3D Models

  Table of Contents

• Overview
• Adding a Model to a Step
  • Revisions and Redlines
• STEP and GLB Files
  • Converting STEP Files
  • Uploading GLB Files
  • The Tablet Budget
  • Originals
• Viewing a Model
  • Pictures on the Card
  • Toolbar and Controls
• Step Views
• Library Links
  • Linking a Part
  • Linked Parts on the Card
• Models on a Part
• File Access

Overview

A 3D model shows a part's CAD next to the instructions that use it. A technician can turn the assembly, hide what is in the way, and see where a step applies without leaving the task.

Models live in a shared library and belong to parts. A step shows a model through a 3D model block, and a part lists its models on its 3D models tab. Picking a model the library already has points the block at the same file instead of storing another copy.

Factorial displays models in the browser and sends no request outside your Factorial site. Conversion from STEP also runs in the browser, so CAD files never pass through a third-party service.

Adding a Model to a Step

Add a 3D model block from the step's add menu, then choose one of its two buttons:

• Upload model takes a STEP (.step, .stp) or GLB (.glb) file. See STEP and GLB Files.

• Choose existing lists the library's models by file name, newest first in each group:

  • For the step's parts: models linked to the procedure's part or to the parts the step requires.
  • Used in this procedure: models that another step, or another revision of the procedure, already shows.
  • All models: the rest of the library.

  Search narrows the list by file name. Factorial shows at most 50 models at a time.

An upload asks whether the model is of the procedure's part, or None, only this step. Linking a model to a part adds it to that part's 3D models tab, where every procedure of the part can find it. Factorial asks only users with permission to edit parts, and never in a redline, a project, or a procedure without a part. Otherwise the model is the step's only.

Uploading a file the library already has, byte for byte, uses the library's model and reports it as already in the library.

A block keeps its model. To show a different model, remove the block and add a new one.

Revisions and Redlines

A new procedure revision copies its 3D model blocks, and the copies show the same model file with the same step view. Duplicated steps and redlines share them the same way. Removing a block never removes the model from the library.

A redline can add a 3D model block and upload a model to it. It cannot link the model to a part, because that changes the parts library.

STEP and GLB Files

Factorial displays GLB, the binary form of glTF, and accepts STEP (ISO 10303-21) files by converting them to GLB.

Converting STEP Files

A STEP file converts in the author's browser before anything is uploaded. The upload shows each stage: checking the file, converting it, optimizing it for tablets, uploading the model, keeping the original, and taking its picture. Converting takes about half a second per megabyte of STEP on a laptop.

Conversion has two limits:

• It runs on a computer. A phone or tablet cannot spare the memory a large conversion takes, so it offers GLB uploads only.
• A STEP file may be at most 95 MB, with at most 1.5 million entities. Factorial keeps every STEP file it converts as the model's original, up to 95 MB. It counts a file's entities in a second or two before converting it, and refuses a larger file right away.

For a larger assembly, export a subassembly, or export GLB from your CAD tool:

• Several CAD tools, such as SolidWorks and Onshape, export GLB directly. Export binary GLB, not glTF with separate files.
• Siemens NX has no built-in glTF export. Export STEP for each subassembly, or publish GLB from your PLM system if it offers that.

A converted model keeps the assembly's part names and hierarchy. Parts that are the same shape, such as fasteners, are drawn as copies of one shape, even when the STEP file defines each one separately.

Uploading GLB Files

A GLB within the tablet budget uploads as it is, from any device. A GLB uploaded as it is may be at most 75 MB. On a computer, Factorial first converts a GLB that is over the budget's warning level, has textures, or needs a format the viewer does not read, and then keeps the file you uploaded as its original. A GLB that needs converting may be at most 95 MB. A GLB with Draco compression cannot be read; export it again without Draco.

The Tablet Budget

Factorial keeps every model small enough to load on a shop-floor tablet:

	Triangles	File size
Target for conversion	4 million	30 MB
Marked Heavy for tablets	over 6 million	over 40 MB
Refused	over 10 million	over 75 MB

A converted model over the target is simplified down to it. Simplification reduces the detail of each part's surfaces and keeps every part. The upload says when a model was simplified, and from how many triangles. A model marked Heavy for tablets still loads, but may load slowly or not at all on a tablet.

Originals

After a converted model is uploaded, Factorial uploads the file it came from and keeps it with the model as its original. The block and the part page link to it for download. The 3D model window stays open while the original uploads; select Skip original to close it without one. If the original fails to upload, the window says so, with Retry when trying again may work.

A model's original comes with the upload that added the model: it is set once, by the user who uploaded the model, and cannot be replaced. Uploading a file the library already has uses the library's model and its original, if any.

Viewing a Model

A 3D model block shows the model's name, triangle count, and file size, with links to download the model and its original. Nothing loads until someone selects View in 3D.

Pictures on the Card

Until the viewer opens, the block is a card with a picture of the model. After the model and its original are uploaded, the browser draws the whole assembly from the start view and saves that picture with the model, so every block that shows the model uses it, with or without a step view. A model without a picture, such as one uploaded through the API without one, shows a box icon and its part count.

