The 3DPlay app on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform acts as a file viewer but provides much more than just simply viewing functionality. The app allows you to take multiple different file types and open/view them on one application and apply different scenarios and tools. To someone who is new to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, these apps can be quite confusing, tedious, and hard to even do a single task at first. This blog will be covering a deep dive into 3DPlay so continue reading if you would like to get a first-hand look at what the 3DPlay app has to offer.

Initial Thoughts

Once you make your way to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, you can find the 3DPlay app under the “My Apps” section within the compass dropdown menu. After you select the app a new window will open with the 3DPlay viewer displayed. You are prompted to “Drop your content here” from anywhere on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, such as your 3DDrive. After selecting a file and dragging it into the 3DPlay app the content will be displayed. The complete list of compatible file types can be found below.

The overall feel of this app is that it is a more advanced file viewer. With multiple tools to manipulate the model or assembly, there are numerous possibilities for what you can do. Let’s dive in and take a closer look at the tools available for use.

Available Tools

The “Tools” portion of the toolbar within the 3DPlay app gives you some helpful items to work with when viewing a model. On the far left there is the “Hide/Show” tool. When an assembly file is open and this tool is selected whichever part you click on will become hidden. You can click on the “Swap visibility” on the hide/show option toolbar and you can toggle between views showing you what times are hidden and which are currently being shown. You can click the “show all” button to re-show any hidden items.

The “explode” tool is useful when working with assemblies. By selecting this, you are able to create a quick exploded view of the open assembly even if an exploded view had not been designed within the model. A slide bar becomes available that allows you to choose how far apart you want your exploded view to place the components. This exploded view is not always perfect and may show some parts interfering or not exploding in the intended direction but for a quick view, this is not a bad option.

There is a measure tool available on the toolbar to help you take quick measurements. This measuring tool is very basic at the moment with only the ability to tell you the distance between two selected points. There is a possibility that in future versions of this app the measuring tool will be updated to become more versatile.

There is a section tool available that allows you to select among a number of geometrical items on your model to create a section plane. After you click on the section tool you will be met with a number of buttons you can select and deselect to help you choose what geometry is able to help with the placement of the section view plane. You can select to section off of points, centers, origins, lines, planes, cylinders, and surfaces. After selecting the plane for your section a triad will pop up that will allow you to control the location of the section plane along the six axial and rotational directions. Once your section plane is in the desired location simply click on an empty space off of the the model to exit the section tool while still showing your model in the sectioned mode. To remove the section plane, click on the eraser within the section tools pop up toolbar.

The final available tool is the annotation commands. This displays a toolbar on the right half of your screen with tools to place annotations directly on your model. You have the ability to select between a freehand pencil or typed-out text. Simply rotate your model to show the portion you would like to add and note and begin drawing in lines or adding text. You will notice that after the annotation has been placed and the view is moved that the note will disappear. Don’t stress because the note isn’t really gone it is simply assigned to the view it was originally created in! If you swivel back to the orientation you created the note in it will reappear. The annotation tour button becomes available after annotations have been placed on the model. The tour button will easily scroll to the correct view orientation to see every annotation that has been made.

View Options

The “View” portion of the toolbar within the 3DPlay app is very similar to other 3D modeling view options. You are given a number of tools to help you position your model correctly in the viewer. The rotate tool allows you to turn the model around the vertical and horizontal axis. The pan tool moves the model across the screen vertically and horizontally. The zoom tool allows you to move the model closer or further away. The fit all in tool will zoom the model to a view that is able to fit the model fully within the screen area. The standard views tool will allow you to select from common straight on views such as front, left, right, etc to view the model from. Ther is a selection tool that allows you to view the model in parallel or perspective view. The parallel view is more exact while the perspective view will give a more realistic view feel. There is a shading selection tool that allows you to switch between multiple model shading view options such as wireframe, illustration, shaded, shaded with edges, etc. The final view option is the filter lineic elements tool. This allows you to control the sketch axis, lines, and points on your model and either show or hide them.

View Scenarios

The button on the far left-hand side of the 3DPlay toolbar will allow you to toggle between the three view scenarios. The explore scenario is selected by default when the app is opened. This scenario allows you to utilize the basic view option and tools that were talked about earlier in this blog. The fly/walk navigation scenario will allow you to smoothly and continuously transition the view around the model by clicking and holding the mouse button and moving your cursor around the screen to control the direction. The view moves as if you were in a small plane flying around the model or as if you were the same size and walking around the model. This view scenario is quite odd and hard to control at first but offers an interesting perspective when viewing the model. The 3D Tolerancing & Annotation scenario is used for any models that have been previously marked up in Catia. The markups will be presented in slides and you will be able to flip throughout the different views to review the annotation on the model.

Share to 3DSwym

The final button on the toolbar to cover is the most important. The share to 3DSwym tool takes a screenshot of the current view orientation and setup and allows you to post it to a 3DSwym community for feedback. You can also save a screenshot or print a screenshot with this tool. After the screenshot is taken, a pop-up box appears that allows you to select a community or conversation and give the screenshot a title and description. Once your selections have been made you can publish right to that community or conversation from the 3DPlay app. Arguably, all the other tools in the app are used to set up the view for the use of the share to the 3DSwym tool.

Overall, the 3DPlay app has a great selection of tools available that can be very helpful when viewing a model and creating screenshots for communities and conversations. With the 3DEXPERIENCE platform still in its early days, it will be exciting to see how this app evolves and grows to better fit its role on the platform.

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