Dr. Ludwig Zamenhof, Esperanto's creator, was an oculist in Poland who hoped that the language he offered to the world in l897 would contribute to peace, harmony, and understanding.

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As with our spoken languages, incompatible computer languages and formats are legion, along with liberal doses of clueless management who don’t understand how deviating from the "standard" installation of AutoCAD could allow a puck pusher to do 20 hours work in 20 seconds. If you are a freelancer, cube the number of headaches, especially when trying to do rapid prototyping with distant customers who don’t use or understand CAD and 3D modelling applications well enough to even examine the fruits of your labor.

Compatibility problems are common to most industries that have come to rely on computers: Prepress editors get files from authors that are in obscure or inappropriate formats, and web developers pull their hair out trying to explain that you can’t "just" put a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation up on the web for everyone to read. The computing industry is buried by its own "No comprendo" error messages.

When dealing with 3D files, the format war has really taken its toll on developers, as each package reads and writes its own proprietary format, occasionally offering the capacity to save a file to a competitor’s format, which it does poorly at best. I have been crashing around with 3D programs for about 6 years now, and have consistantly been disappointed with their cross application support of file formats. And since most of these formats are for working with objects, instead of displaying to customers a finished product, there hasn’t been any way for the end product to be practically visible in a common environment that allowed the customer to "inspect" models from different applications.

As a partial solution to this little shop of horrors, I would like to introduce my AutoCAD bretheren (and "cistern") to a wonderful pal: VRML or Virtual Reality Modeling Language. It is usually pronounced "V-R-M-L", but its friends pronounce it "vermel." It has the potential to save a lot of people a lot of heartburn.

VRML 1.0 is a subset of the Inventor File Format (ASCII) with some additions to allow linking out to the Web. In its ASCII (or text based file formatting) it is much like our old dog DXF. But many objects have property attributes that DXF no longer covers, and some file formats (like the quad point mesh builder, trueSpace3) have gone far beyond what DXF can handle effectively. VRML differs from DXF by optimizing an object for display, not even trying to preserve manipulation properties accurately. VRML 2.0 goes even further by making the format binary, instead of text based, thus allowing for on-the-fly compression to significantly reduce file size.

Since you can only convert to VRML (not from it), some modellers have written it off as a "dead end" format. In a certain sense, they are correct. There is no way to use VRML as a common interchange to translate between all different formats. It is a one way conversion. But since almost all formats can be converted to VRML, its power as a universal display format is uncompromised.

Because VRML optimizes objects for display, you don’t have to burn your time rendering a model from 12 different views for the client. Instead, convert your 3DS, DXF, DWG, etc. file to VRML, and email it to your client as a file attachment. Any recent web browser either has a VRML capable plugin installed, or can install one quickly, so there is no question about a clients ability to view or examine the object. (I grant you, this presumes a certain level of computer saavy on your customer’s part.)

Since VRML files are built in accordance with the quality and amount of detail you choose to export to it from the original source file, VRML is idea for displaying everything from the very simple, such as an ordinary compass (Fig.1), to the mind numbingly complex, such as the complete screw-by-screw model of everyone’s favorite Oscar nominee, the Titanic. (Fig.2) But as with all things, as complexity increases so does cost, in this case measured in bandwidth.

VRML was pioneered by Silicon Graphics, the folks responsible for the workstations used to produce most of the eye-popping computer generated effects seen in movies of the last decade. The dream driving VRMLs creation and evolution isn’t as short sighted as just a common display format for 3D objects. The designers of VRML hope to do away with HTML as the navigational constant on the web. Instead, they want to put web users on a virtual landscape with realistic 3D objects that are hyper-links to other information or sites. This also allows you to interact with others in real time by use of "avatars", 3D characters that represent you on the digital landscape, even moving their "mouths" in sync with your spoken voice as your chat with someone from Kenya about water buffalo recipes.

Don’t avatars sound like Disney’s TRON?

In many ways they are like TRON characters. But like TRON, VRML also seems to be looking for an audience that is willing to settle for less. Navigating a user interface in a 2D environment (a webpage) is hard enough for most people. The VRML evangelists suggest that, since we live and exist in a 3D environment, we should naturally be more comfortable navigating in a 3D environment. To this I say, "Hold your horses, tovarich…"

VRML is great when you have something that needs to be represented in 3D, but is ridiculous overhead if you don’t need it. You don’t carry a topographical map of your neighborhood around in your car, you carry a piece of paper that is difficult to refold. While a very rare need may justify a relief map, most of the time the Z axis data would only serve to confuse us and slow our assimilation of the most useful data: The X,Y coordinates. The same may be said for virtual worlds that offer a 3D paradigm "just because they can." We read books in 2D, and most of our navigational aids, if we have a choice, are 2D. That is because the human mind easily visualizes object relationships in 2D. 3D is more difficult for everyone, though men have an enhanced capacity to navigate in 3 dimensions.

VRML is a great tool for rapid prototyping regardless of file formats.But the computer industry needs another navigational paradigm the way a dog needs more fleas. Make VRML work for you, but resist the temptation to force 3D on a world that still can’t refold the flat map.

¡Adios!

WebWalker