“Exploring Virtual Earth – 3DVIA” refers to a pioneering consumer-facing 3D geospatial modeling collaboration launched by Microsoft and Dassault Systèmes. Released as a technology preview, this free application allowed everyday users to easily build, texture, and publish 3D models of buildings and structures directly onto Microsoft Virtual Earth (which later evolved into Bing Maps).
It served as Microsoft’s direct competitive response to the popular Google Earth and Google SketchUp ecosystem. 🧱 Core Features of Virtual Earth – 3DVIA
The software focused on an integrated, consumer-friendly pipeline that transformed abstract ideas into geographically anchored digital twins:
Create: Users designed 3D models of houses, landmarks, or custom structures using intuitive, geometric sketch-based tools (similar to a browser-based CAD or SketchUp).
Texturing & Realism: Creators applied specific colors, architectural textures, and visualization choices to give their concepts a lifelike appearance.
Publish: Models were uploaded and anchored directly to real geographic coordinates, street addresses, or neighborhoods on Virtual Earth.
Share: The platform featured integration with the legacy 3DVIA.com content library, allowing community members to download, remix, and share their assets. 💻 The User Interface and Workflow
For users learning 3D modeling through this platform, the workflow was integrated directly into the mapping ecosystem:
Map Integration: Users navigated to a location in Virtual Earth’s 3D mode, right-clicked, and selected “Add a 3D Model”.
Plugin Interface: A dedicated browser plugin opened to present a clean, simple workspace.
Extrusion Modeling: Users drew foundational shapes—rectangles, lines, and arcs—and extruded them upward to form volumetric 3D shapes.
Property & Tours: Once published to an online user collection, creators could configure automated “3D tours” to showcase flyovers of their structures. 📉 Legacy and Current Status
While it was an innovative step forward for crowdsourced web-GIS (Geographic Information Systems) mapping, Virtual Earth – 3DVIA was eventually phased out as Microsoft restructured Virtual Earth into Bing Maps.
Microsoft and Dassault Systèmes Launch Microsoft Virtual Earth
Leave a Reply