SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 381 - Sunglass

Sunglass:

This podcast covers a browser-based 3D collaboration tool that give you live, 3D interaction, markup and other design review tools. Topics covered:

- Sunglass signup and overview

- Uploading content

- View navigation and object manipulation

- Live collaboration tools

- Markup and save options

- First impressions

I am always looking for the next web-based 3D tool for helping engineers and designers collaborate on ideas.  I heard about this tool a while back from SolidSmack and have been playing with it quite a bit.  This MIT startup based out of the bay area just received $1.7M in funding and is quite impressive in its early stages.

I am unsure, at this point, if Sungless is more beneficial to its users than using screen-sharing tools along with their CAD platforms, however it shows is the promise of browser-based tools that can be run from anywhere for hassle-free collaboration.  Hopefully as it develops they will add more native file formats (currently OBJ, 3DS and STL) and possibly launch simple upload tools directly from the CAD platform in order to remove the export step for collaboration.

The tool does require flash, which rules out many mobile platforms, however performance-wise the service ran pretty well and the collaboration experience was quite good.  Chat, markup, view saving and live 3D collaboration environment make this browser-based tool a service I will keep my eye on for months to come. ~Lou

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