Compare
Which way should you share a 3D model?
Besides a browser link, there are four common ways to put a 3D model in front of a client or a customer, and each is good at something. Here is what each gives the person at the other end, where each one wins, and when 3D Thing is the wrong choice.
Compared on . The 3D Thing column is checked against its code. The other columns describe a kind of tool, not one product, and a given product may do more.
Side by side
What does each one give the person opening it?
Yes means it works out of the box. Depends means it depends on how that thing was built. No means it does not.
| What they get | 3D Thing | Renders and video | Desktop walkthrough app | Game engine build on the web | Plain model viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What the person opening it has to install | Nothing | Nothing | An application | Nothing | Nothing |
| Opens in a browser from a linkA build made for a desktop graphics card often will not start on a mid-range phone. The 3D Thing touch controls are checked in phone-sized browser windows, not yet on a real phone. | Yes | Yes | No | Depends | Yes |
| Walk inside at eye height, stopping at walls | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Overview and floor plan of the same model | Yes | No | Depends | Depends | No |
| Change a finish or an option while lookingA plain viewer can switch the material sets a glTF file carries. Grouping options, adding prices and a link for each choice is the part that usually needs code. | Yes | No | Depends | Depends | Depends |
| Sun for a real place, date and time | Yes | Yes | Depends | Depends | No |
| Measure distances in the modelIn the 3D Thing viewer. Not in the frame on your own website. | Yes | No | Depends | No | No |
| Leave a note on the model without an accountMarking up a PDF of a render works, but the note is not on the model. | Yes | Depends | No | No | No |
| Picture quality | Real time, in a browser | The best: rendered offline | Real time, on a desktop graphics card | Real time, as good as the build | Real time, in a browser |
| Works without an internet connection | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Turnaround after the model changes | Send it again or open the new file, publish, send the new link | A new render | A new export and a new file to send | A rebuild and a new upload | A new export |
| Old links keep working after an updateEvery 3D Thing version keeps its own link, and a version opened in the last 90 days is never removed. | Yes | Yes | No | No | Depends |
| VR headset from the same link | Built, not yet tried on a headset | No | Depends | Depends | No |
Fair to the others
When is another tool the better choice?
Each of these is good at something. Here is when to choose it, and when a 3D Thing link fits better.
Renders and video from your renderer
- Choose it when
- You need the best picture there is: a competition board, a print at A1, glass and caustics, a film-quality animation. Rendering offline on your own computer beats anything drawn live in a browser tab.
- Choose a 3D Thing link when
- The person wants to look around for themselves, in their own browser, in their own time. You can do both: renders for the brochure, a link for the conversation.
A desktop walkthrough app
- Choose it when
- You present in person from a powerful computer, or you need the application’s own tools while you walk.
- Choose a 3D Thing link when
- The person is somewhere else and will not install anything.
A game engine build on the web
- Choose it when
- You want a one-off experience with gameplay, sound, custom effects or a screen in a sales suite on hardware you control. That is a project with a developer and a budget.
- Choose a 3D Thing link when
- You need a link this week, and the next version next week, without a developer.
A plain model viewer
- Choose it when
- You only need a product to spin on a page, and you or your developer are happy to build the rest.
- Choose a 3D Thing link when
- You also want walking inside, saved views, options with prices, notes and links with passwords, without writing code.
Straight answers
What 3D Thing is not
- Not a renderer. Keep making your images and videos the way you do now.
- Not a CAD or BIM program. It keeps no drawings or building data, and it cannot open a .rvt, .3dm, .dwg or .pln file: save a GLB, glTF, FBX or OBJ first.
- Not a room planner. You do not build a room from a catalogue here: you bring a model you already made.
- Not a scanning app. It shows a scan you already have, saved as one of those files.
- Not an analysis tool. It does not simulate structures, energy or crowds.
Measured
Where are the limits?
- 9.9 MB
- of geometry, from 32.9 MB, no shape changed
- 2048 px
- widest picture, Ready for a phone
A browser on a phone is not a render farm. Publishing makes a smaller copy for the link without changing a shape: a sample apartment went from 32.9 MB to 9.9 MB of geometry.
A large scene still takes time to arrive. An apartment-sized scene took 73.8 seconds to open on a slowed-down phone profile and 9.0 seconds without the slowdown, measured before publishing made anything smaller. The Ready for a phone setting also limits pictures to 2048 pixels across.
Cinematic effects cost frames on older laptops, which is why Fast is the default. Two things are built but not yet tried on real hardware: the touch controls on a real phone, and VR on a headset.
Before you choose
Three things worth checking in any tool you compare
- 1
Does the person opening it install anything?
Ask what they have to do to open it on the phone in their pocket. Anything past tapping a link is a step some people will not take.
- 2
What happens when the model changes?
Time the loop from a change in your 3D program to an updated link. That number decides whether the tool survives a busy week.
- 3
Do the materials survive the export?
Open a scene with your real materials, not a sample file. Materials made for one renderer are where exports usually go wrong.
You can test all three in an afternoon: the demo opens after a short form, and a free account publishes a real link.