Author: Kaspar Koov

New feature we have added for wayfinding applications is accordion style floors when using path animation. This means, that all floors will be visible on the screens when showing the path through multiple floors.

In 3D Wayfinder you will see all floors as they exist in real building, so they are just simplified 3D models of the real floor-plans. When switching between floors, new floors will drop into scene on top of the previous floors or fly away, if going downward with the path. All floors are exactly covering previous ones, so basically whole 3D building models are sliced by floors.

Now it is possible to keep the floor plans apart from each other, so you can see all floors at the same time. This is useful mainly for wayfinding, so it is easy to remember the whole route. But we will definitely develop this “accordion” mode further, so it can be used also in other applications. For example in BIM applications, it is possible to highlight objects in all floors at the same time. Or visualize the whole factory with multiple floors or create multi-layer metro station animations.

Currently the distance between floors is configured under settings. In future we will add features for separating the floors by dragging the floor-buttons apart. This makes the browsing of 3D buildings much more flexible.

To use this accordion style path animation, go to Settings in Administration panel. Then find Path->3D->Leave a offset between floors. For example use 50 as an offset, and then see how it looks.

New template is now available for all 3D Wayfinder users. Template called “Iglu” is responsive HTML5 based template for 3D Wayfinder with clean and modern design. It is open-source and uses our newest AngularJS framework based template.

There is a new default template for all 3D Wayfinder projects and it’s called Iglu. Currently this template can only be used to view 3D projects. But rest assured we’re working on the 2D version as well. The 2D template will have exact same layout and styles as the 3D version. The main feature of this new template is the use of AngularJS. In addition to this there is one more major feature being added and it is responsiveness. This means that it can be viewed in both portrait and landscape mode. It will look good on all ranges and sizes of displays, be it a 55” kiosk screen or a 5” smartphone with WebGL support.

The template has three main sections which are the header, the map and the menu. The header has the building logo and button for activating the navigation menu. Below the header is the map that has map controls on it: floor buttons, zoom buttons, shortcut buttons.

Navigation menu

When the navigation menu is activated it will cover the right side of the map on larger screens and the whole map area on smaller screens. Currently the navigation menu has three tabs – the alphabetical listing, the category listing and search.

Our new template covers all main features, needed for wayfinding:

• Map navigation controls
• A-Z list of all locations
• Categories
• Location info
• Search

Although the template suites very well for wayfinding kiosks and mobile applications. It is also good for just showing and browsing 3D architectural models.

Here can You view a demo project based on the new template:
http://static.3dwayfinder.com/projects/demo/Iglu3D/

The Iglu template is based on our 3DWayfinderNGTemplate and it is open source (Github: https://github.com/3dtech/3DWayfinderNGTemplate).

The template uses 3DWayfinders AngularJS service. 3DWayfinderAngular (Github: https://github.com/3dtech/3DWayfinderAngular) – to communicate with our JavaScript Wayfinder API. So 3D Wayfinder functionality is easy to use in all AngularJS projects. The Iglu template is a clean and nice example of using AngularJS with 3D Wayfinder.

Our old default template called “default” is still available. It can be selected from menu or used direclty in wayfinder project URL: https://static.3dwayfinder.com/projects/demo/default/.
Template was made in co-operation with our development partner Iglu. Iglu is a young and innovative custom software building company in Estonia. Iglu’s core-competences are UX and modern front-end development.

We have added compass widget for Developers Template. Compass arrow can be shown on top of the map canvas to point to the north (or any other direction) of the 3D floor plan.

Compass is one of the tools and widgets that is needed for one of our larger building information (BIM) project. There are also other tools under development that provide building information and help work with different data related with building 3D model.

Compass widget is using 0-point of the Y-axis. It is called with Camera view-port service orbitController.  It has property currentRotation, which holds the model’s rotation data.  Needle of compass is animated using that data.
Compass example is integrated into Development template. Template can be accessed via the administration panel at admin.3dwayfinder.com when selecting the view with template “DevTemplate”.

When using compass, it is important to notice, that the 3D floorplan has to be modelled north pointing to Z axis. Otherwise you need to make adjustments in widget’s javascript code, which calculates the compass’ position.

We have improved our 3D rendering engine. Thanks to better memory management we got 10..20% performance increase in FPS with larger 3D models.

We updated our WebGL javascript engine – FRAK – in 3D Wayfinder. Many memory management functions have been improved in the new version. With the new FRAK engine 3D Wayfinder provides better loading speed performance for larger 3D models, that use more memory. With smaller 3D models, the increase in speed is not noticeable.

Testing with one really large shopping mall floor plan we got increase in performance in average 15%. In idle mode we recorded 16 frames per second (FPS) increase, jumping from 44 FPS to 50 FPS. While actively showing path we recorded a 7 FPS increase, jumping from 38 FPS to 45 FPS. In normal use, 3D Wayfinder is limited to 30 frames per second.

