Oct 29, 2015 | By Benedict
Australian online strategy firm Dotty has launched an online platform for sharing and editing 3D models online. DottyView, a kind of DropBox for the 3D printing community, bills itself as “the first Cloud platform for viewing, presenting, and sharing all of your 3D models.”
The platform, which uses the latest WebGI technology, enables full live collaborative editing: multiple users can view and edit an online 3D model simultaneously, from remote locations. 3D models, designed using your software of choice, can be uploaded in a range of formats, which are then converted into html5. Once online, they can be viewed, shared, edited, animated, and more. "Everything is private can be shared as a read only via our special share links," Wes McCombe, Director of Dotty Digital told us. No special software is required to access the 3D models once they have been uploaded. "Best viewed in Chrome or Firefox because WebGL needs to be enabled. One really interesting thing about this viewer is it's all web based," McCombe said. This html5 conversion massively increases the accessibility of 3D modelling—3D models for 3D printing can now be collaboratively edited online, from anywhere, on any computer.
Although the project is currently mid-launch, curious parties can check out an interactive 3D model of an IKEA wine rack on the company’s landing page. The 3D model can be explored in a range of views and angles, and animations demonstrating its real-life assembly can be played with ease. This unique feature could be the future of instruction manuals for self-assembly products and much more. The animations can be played step-by-step, at a range of speeds, and give a far more lifelike representation of the building process than confusing paper instructions.
Dotty is also planning to further expand its 3D services portfolio. In 3-6 months, the company will launch DottyAR, an Augmented Reality version of DottyView. This service will be accompanied by DottyDraft, to assist designers in the drafting phase of design, as well as DottyPrint for 3D printing the completed models.
Signing up to DottyView enables users to play with five sample 3D models, which demonstrate the full capabilities of the online service. Here’s one impressive 3D design which you can see for yourself right now.
Dotty, a member of the NSW Business Chamber, has experience in managing software implementation projects, website development, and more. “Dotty was formed because we wanted to do what we love and do it better than anyone else,” their manifesto reads. “We’ve worked for the big corporations like banks and government agencies as well as a few of our own ventures. We wanted to bring the knowledge and expertise from these industries and make it available to everyone. Small and medium businesses should have the power to compete with the big end of town without having to hire an army of experts.”
Check out the interactive 3D model, shared with DottyView, below:
Posted in 3D Design
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I'm confused, this looks pretty much identical as Autodesk's Fusion 360 web interface. Even the functionality of sharing etc is very similar. Sweet though, easy access and sharing of 3D models can always be useful.