the standard to validate DXF/DWG files.

Tim
Tim Olson
IMSI Design/Encore
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posh.de  
#10 Posted : Monday, September 1, 2008 2:43:21 AM(UTC)
posh.de

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Originally Posted by: Brian Crowe Go to Quoted Post
...I'll post a link if I find one!


[URL="http://www.autodesk.com/dwg"]DWG TrueView[/URL]

can convert DWGs to older DXF/DWG versions too.


Norbert
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markb57  
#11 Posted : Wednesday, September 17, 2008 8:40:04 AM(UTC)
markb57

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Joined: 11/3/2007(UTC)
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I don't know much about it. Would it be possible to build this export format into VC/Shark? I think that per Adobe's practice the reader side of the format is free.

Just thinkin out loud here...

markb
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mikeschn  
#12 Posted : Wednesday, September 17, 2008 4:29:29 PM(UTC)
mikeschn

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If you are only looking to view models viacad will export a vrml file which can be viewed using Cortona, which is a free viewer.

You can get it here... http://www.parallelgraphics.com/products/cortona/

If you want to be able to measure the model then you'll want to use this free viewer called Model Press reader. You can download Model Press Reader here... http://www.modelpress.com/download.htm It's the second program on the page... :-)

If you want to see some of the files I've done that way, you can see them here:


Final design of the Weekender

UserPostedImage
http://www.mikenchell.com/image...ender/finalweekender.wrl
ViaCAD Pro 12 on Windows; Viacad Pro 14 on Mac
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mikeschn  
#13 Posted : Wednesday, September 17, 2008 4:30:12 PM(UTC)
mikeschn

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ViaCAD Pro 12 on Windows; Viacad Pro 14 on Mac
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mikeschn  
#14 Posted : Wednesday, September 17, 2008 4:30:48 PM(UTC)
mikeschn

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ViaCAD Pro 12 on Windows; Viacad Pro 14 on Mac
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mikeschn  
#15 Posted : Wednesday, September 17, 2008 4:31:30 PM(UTC)
mikeschn

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and here...

UserPostedImage
http://www.mikenchell.com/image...arrior/winterwarrior.wrl

Hope I didn't over whelm you!!! :rolleyes:

Mike...
ViaCAD Pro 12 on Windows; Viacad Pro 14 on Mac
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