Examples of use of X3D with S1000D

I have taken the bicycle model supplied by Arno Feuer to the S1000D Graphics and Multimedia Working Group, used it as the basis for three interactive X3D scenes, and inserted those as figures into an X3D sample document. The sample document is that which was available with the release of S1000D Issue 2.2 together with the stylesheets from the Swedish Defence Ministry which display the sample document. These samples and stylesheets are no longer available from the S1000D website.

There are two different sets of JavaScript code available which allow use of X3D scenes embedded in a HTML document to be displayed by a Web browser. These are X3DOM and X_ITE. X3DOM only partially implements X3D. In general the missing parts are the user interaction features. It allows (and expects) use of HTML for user interaction. X_ITE is a mostly complete implementation of X3D. X3DOM tends to run much faster than X_ITE.

I had to make some changes to the stylesheets to get them to work properly and to display X3D figures. These changes are somewhat of a hack. Note that these stylesheets do not present the S1000D modules in an S1000D compliant viewer but I believe it is good enough to be of use in evaluating the X3D figures.

The figure which shows mouseover identification of parts may be found at "Bike Manuals -> Maintenance Manual -> Bicycle -> General -> Bicycle - Description of how it is made". There are two animated figures at "Bike Manuals -> Maintenance Manual -> Bicycle -> General -> Bicycle - Bicycle Standard repair procedures". I've tested these examples with Chrome v59.0.3071.115, Firefox v54.0.1, and Internet Explorer v11.0.43 all running under Windows 7. The user can rotate the viewpoint in each figure by holding down the left mouse button and dragging.

Example using X3DOM

This seems to work fine with Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer.

Bicycle issue 2.2 with X3DOM

Example using X_ITE

X_ITE works unaccetably slow with this model. It could be sped up by making the model simpler.

Bicycle issue 2.2 with X_ITE

Future work

I would love to use a compliant S1000D viewer but I am reluctant to go through the trouble of building one myself and haven't found any one that will give me permission to use theirs. I don't intend on doing any more work with Issue 2.2. My next step is to make these samples work with the latest issue of S1000D.

Questions? Comments?

Contact me at CLamb@acm.org