‘3D searching’ – It’s here and it’s getting more intense. From web pages to images and all the media stored in the recesses of your hard-drive, we’ve got you covered. But on the 3D CAD and Design side… uhm, not so much.
Who’s bringing the 3D? A handful of companies. There’s similarities and differences, but it all wreaks of abolishing traditional search. Take a look. Can any of this be applied to 3D CAD or design?
What the Coolest?
Cooliris really stands out here. It’s web-based, it’s fast and it’s intuitive. Now wonder they just raised 15 million. That’s not stopping the others and even some not listed here to crank up the development of 3D-ish ways to find content.
What about CAD and Design?
It’s outlandish I say, someone needs to be severely questioned. 3D search is lacking in 3D CAD and design. I doubt it’s developers overtly putting aside the idea. It’s just not the most important piece of functionality needed. A perfect opportunity for third-party developers.
Only one company that I know of, ShapeSpace, with their PartBrowser product, is actively developing a 3D search tool to search your desktop for 3D ‘in 3D’. It’s an excellent product, but I can’t help but wish it has some of the slickness of Cooliris or a web-based component. But is that really needed?
Media Explorer, particularly the 3D variety are getting more and more popular, but not even the kings of online user-generated content, 3DVia and Google 3D Warehouse, has a way to search their 3D data repositories in 3D, or to even retrieve data inside those models in a visually stunning manner. Which makes me ask again, is it really needed?
Update: from Csven on Twitter – @solidsmack – “Carbon Goggles“. Not so much a search but an AR-simulating HUD which overlaid environmental impact info. – This is a really interesting look at how to find info in a 3D environment. Perhaps some of this could be applied to search.