Toolbar and Controls

The toolbar along the bottom of the viewer offers:

• Hide: select parts to hide them.
• Isolate: select a part to show it alone. While parts are isolated, selecting another part adds it, and selecting an isolated part takes it out. Taking out the last one shows the whole model again. Isolate stays on while parts are isolated, however you isolated them. Turning it off shows the whole model, and turning it on again brings back the parts you had isolated.
• X-ray: make the model see-through. Selecting a part keeps it solid, and selecting it again goes one level deeper into the assembly.
• Parts: list the model's parts, with identical parts on one row, and how many are linked to the library. A linked part shows its part number, with its name in the file under it. A part that is not linked shows its name in the file and not linked. Show All, Not linked, or Linked parts, search the list, point at a row to highlight its parts, and select a row to isolate them. The list opens beside the model, or over it when the viewer is narrow, and stays open for the next model you view until you close it.
• Undo and Show all, which bring hidden parts back. Show all shows how many parts are hidden.
• Zoom, Reset, and full screen. Reset returns to the step view if the block has one, and otherwise shows every part from the start view.
• Shortcuts, which lists the keys and gestures below.

The viewer rotates around the point you press, so a part deep inside the assembly stays in view while you turn it.

Hide, Isolate, and X-ray act on whole parts as the CAD file defines them. A part drawn in several colors, such as a piston with its rings, is one part to the viewer. Pointing at a part names it: by its library part if it is linked to one, otherwise by its name in the file and not linked. A file that names only its shapes and not its parts, as COLLADA exports do, shows the shape names. A part with no name at all shows as Unnamed part.

Isolated parts appear as chips in the viewer's top corner, identical parts on one chip with their count. The × on a chip takes its parts out.

	Mouse	Touch
Rotate	Drag	One finger
Pan	Right drag, or hold Space and drag	Two fingers
Zoom	Scroll	Pinch
Set the rotation point	Double click	Double tap

Cmd+Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows and Linux) undoes the last hide, and Esc turns Hide or Isolate off, like its button, or leaves full screen.

On a touch screen, View in 3D opens the model full screen. Back on the page, the block is a preview that one finger scrolls past, and Open 3D view returns to full screen. The close button in the viewer's corner returns the block to its card and frees the memory the model used.

Step Views

A step view is the view a 3D model block opens on: where the camera looks from, which parts are hidden, and whether x-ray is on with some parts kept solid. An author sets it so a technician opens the step already looking at the parts it concerns, instead of finding them in the whole assembly.

To save a step view, open the model in a draft step, set up the view with the toolbar, and select Save view. Saving again replaces the view. The card keeps the model's picture: the step view shows once the viewer opens. The clear button next to Save view removes it, and the step opens on the whole model again. Only authors see these buttons; a task opens on the step view without them.

While a block has a step view, Reset returns to it. Show all still brings back every part.

A step view names the parts of the block's own model. A block keeps its model, so its view keeps pointing at the same parts. If the viewer ever counts the model's parts differently than when the view was saved, the step opens from the view's camera on the whole model and says the view needs saving again, rather than hiding the wrong parts. On a screen narrower than the one the view was saved on, the camera moves back so the view's width stays in frame.

Library Links

A library link ties a part of a model to a part in the parts library, so the viewer names it by its part number. A CAD file often names its parts by a designer's working names, or not at all. A link gives each part the part number the shop floor uses, without editing the file.

This is separate from linking a whole model to a part on the part's 3D models tab.

Library links belong to the model, not to the step. Every step that shows the model, and the model on a part's 3D models tab, shows the same links. A released step shows links made later, the way it shows a part's new description.

Library links are library data, like the parts they name, so making them takes permission to edit parts. Without it, Link is turned off and says why.

Linking a Part

1. Open the model in a procedure step, a redline, or on a part's 3D models tab, and select Parts. If you may link parts, the list starts on the Not linked parts while any are left.
2. Select Link on the part's row, or on its chip once it's isolated.
3. Pick the library part. On a step, the list shows the step's parts first: the procedure's part and the parts the step requires. Then come the parts the whole model is linked to or its parts already link to, and then the library's matches for the search, by part number, revision, or description. The search starts from what looks like a part number in the part's name in the file.

The link saves as soon as you pick a part. When the model has identical parts, such as the screws of one fastener, Link all matching parts links them together, along with the other parts on the same row of the list. Clear it to link only the part you selected.

If the library does not have the part yet, Add part at the end of the list adds it with the part number, revision, and description you enter, and links to it.

A linked part leaves the Not linked list, and the count at the top of the list goes up, so the list works as what is left to link.

To change a link, select Edit on the part's row in the Linked list, or the pencil on its chip. Unlink takes it off, and the part goes back to its name in the file.

Linked Parts on the Card

When a step view keeps linked parts solid, the card shows their part numbers before the viewer opens. A technician can see which parts the step is about without loading the model.

Like a step view, a link names a part by its position in the model. If the viewer ever counts the model's parts differently than when the link was made, it shows the part's name instead of a part number that might be wrong.

Models on a Part

A part's 3D models tab lists the models linked to the part, newest first, whether or not a procedure shows them yet. Each model lists the procedure steps that show it, in each procedure's newest released revision and in any later draft or revision in review, and can be viewed in 3D.

The tab points out models that may need attention. It does not change anything by itself:

• Not in a released procedure marks a linked model that none of the part's released procedures shows, once the part has a released procedure. The model may be outdated, or may not be on a step yet.
• In this part's procedures, not linked lists models that the part's procedures show but that are not linked to the part. Link to part adds one to the part's models.

The part's procedures are the procedures whose output is the part.

A user with permission to edit parts can upload a STEP or GLB file on the tab, which links the new model to the part. Unlink takes a model off the part. The model stays in the library, and the steps that show it keep it.

File Access

Any signed-in user can download any model file, its original, and its picture, including users who cannot see the procedure that shows the model. Keep this in mind when uploading CAD that only some users should see.