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3D Modelling in a Browser

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Re: 3D Modelling in a Browser

#71

Post by loganwedwards »

AlunAlun wrote: post #16

See also: Clara.io [0], Onshape [1], Lagoa (bought a few years ago by Autodesk) [2] I must confess I struggle to see the long-term market for these services - I was working on a startup in the field for a while, and eventually decided it wasn't worth continuing. The only thing these services really offer above desktop equivalents (which Autodesk totally dominate) is the collaboration (like Google Docs for 3D). But do…

From a hobbyist perspective, I gladly welcome the onset of cloud-based tooling. Most of these options (OnShape, in particular) have generous free tiers. I used SolidWorks in a previous profession and generally was very happy with it, but in no way could I afford a single seat license for "play."

Re: 3D Modelling in a Browser

#72

Post by cannedslime »

rushsteve1 wrote: post #4
dbcurtis wrote: post #2

Dimensions? Master model? Assemblies? Or is this only for pretty pictures?

It claims to be for modeling not CAD. Think Blender not Solidworks. So ultimately yes, it's for pretty pictures.

I have used Blender for CAD like work before, not because its good at it or anything, but it was good enough for my purposes and it was free. Boolean operations in blender are very good for that sort of work, you don't need to commit to anything and can easily change dimensions of sub parts on the go, screw modifier has also been handy at some tasks (like making screws and screw like features).

Re: 3D Modelling in a Browser

#73

Post by spectramax »

cannedslime wrote: post #68
spectramax wrote: post #31

I am a Mechanical Engineer and we use SolidWorks for CAD. I was surprised to find there exists no 3D modeling software (Nurbs / Polygonal based) that I can model using accurate dimensions. 3DSMax, Maya, Modo, C4D, Blender, Houdini, you name it. I understand that they’re not doing parametric modeling such as SolidWorks, Inventor, etc. but there has to be a way to merge both modeling paradigms. I was honestly shocked a…

> Everything is done by “eye” in the visualization industry. Im not sure if we tried the same version of blender... Its pretty easy and even intuitive to enter numerical values for dimension, rotation etc.

Yes, I noted that in my post that you can specify numerical values when placing primitives. But there is no full fledged dimensioning like in engineering CAD. As someone said, designing in 3D modeling software feels like drawing with crayons compared to the precision of engineering CAD.

Rhino 3D is kind of ok as a nurbs modeler and has some dimensioning stuff.

Re: 3D Modelling in a Browser

#74

Post by spectramax »

throwaway936482 wrote: post #51
spectramax wrote: post #31

I am a Mechanical Engineer and we use SolidWorks for CAD. I was surprised to find there exists no 3D modeling software (Nurbs / Polygonal based) that I can model using accurate dimensions. 3DSMax, Maya, Modo, C4D, Blender, Houdini, you name it. I understand that they’re not doing parametric modeling such as SolidWorks, Inventor, etc. but there has to be a way to merge both modeling paradigms. I was honestly shocked a…

In blender at least you can specify the size of any primitive, measure the length of any edge, measure between any two points, move a vertice, object, or face by a specified amount etc. so this is just not true for blender at least. You can also annotate any dimension easily with a dynamically updating annotation. What you can't do easily (unless you're prepared to do some serious python scripting) is parametric / co…

I’ve seen countless tutorials - Eames house to Braun products, even full furnished houses on YouTube. No one cares about dimensions. It bothers me so much that it should be fundamental to designing anything - I would argue, even dragons.

I think it’s the culture and people involved in 3D modeling that do not have the discipline - at the risk of sounding snobby. If customers demanded a feature, modeling software companies would supply those features.

“Ball park” dimensioning is like nails on a chalkboard.

Re: 3D Modelling in a Browser

#75

Post by nacs »

andybak wrote: post #27
AlunAlun wrote: post #16

See also: Clara.io [0], Onshape [1], Lagoa (bought a few years ago by Autodesk) [2] I must confess I struggle to see the long-term market for these services - I was working on a startup in the field for a while, and eventually decided it wasn't worth continuing. The only thing these services really offer above desktop equivalents (which Autodesk totally dominate) is the collaboration (like Google Docs for 3D). But do…

How about casual use? I know 3DS Max very well (at least I used to... Hopefully the synapses are still firing) but it's a zillion dollars for a licence and I probably need to use it maybe once a month. I work mainly in Unity and 3D modelling is not my main focus. I would use a 3D package for some light editing and as a glorified file converter. Nobody makes software to do this at a reasonable price so I usually head…

Definitely check out Blender -- they released version 2.8 a month or so ago and its miles ahead of where it used to be especially when it comes to interface.

Also free, cross-platform and super powerful. It also has a brand new real time rendering engine called "Eevee" thats really impressive.

Re: 3D Modelling in a Browser

#76

Post by d-sc »

inred9 wrote: post #70
d-sc wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CAD tools generally have pretty good lock in. So that certainly helps with the long term the prospects. I’m not going to convince my team to move over from the tools they use. But the engineering team that makes their jobs irrelevant because they bid by 50% lower through increased efficiency will. Rendering is computationally heavy, so a browser is not ideal. However, offloading simulation, file storage, version hand…

gpu does a favor to this kind of rendering?

Solving the model is usually CPU bound while rendering is usually done by the GPU.

Re: 3D Modelling in a Browser

#77

Post by tokyodude »

PudgePacket wrote: post #66
tokyodude wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WebGL2 is not around the corner. Apple has indirectly made it clear they will never be shipping WebGL2. WebGPU is "around the corner". Apple/Mozilla/Google/Microsoft are all working on it. Google and Mozilla will ship it. Apple and Microsoft remain to be seen.

https://caniuse.com/#search=webgl2 It's supported in safari, currently gated behind a setting though.

No it is not. That report is wrong.

Apple added a flag. They didn't add an implementation. There is zero code in WebKit to support WebGL2. All there is is a stub that returns a WebGL1 context when WebGL2 is asked for. Feel free to dig through the WebKit code. You'll see there is no WebGL2 code, all the functions are actually missing and no code has been added in > 3yrs. Try running the tests. (https://www.khronos.org/registry/webgl/sdk/tests/webgl-confo...), click off "all" then search for "conformance2", check the box and run. You'll see almost nothing passes.

Re: 3D Modelling in a Browser

#78

Post by cannedslime »

spectramax wrote: post #73
cannedslime wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everything is done by “eye” in the visualization industry. Im not sure if we tried the same version of blender... Its pretty easy and even intuitive to enter numerical values for dimension, rotation etc.

Yes, I noted that in my post that you can specify numerical values when placing primitives. But there is no full fledged dimensioning like in engineering CAD. As someone said, designing in 3D modeling software feels like drawing with crayons compared to the precision of engineering CAD. Rhino 3D is kind of ok as a nurbs modeler and has some dimensioning stuff.

I think my point was that nothing is stopping you from achieving the same level of precision as in CAD, but yeah dimensioning is much more useful for engineering tasks and working with meshes arent really suited for that kind of job.
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