3D Wayfinder new administration panel is now publicly available for testing. It contains already most of the functionality and is optimized for mobile devices.

New admin panel is accessible for public use now. It can be opened here: http://admin2.3dwayfinder.com/

We have been redesigning 3D Wayfinder admin panel for almost half a year now. During the development of the new administration front-end, we have rebuilt many services in back-end also. Goal has been set accessibility from mobile devices and simplification.

New administration panel is optimized for mobile devices:

There are still many bugs and we are working in full load to fix them. Any bug reports can be reported to our support. We would be happy for any comment or suggestion also. More detailed overview coming soon.

We have published wayfinding software full specification feature list. This covers the important features for wayfinding and building directory administration.

3D Wayfinding has a lot of functionality and features. That might be not visible with first test use. For making the selection of wayfinding application easier and giving. We have published full specification sheet also in 3D Wayfinder webpage.

Wayfinding software full specification feature list is structured by following listing:

1. User interface
2. Wayfinding
3. Searching and directory browsing
4. Offline use
5. Mobile application
6. Positioning
7. Floorplan administration
8. Advertisments
9. Statistics
10. Integration and API
11. Floor plan models

Please find the full feature list here.

With 3D Wayfinder you can brand your wayfinding application just like it has been developed by yourself. It is possible to use custom loading bar and even get your own layout for administration panel.

We are using small watermark with 3D Wayfinder logo on 3D floor plans. But this only appears, when you are using free plan. As soon as you choose another plan, the watermark disappears.

When using the Business plan it is possible to customize the loading bar of your wayfinder application.

With the Enterprise license it is even possible to change the branding of the Administration Panel. This way you can offer the 3D Wayfinder under your branding or integrate 3D Wayfinder inside your digital signage solution. For Enterprise licensing, please contact us.

We have listed some guidelines for creating 3D models, that look nice and run smoothly in web-browsers. 

3D Wayfinder uses regular 3D models, so there is no special format or way how the 3D floorplans should be modeled. As 3D Wayfinder works in web-browsers through WebGL technology, then in order to get better results the 3D models should be optimized. Read below for some useful tips and tricks on optimizing 3D models for the best performance.

For example keep the 3D geometry simple and use textures, that can be repeated:

An important element of 3D floorplans are different kinds of vegetation (trees, bushes etc.). They help to make the floorplans look more life-like and in some cases are also important for navigating on the map. It is easy to use transparent textures on the simple planes, just never model out the leaves or branches:

With 3D it is possible to create really life-like buildings, but when using 3D for maps, it is always good to keep the models simpler. For this we suggest removing un-important furniture and making the walls as low as possible without losing the general idea of the height of the room. This way the visibility of the visualized path is far greater.

You find the full list of guidelines for creating 3D models are added 3D Wayfinder page here.

There is option now to moving camera with path animation. This makes the path visualization even more effective with 3D floor-plans and maps. Especially when combining with directions.

So far there were 2 ways to show the path: draw the path animation or show the walk from first person view. Like you see the 3D in computer games. With usual path visualization the map was zoomed out, to fit the whole path on the screen. But this might make the understanding of recommended path a bit complicated. Mostly when the map is large and complicated.

With moving the camera with path animation it is possible to keep the “You are here” view to the map, including angle and zoom level. Of course it is always possible to zoom in or out during the path animation and rotate the map (if it is allowed). The camera will keep following the path to the guided destination.

Path visualization behavior can be adjusted under Settings in 3D Wayfinder Administration panel.

3ds Max models cannot be used directly in 3D Wayfinder, as .max format is closed file format and our importer doesn’t support it. But exporting 3D models from Max is not complicated.

3D Wayfinder supports following formats for 3D models: .fbx, .dae, .lwo, .obj and .3ds. But as we are using ASSIMP for model converting it is possible to try also other formats. With 3ds Max, we recommend to use  .fbx or .dae formats.

To exporting 3D models from Max follow these instructions:

1. When exporting models always select what You want to export and then “export – export selected”.

2. Set proper export settings.

If You want to export .fbx use these settings on the picture:

Pay attention that “triangulate” has to be selected and up axis is “Y-up”. Otherwise the 3D model will be flipped in 3D Wayfinder.

If You are exporting .dae then use only OpenCOLLADA exporter and these settings:

There are some minor differences with .dae and .fbx files. You just have to test, what suites better. All the materials can be tuned in 3D Wayfinder Administration panel (see the tutorial), so you don’t have to worry about ambient colors, transparency or other material properties.

We recommend that the whole building should not have more than 100 000 polygons. For kiosk applications (where it is possible to use better GPU-s) you can also have much larger models.