Friday, October 6th, 2017 Posted by Jim Thacker

CL3VER turns 3D scenes into interactive tours in one click


Online 3D presentation service CL3VER has rolled out the latest version of its technology. The update makes it possible to export a 3ds Max or Revit scene as a browser-based presentation with a single click.

The update isn’t officially numbered, but following the previous versioning system, it would be CL3VER 4.0.

Convert an existing 3D scene to a browser-based presentation with a single click
Launched in 2013, CL3VER enables design and visualisation professionals to convert existing 3D assets into interactive WebGL-based presentations that can be viewed in a standard web browser.

Whereas the previous version of the platform required users to rebuild lights and materials manually, the update automates the process significantly.

CL3VER’s updated 3ds Max and Revit plugins now export scenes from their host software preserving the existing geometry, materials, lights and cameras – and, in Revit’s case, BIM information.

The presentation is rendered in real time, with support for ray traced GI, real-time reflections, physically based materials, and a range of standard post effects, including exposure, gamma and vignetting.

A faster, more intuitive way to create interactive online presentations
Viewers can navigate the resulting presentation by cycling through the camera positions set up in the original scene, with CL3VER automatically generating transitions between each one.

It is also possible to add annotations or text-based guided tours within the CL3VER interface.

Users can download the presentation to send to clients or colleagues manually, or share it via CL3VER’s cloud-based workspace, which includes a range of built-in collaboration features.

CL3VER claims that the new workflow makes it “10x faster” to create and share presentations than with previous versions of the service.

Further integration planned with V-Ray
In the case of 3ds Max, the one-click export process extends to V-Ray materials and lights as well as their native equivalents.

CL3VER also plans to connect its new real-time engine to V-Ray, “enabling enterprise users to create photorealistic still images of current views, as well as automatically bake lightmaps”.

The work is a collaboration with V-Ray creators Chaos Group, which invested €2 million in CL3VER in 2016.

Pricing and availability
CL3VER is a subscription-only service. Pricing starts at $40/month for an Entry account, which gets you a single plugin and online workspace, plus support for 20 projects; or $60/month for a Pro account.

The firm is currently also offering annual subscriptions at a 25% launch discount until 4 November 2017.

The CL3VER export plugin is compatible with 3ds Max 2016+ and Revit 2016+. Updated versions of the plugin for SketchUp and Rhino are currently in beta.

Read more about the new features in CL3VER on the company’s blog


Full disclosure: In my other life as a technical writer, I produced some of the online videos for CL3VER 4.0.