Quick Introduction

The CAD Exchanger Web Toolkit is a JavaScript library to visualize, explore and analyze 3D CAD models. Unlike Autodesk Forge, the Web Toolkit can be used to develop web applications running entirely on premise (i.e. inside corporate network) without exposing any confidential data outside of the company.

The CAD Exchanger Web Toolkit is used as an underlying engine of CAD Exchanger Cloud (cloud.cadexchanger.com). Thus you can build applications providing comparable functionality.

The Web Toolkit uses the three.js library to display 3D contents via WebGL on a client’s side.

In order to display any 3D file with the help of the Web Toolkit the contents must be first prepared by converting the original 3D file into a specific format called CDXFB. CDXFB is a highly-compressed binary format and allows efficient data transfer over networks to provide excellent application responsiveness and UX.

Conversion to CDXFB can be performed using one of the following ways:

• CAD Exchanger CLI - a simple command line conversion utility which can be installed on a server inside a company;
• CAD Exchanger Cloud API - REST API to work with 3D files stored in public clouds. For simplicity, at the given moment, Cloud API can be understood as a 'CLI in the cloud' option.
• CAD Exchanger SDK - a set of C#, Java, C++ libraries to work with 3D data in a more sophisticated way (including B-Rep modeling and mesh generation). CAD Exchanger SDK can be used to build more complex web applications including 3D modeling.

Each of the above options is licensed and priced differently. For details, please contact sales@cadexchanger.com.

Key Features

The CAD Exchanger Web Toolkit provides the following features:

• Reading multiple 3D formats (using other CAD Exchanger components – CLI, SDK or Cloud API).
• Access to product structure of assemblies and parts.
• 3D geometry: B-Rep (Boundary Representation, or precise geometry) and meshes (tessellated geometry).
• Metadata: names, user-defined properties, id’s, etc.
• Colors and materials with textures and transparencies.
• Measurements: bounding boxes, distances, angles. With the help of CAD Exchanger SDK, additional measurements are available such as surface area, volume, centroid, minimum bounding box, etc.
• PMI (Product and Manufacturing Information).
• Multiple display modes, including shading, wireframe and ghost views.
• Interactive selection and hovering in 3D view.

System Requirements

The CAD Exchanger Web Toolkit requires WebGL-canvas compatible browser:

• Chrome 50+
• Firefox 45+
• Opera 37+
• Safari 9+
• Microsoft Edge 20+
• Internet Explorer 11

Refer to respective documentations for configurations, supported by CAD Exchanger CLI and SDK. Note that for thumbnail generation with the help of CAD Exchanger CLI on Linux, OpenGL packages must be installed (refer to above documentation for details).