When developing a CAD configurator intended to be used online in a e-commerce or a website you really need to have lightweight 3D files in a compressed format. Since state of the art in lightweight and compressed 3D format today is the binary version GLB of GLTF file format, we have created the GLBIFYER as an free online conversion of STEP files to GLB that is all handled in a secure way on your local browser.
CAD models are used to represent the exact truth on how a product works and what a product should be manufactured. CAD files are also handled on very powerful computes by professional engineers. Therefore there is little need for making CAD files lightweight when used for design and the formats (parasolid, step, iges) are optimized in other ways than what a online product configurator requires.
Lightweight 3D models in a product configurator needs to represent how a product works but does not have the same need for represent all details. Often the inner workings of a products should even be considered a trade secret and should not be included in the online product configurator.
Lightweight 3D-models are important for two reasons:
- How long it takes for a configurator to start and change depends heavily on file sizes
- How fast the 3D-models are rendered to screen when changing or navigating depends on how many “triangles” the 3D-model is created and how well they are packed