Yes! I ran a very high end CAD tool on SGI computers at that time and it could output whe assemblies to VRML!
And that capability preceded other tools and file formats by a decade easy! And offered as many features, and a few we still don't see today given things like Siemens JT, or PTC and whatever they use now.
We would display them three ways:
Netscape was the easy way, and one got a cool view manipulation GUI that way. This performed pretty well on higher end 90's hardware. Could display most of the front of a car with full dimensions and other annotations at reasonable frame rates.
Or, use the dedicated Java viewer the program output in addition to the raw file, which is what the browser used.
Or, buy a viewer tool, and we had one. Cosmo something....
On SGI, using the Java viewer, one could view the VRML in actual 3D with shutter glasses and pull up predefined views useful to shop people.
Really cool. Very few used the real 3D capability.
And that remains true today!
I have another high end CAD tool on my laptop, and it can display 3D on my 60 inch plasma at home. Does it 60hz per eye, which is crazy for both being more than a decade old!
There are at most a handful of companies able to employ similar capability today. Space X is one who does use it however. Go Space X!
I do, and will model complex surfaces in 3D. Pure joy to use.
But, it has to be that most users either do not care, or 3D bothers them, or something...
Also, same goes for viewing files. A small number used VRML back in the day. Today, a smaller, though also a larger than back in the day number use those tools today.
The rest are on paper or static PDF.
FWIW: Open WRL will display the 90's era CAD VMRL data. Kudos to them!
And that capability preceded other tools and file formats by a decade easy! And offered as many features, and a few we still don't see today given things like Siemens JT, or PTC and whatever they use now.
We would display them three ways:
Netscape was the easy way, and one got a cool view manipulation GUI that way. This performed pretty well on higher end 90's hardware. Could display most of the front of a car with full dimensions and other annotations at reasonable frame rates.
Or, use the dedicated Java viewer the program output in addition to the raw file, which is what the browser used.
Or, buy a viewer tool, and we had one. Cosmo something....
On SGI, using the Java viewer, one could view the VRML in actual 3D with shutter glasses and pull up predefined views useful to shop people.
Really cool. Very few used the real 3D capability.
And that remains true today!
I have another high end CAD tool on my laptop, and it can display 3D on my 60 inch plasma at home. Does it 60hz per eye, which is crazy for both being more than a decade old!
There are at most a handful of companies able to employ similar capability today. Space X is one who does use it however. Go Space X!
I do, and will model complex surfaces in 3D. Pure joy to use.
But, it has to be that most users either do not care, or 3D bothers them, or something...
Also, same goes for viewing files. A small number used VRML back in the day. Today, a smaller, though also a larger than back in the day number use those tools today.
The rest are on paper or static PDF.
FWIW: Open WRL will display the 90's era CAD VMRL data. Kudos to them!