I have been working with IMAGINiT for 16 years, but just when I think I have seen it all, I learn something new. Recently, a customer asked if there was a way to create interactive 3D models for their website. The idea would be that potential customers could see and interact with 3D models of products.
"Sure," I thought. "DWF files can do that."
But then I thought, "How?"
Design Web Format (DWF) files have been around for over 20 years, and can easily be exported from products like AutoCAD and Inventor. Getting them to appear on a website requires a location to host the files and code to get the files to show up in the webpage. What surprised me as I started researching this was how easily Autodesk 360 accomplishes both tasks.
The 3D model that you see above was created using Autodesk Inventor, exported to a DWF format and uploaded to A360. If you are not familiar with A360, it is a file collaboration site that is hosted by Autodesk. Sign up is free, and you get 5GB of storage.
While A360 has many features, this post will focus on using A360 to create dynamic web content such as the forklift shown here.
First, exported the model that I wanted to use on this post to a DWF format.
Once the DWF file was created, I logged into my A360 and uploaded it.
Once it was uploaded, I clicked on the file and accessed the sharing options.
I chose public sharing, and then the embed option.
The code at the bottom of the page is the magic tool. I copied and pasted that to the code in this blog post.
A360 is a terrific tool for sharing information, and the fact that you can embed that code easily makes it a powerful tool to easily share your design with your customers.
We are trying to embed some models onto our website. We are able to get the models embedded, but when somebody looks at them it has the default viewer settings on. The default settings makes the model appear the wrong colors, and it also makes the model blotchy. Is there any way that we could set the viewer on the website to viewer settings that we require so that anybody looking at it sees exactly what we see? Thanks!
Posted by: Kurt Jackman | 03/08/2016 at 01:18 PM
Kurt - I am not aware of a way to control that. Are you publishing them through A360?
Posted by: Caleb Funk | 04/21/2016 at 08:55 AM