Archicad and VRML (Realtime web 3D)

[Anonymous]

I would like to know your opinion about ARCHICAD and VRML.

I mean the possibility to walk through good quality 3D scenes (from archicad files) in realtime online. Would it be interesting for architects and designer?

Giovanni Dragone

[Andy Thomson]

A while back, I exported AC generated buildings into Adobe Atmosphere, by way of OBJ exports and assigning bounds detection/collision with javascript - the result was pretty cool.

I know Atmosphere has improved since, better than any VRML viewer I had tried at that time. I would like to try that workflow again, but it seemed much faster to use Turntool for everything, export and viewing. I don't know whether they have developed a plugin for 10 yet, but the quality was very good when exported from AC9.

That being said, they (Turntool) had not yet implemented the 'walk' feature, vital in browsing buildings in realtimne online. You need to get into buildings to understand them, not just tumble them around on a central pivot.

It's an added bonus to not float through walls, and have gravity pull you to surfaces also - something that bugs me to no end about the current gaming nav of AC10 - it suffers from lack of gravity and bounds detection, which is pretty easily scripted.

[Anonymous]

Yes, 'walk' feature is vital in browsing buildings in realtime online (and offline too). In general the way to explore virtual buildings should be easy and comfortable. That means "mouse navigation", "gravity", "collision", "automatic opening of doors" "speed control".

Moreover, interactivity is not less important. I mean the possibility to change in realtime textures, lighting, backgrounds ... and the possibility for a web user to interact with 3d scenes (linked to each other) by clicking on different links to web pages, documents, pictures, video, audio and so on ...

In my experience VRML is OK for that, much better than other web 3D technology. The graphic quality of this open source (web 3D standard) is highly improved in the last years as well as standard hardware for 3D.
I got excellent results with vrml generated by Archicad, but these files need to be optimized.

[Anonymous]

I like Archicad as well

[Andy Thomson]

Try the turntool demo/plugin, it is very easy to create, just save 3D as .tnt - it even makes an html page to view the result...

Demos here: http://www.turntool.com/showcases.html
Plugin for Ac10 here: http://www.turntool.com/ToolboxInstall.exe

The best part is that it works right out of the box. What, in your opinion is the best VRML client/plugin for viewing AC's results?


A

[Anonymous]

andyro wrote:
What, in your opinion is the best VRML client/plugin for viewing AC's results?

once the archicad vrml has been optimized it can be explored in real time with all the most popular vrml-viewers (Cortona, Blaxxun, Octaga, Bitmanagement....)

some of them allows to view advanced effects: chromium plating, polished surfaces ....