3D CAD model visualization on a website using the X3D standard

摘要

3D CAD data have not only part geometry but also product structure information and manufacturing-related properties. Visualizing part geometry with these data on internet is useful in downstream product development. Web visualization standards provide a way to develop visualization tools independent from a CAD system. This paper proposes a method for using the X3D visualization standard to include part geometry, product structures, and manufacturing-related properties simultaneously. 3D CAD data are extracted from a CAD system and translated into the X3D standard. A translator system and a web viewer system are implemented to verify the proposed approach. A test using three different 3D CAD files is conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. According to the results, the proposed X3D data set is better visualized than data in the VRML standard. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.