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© Copyright 1997 Los Trancos Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.
We have developed a Java applet that can convert raster diagrams into VRML. While there are already products that do this, they were mostly designed for use where the diagram looks more or less like a top view of whatever is being depicted. They extrude these symbols upwards to an appropriate height, then add in tops and bottoms if appropriate, forming boxes and vertical walls. This technique is useful in fields like architecture, but not in areas where abstract symbols represent objects, as in electrical engineering. Our applet translates these symbols directly, instead of extruding their lines into walls. This allows intricate designs, or any objects that do not consist of vertical walls (with, possibly, a roof and a floor) to be incorporated in the design.
Perhaps you would rather see what the applet does. For your convenience, each of the next four links opens a separate window, so you can click on one, then come back to this window to read the details while the file is downloading. The applet's output files are in VRML 1.0; if you are uncertain whether your browser supports this format, click on the VRML links. If you get an error, if you see an empty world, or if Netscape asks you if you want to download the file, your browser does not support VRML 1.0.
This picture represents a more or less flat circuit. It was fed into the converter, which then wrote the VRML file. Total time to convert under appletviewer (Sun JDK 1.0.2): 1 minute, 13 seconds.
This picture uses color to encode height information. Each distinct color represents either the height of an element, or multiple elements overlapping each other. Total time to convert under appletviewer (Sun JDK 1.0.2): 2 minutes, 57 seconds.
We wrote this as a Java applet to allow it to run on any machine that supports Java. It is an applet, rather than an application, since the most widely distributed Java virtual machines are those in Web browsers. However, since this applet creates a file (specifically, a VRML file), it can only be used with browsers which allow Java applets to do so. The "Java sandbox" security model, used in Netscape Navigator (versions 3.x and prior) and Internet Explorer (ditto), explicitly forbids this. Thus, as of 3/31/1997, the only publically available widely used browser which allows this is Netscape Communicator PR2. Since that is beta software, the applet will have to be retested with later versions of Communicator (and Internet Explorer, should it ever allow file input/output). For this and other reasons, the applet is not available on our Web site. However, internal tests show that the time to convert is cut by at least half under Communicator PR2. If you have schematics that you want converted in order to prove that this is not vaporware, please contact us. The applet is currently configured to produce VRML 1.0, but it can easily be switched to VRML 2.0 if desired.
The teaser for this demo said something about fast authoring...
Oh, right, almost forgot to mention that. This applet can convert bitmaps into VRML files, so, in order to create a VRML file, all you have to do is to paint the bitmap and run the applet. It may take an hour or so to create the bitmap, and a few minutes for the converter to run, but contrast this to the days that it can take using even the best 3D authoring tools to create a VRML scene. Hours instead of days is relatively fast.
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