Embedding 3D files

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1

Since this forum will probably involve discussion of a lot of 3D files, one thing that is on my wishlist for the forum is a way to embed 3D files with a viewer directly. I’ve been looking into a few different ways, but it isn’t looking too great. We may have to roll something custom. (That is the great thing about using an open source forum engine like Discourse.)

My ideal solution is being able to just copy and paste the URL of a file from GrabCAD or from Thingiverse or something and have it display in 3D. Looks like neither have an embeddable url though.

Sketchfab does have an embedded version, and I’ve whitelisted the sketchfab.com domain to allow iframe embeds from there, so here it goes. Here is the STL from the z-axis motor cover from this post. I’m just pasting the URL out of the URL bar on sketchfab:

https://sketchfab.com/models/3a2b5769fa094819aba3f6d721c32e3e

It renders the background correctly in the preview, but I’ll have to post this to see if it really works.

[update: it totally works! It is a bit clunky, but if you export a WRL file from GrabCAD or an STL from thingiverse and upload it to SketchFab, you can embed it.]

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I like the idea. I’m thinking most people will want to be able to measure things though. I find dimensions from Bart’s models on GrabCad almost everyday…

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Yeah I really wish GrabCAD provided an embeddable viewer, but they don’t :frowning:

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Here are a couple other examples, one of the gantry and one of the entire X-Carve. The colors are strange and it takes a while to load, but it looks pretty darn awesome.


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It does look cool, but that style of orbiting/zooming where the focal point isn’t where your mouse is pointed is frustrating.

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That is pretty standard (it is the way Easel works also). You can pan the camera with shift + click + drag

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That’s cool, I can’t believe an embedded 3D interactive object like that works in a forum. Man, the future is awesome.