[X3D-Ecosystem] [x3d-public] Reminder - X3D Ecosystem Meeting Feb 10, 2026 - 11am Eastern, 8am Pacific

[John Carlson]

I haven’t read your second message yet.  Yes people have tried using x3d.py
with blender.  You have to have your own copy in your extension/addon,
unless you’re planning on deploying with Blender itself.  Ultimately, it’s
about getting something approved through Blender.

I already an intimately familiar with Blender import and 2 exporters, one
uses x3d.py that Doug started.

On previous meetings, we discussed how there might be a web3d organization
within Blender source repository.  Is that what you’re referring to?

I can’t keep on patching x3d.py myself to make it fit into blender.
Ultimately, someone should accept changes from downstream.

So yes, I do like getting rid of a dependency I don’t have any control over.

John
On Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 10:25 PM Don Brutzman <don.brutzman at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 1. John it is not clear what you mean by "versions of x3d.py that get out
> of date" since x3d.py is autogenerated by X3DUOM, and therefore guaranteed
> to match X3D as defined by the International Specification.  As we keep
> refining utilities and adding features, this is a stable Python module.
>
> 2. Reiterating a question from this week's call:  wondering if anyone has
> tried using x3d.py in combination with the Blender Python API.  Might be
> interesting, and that is another alternative that might be an interesting
> and durable approach.
>
> 3. Zooming back: am thinking that improvements to native Blender X3D
> export has the most potential for broad usage and impact.  Thanks for
> sharing the source link.  The example that Vince shared, now online in
> archives, is super and demonstrates that the existing exporter has many
> capabilities.
>
>    - X3D4AM, X3D for Advanced Modeling Examples Archive, Conversions,
>    Blender X3D Theorem
>    <https://www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/X3dForAdvancedModeling/Conversions/BlenderX3dTheoremIndex.html>
>    -
>    https://www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/X3dForAdvancedModeling/Conversions/BlenderX3dTheoremIndex.html
>
> If someone is looking for a relatively small but important improvement to
> the blender exporter, namely
>
>    - Blender exporter for Web3D X3D/VRML2 format v2.5.1
>    -
>    https://extensions.blender.org/add-ons/web3d-x3d-vrml2-format/versions
>
> then a good entry-level challenge would be to improve how Blender exports
> Viewpoint nodes.  Nesting them inside a Transform makes them hard to
> modify for a Plain Old X3D Author.  Example using X3D Model Documentation:
>
>    - BlenderX3dTheorem.x3d (X3dToXhtml listing)
>    <https://www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/X3dForAdvancedModeling/Conversions/BlenderX3dTheorem.html#Camera_TRANSFORM> lines
>    113-115
>    -
>    https://www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/X3dForAdvancedModeling/Conversions/BlenderX3dTheorem.html#Camera_TRANSFORM
>
> 113
>> <https://www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/X3dForAdvancedModeling/Conversions/BlenderX3dTheorem.html#113>
>>             <Transform DEF='Camera_TRANSFORM
>> <https://www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/X3dForAdvancedModeling/Conversions/BlenderX3dTheorem.html#Camera_TRANSFORM>
>> ' rotation='-0.788280 -0.609329 -0.085636 0.352866' scale='1.000000
>> 1.000000 1.000000' translation='-1.197213 1.649556 5.238984'>
>> 114
>> <https://www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/X3dForAdvancedModeling/Conversions/BlenderX3dTheorem.html#114>
>>                  <Viewpoint DEF='CA_Camera
>> <https://www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/X3dForAdvancedModeling/Conversions/BlenderX3dTheorem.html#CA_Camera>
>> ' description='Blender 5.0.1 view
>> <https://www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/X3dForAdvancedModeling/Conversions/_viewpoints/BlenderX3dTheorem.x3d._VP_Blender_5.0.1_view.png>
>> ' fieldOfView='0.906' orientation='0.97 -0.01 -0.22 0.00' position='-0.00
>> -0.00 -0.00'/>
>> 115
>> <https://www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/X3dForAdvancedModeling/Conversions/BlenderX3dTheorem.html#115>
>>             </Transform>
>>
> Perhaps an even-simpler exporter-improvement task would be to omit
> trailing zeroes from floating point numbers.
>
> all the best, Don
> --
> X3D Graphics, Maritime Robotics, Distributed Simulation
> Relative Motion Consulting  https://RelativeMotion.info
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 4:30 PM John Carlson via X3D-Ecosystem <
> x3d-ecosystem at web3d.org> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 5:22 AM Vincent Marchetti via X3D-Ecosystem <
>> x3d-ecosystem at web3d.org> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 1. The Blender Python API documentation ; my practice for locating
>>> information is to do a search on "Blender Python API {keywords}" . Ignore
>>> the AI generated stuff, it's generally a directly plagiarize of the Blender
>>> documentation.
>>>
>>
>> Good point, Vince.  I assume you mean AI generated documentation.  Of
>> course everyone who programs in Blender Python is plagiarizing the
>> documentation (or the glTF addon/extension code).
>>
>>>
>>> 2. The source code for the Blender extension for exporting glTF; it also
>>> searches the Blender shader graph to populated the glTF material
>>> properties. This source code is at
>>> https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/src/branch/main/scripts/addons_core/io_scene_gltf
>>> <https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/src/branch/main/scripts/addons_core/io_scene_gltf2>
>>> 2
>>>
>>
>> see above comment.   The beauty of blender XML is that it uses
>> ElementTree to generate and read XML, so there’s no custom XML API and no
>> need to include versions of x3d.py that get out of date.   Indeed, Blender
>> XML currently operates as an external script, and may evolve independently.
>>
>>>
>>> 3. For deep level hacking, the results of the BlenderXML work might
>>> solve a deep-level problem; but as Michalis pointed out,  what you get from
>>> that might be dependent on Blender version.
>>>
>>
>> Yes, we will have to version blender XML, but we have to version the
>> Web3D Blender plugin as well.   The goal of Blender XML is to discover
>> what’s in Blender without constantly referring to the web.  I’m not really
>> sure terminal-based web is ideal, but I’ve not tried it for very long.
>> What the web offers is search.
>>
>> We can hope that the Blender XML code remains stable, but there’s really
>> no guarantees about that, as it leverages Blender C++ code made accessible
>> through python.   Ultimately, .blend files remains the stablest way to
>> upgrade.
>>
>> Blender XML is currently a WIP, because I now have 3 versions of the
>> importer and 2 versions of the exporter, based on 4 models-3 that mostly
>> work.  I am currently working to resolve 2 importers into one.  It has to
>> do with skin coloring in the Shader tab.
>>
>> John
>>
>>> --
>>
> X3D-Ecosystem mailing list
>> X3D-Ecosystem at web3d.org
>> http://web3d.org/mailman/listinfo/x3d-ecosystem_web3d.org
>>
>
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