CAD3A: A Web-Based Application to Visualize and Semantically Enhance CAD Assembly Models

Abstract

Nowadays, there is a significant interest in new media types such as 3D models. Thanks to the computer graphics advances, 3D content can be rendered in real-time on desktop and mobile devices improving the user experience. In addition, 3D contents may be endowed with heterogeneous metadata to improve the user understanding. This paper aims at improving the fruition of 3D models of industrial products. This type of content is designed as CAD (Computer-Aided Design) models, whose representation is not suitable for visualization over the web. We present an online processor of 3D models able to extract semantic content. The extracted data are represented in a meaningful and structured manner, such that the user can first visualize them on demand through any device, and then export the results for further analysis or to be processed by other external applications if necessary. The exploitation of Web technologies makes the framework easy to use both from desktop and mobile devices, no matter their specific hardware and software equipment.