DAVID Mesh2Flash

Mesh2Flash - developed by DAVID Vision Systems GmbH - is a free Flash program that is able to show 3D meshes (obj or dae) online with or without texture. It can be part of any web page and allows the viewer to freely rotate and zoom the 3D view by mouse. Mesh2Flash really renders the object live, instead of showing just a few fixed shots like many other “3D” viewers do. It can directly load the OBJ or DAE files, which are common 3D file formats - with or without texture. Only Adobe Flash Player is required, which has a diffusion rate of >98%. So if you want to present your 3D models on the Internet, e.g. in your online shop or a forum, Mesh2Flash is the right tool for you!

(rotate with left mouse button!)

The user can rotate the view by holding the left mouse button and moving the mouse left-right (yawing) or up-down (pitching). Also the mouse wheel can be used for zooming in/out.

There are some keyboard commands, too:

• Arrow keys: Rotate view
• +/-: Zoom in/out
• Z/z: Zoom in/out
• f/F: Decrease/increase camera focal length
• s: Start/stop continuous rotation
• a,r: Reset camera
• q,e: Roll camera

Since Flash is rather slow in parsing files and 3D rendering, Mesh2Flash should only be used with simple meshes (only a few thousand triangles). A nice texture can make the mesh look great.

Some hints:

• If you have DAVID Professional, you can use David 2.4.4 or higher - there is a “Reduce Mesh Density” option in the right-click menu of DAVID-Shapefusion. It will reduce vertex density to the percentage you select.
• Although it is possible to repeat the mesh reduction several times, it is better to reduce a mesh only one time. E.g. instead of reducing 4 times to 32%, reduce to 1% in one step.
• This function has no undo. Use it on a saved scan and load again to undo.

You have to include Mesh2Flash.swf in your document (web page, wiki page, forum post) and give it some parameters, mainly the file parameter giving the URL of your mesh file. Flash's security policy requires that Mesh2Flash.swf and the mesh files are on the same server/domain! So if your mesh files are not located on a david-laserscanner.com page but on some other server, you will have to download and install Mesh2Flash there.

General hints

• All syntaxes below seem to contain double code, namely the data and param value strings are equal. Unfortunately, this is necessary. Some browsers require the data parameter, others require the param value parameter. Please use both.
• The blue texts contain the URL of the 3D data file. You have to adjust them to the real address of your file. This address can be given as a relative or absolute path. However it must be on the same domain as Mesh2Flash.swf.
• The red parts: If you are using Mesh2Flash on your own server, not on the DAVID domain, you will have to adjust the red addresses to the correct URL of Mesh2Flash on your server.
• The black parts of the syntax are always the same, just copy&paste them. Of course you can change the width and height values, their ratio should be around 4:3.

Using Mesh2Flash for meshes located on david-laserscanner.com (Wiki or Forum)

• See the information about Wiki or Forum syntax below. You will only have to adjust the blue parts.

Using Mesh2Flash for meshes outside david-laserscanner.com

• Download Mesh2Flash from here.
• Copy both files from the .zip download (Mesh2Flash.swf and mesh2flash_overlay.png) next to each other on the same webserver which also contains your 3D data.
• Then use the syntax given below, adjusting the red and blue sections.

Use the following syntax in your html file to show a 3D mesh on your website. Of course replace the red and blue parts with the correct URLs. Both have to be located on the same server!

myMesh.obj is the absolute or relative path to your mesh file (obj or dae). Adjust the width and height values if you wish.

If you want to show a mesh file which you have uploaded in the Wiki's Media Files (e.g. in the folder your_name under user_page), use a Wiki code similiar to this:

Use the following code in your forum post:

Use the following code in your forum post:

If you want to attach a mesh file to your post and show it inline, the question will be: What is the URL of my attachment? Use the following way to find it (OBJ only!):

1. Write your post and attach the OBJ file (this extension must be permitted by forum admin)
2. optional: attach the texture image file
3. Click “Preview”
4. Look at the preview, the attached OBJ file is visible as a link. You can see the exact link by holding your mouse pointer over it or right-clicking it - this depends on the browser you are using. The link will be similar to this:

   http://www.theserver.com/forum/download/file.php?id=2136

   This id number is what were are interested in. It is different each time.
5. Place the code above somewhere in your post, using that link as the file parameter for Mesh2Flash, but replace the question mark ? in the link by the number sign # (the ? directly behind Mesh2Flash.swf is not to be replaced!)
6. optional: use the link to the texture image attachment as the texFile parameter. Again, replace the question mark ? in the link by the number sign #.

Example without texture: (Note where the ? has been replaced by a #)

Example with texture: (Note that two ? have been replaced by #)

Of course it is possible to link between Forum and Wiki as long as they are located one the same domain.

Beside the parameter “file”, there are some optional parameters you can define. They have to be separated by &. Their order is arbitrary, but upper/lower case is relevant!

• pitch: Initial pitch of the view in degree (default: 0). Use e.g. 30 to view the object slightly from above.
• yaw: Initial yaw of the view in degree (default: -45). Yawing is rotating the object around the vertical axis.
• rotate: Continuous rotation (yawing) of the object around the up axis in degree per (1/30) second (default: 0=off).
• mouseWheelFactor: How fast the mouse wheel zooms in and out. Negative values invert the direction. 0 mean no zooming. (default: 5).

• focalLength Initial focal length of the camera (default: 500).
• backgroundColor Background color of the Flash viewport hexadecimal between 0×000000 and 0xFFFFFF as 0xRRGGBB (Red, Green, Blue). Default: 0xFFFFFF = white.

• lightColor (only for untextured OBJ meshes) Color of the light source (default: 0xFFFFFF).
• ambientColor (only for untextured OBJ meshes) Color of the ambient light (default: 0×403830).
• specular (only for untextured OBJ meshes) Surface specularity (default: 30).
• shaderMode (only for untextured OBJ meshes) 0=Phong Shader, 1=Flat Shader (default: 0).

• texFile (only for OBJ files) URL of the texture image to be used if there is no mtl file

Example:

...Mesh2Flash.swf?file=http://www.david-laserscanner.com/freeware/Mesh2Flash/cow.dae&pitch=30&yaw=90&rotate=2

Usually, beside the .obj file, there is a material file (.mtl) in the same folder with the same name. For example, greatMesh.obj and greatMesh.mtl. In that mtl file, the texture filename must be given. E.g.

map_Kd myMesh.png

Of course, when you save a textured scan with DAVID, these files will be create accordingly.

If there is no such mtl file, or if you are using an OBJ posted as a Forum attachment, you can define the location of the texture file separately by the texFile parameter (see above).