Open Standards for Real-Time 3D Communication

Increasing the value and cross-application use of CAD data through X3D

Billions of dollars are invested in CAD and technical product information. But 3D data created with CAD applications, is difficult to share with other users across the enterprise. Integrating 3D data, such as CAD engineering files, into other applications for sales & marketing or training is time consuming and difficult.

The open standards X3D CAD initiative will let customers access and repurpose complex 3D and technical data and seamlessly integrate it into other common desktop applications across the enterprise. Professionals outside of CAD and engineering will be able to access this graphical data, including animation, materials and textures, to increase productivity, cut costs and generate new revenue streams. This increases the value of the CAD data and reduces costs in other areas. Applications include customer visualization, design communication, training, technical documentation, sales and marketing, and customer support.

The CAD3D Working Group has a defined a file format and data transfer process. The format, CAD Distillation Format (CDF), enables translation of CAD data to an open format for publishing and interactive media. The process includes an open framework pipeline that incorporates tools for decimation of surfaces to constructs that are more common in the non-CAD environments.

Key points	Distills down high complexity data to low complexity data Low cost of adoption Extensible, open technology leveraged from open technology Royalty free Creates a communication channel between design, manufacturing, sales and servicing operations to reduce time to market and costs. Remote visual access to and interaction with accurate 3D design content is central to business, manufacturing and maintenance processes.
Application areas	Electronic training manuals Outreach animation Custom configurators (e.g. cars), product preview (e.g. clothing) Architecture, Engineering, Construction (AEC): maintenance, safety, pre and post review, walkthroughs
Digital Rights Management	Enabled by XML standards Follows W3C recommendations
Intellectual Property (IP) Policy	Same as parent organization Web3D Consortium Royalty free technologies only
Schedule	Draft specification May 3, 2004 Final specification August 15, 2004 Web3D Consortium members get early access and can contribute to the direction of the effort.
CDF process architecture is based on a Producer- Consumer approach
The specification covers	Plug-ins Extensibility Value add path Conformance suite Authoring rules
File format features	Industry standard scene graph architecture Geometry and appearance only, no runtime required Encodings include X3D XML encoding and binary Works with XML tools and web services
SDK (Java and C++)	Header files Interface and abstract class definitions XML data definitions Libraries Example filters Best practices guides, categorized by industry
Module organization	CDF Exporter - a component that writes CDF data CDF Importer - a component that reads CDF data CDF Filter - a component that reads CDF data, transforms it, and writes CDF data Example filters Identity - Passes the input to the output unchanged. Source code is included, so it serves as an example and a skeleton filter for development. Comment stripper - Passes the input to the output, but with comments removed. Basic triangulator - Uses a simplistic algorithm to convert input geometries into triangle collections.
Geometries	Triangles Quads Modified B-reps
Future issues	NURBS Animation Web services requests

How to join an X3D Working Group

Any Consortium Member can join a Working Group. We offer student, professional, academic and company level memberships.

Consortium members can simply go to the Consortium Member Login area of the website to sign-up to join this work group