Finding quality free 3d models is hard. And finding quality 3d models that can be used for anything, commercial or not, and modified at your will, is near impossible... But here you are a resource with thousands of 3d models for commercial and personal use.
You have complete freedom to use them in commercial projects, and in personal projects too, of course, provided that you don't copy them to your website or redistribute them. You can't sell it, nor make a copy of it and distribute it. People must download the models from Archive3d.net.
You can also modify them with a modeler software, or make models based on them.
The models are provided in 3DS and GSM formats. There are many categories, but most of the models are architecture and interior design models.
But look carefully to the categories and you'll see that there are animals, musical instruments, vehicles, humans... There is a wide variety of models to download and use for free.
Archive3d.net is one of the best resources for free 3d models download, based on the terms of use and the high quality of the geometries.
If you want these models in VRML format, you can convert them using CrossRoads or the file converter that you prefer. CrossRoads is a free program that can be freely distributed. A copy can be downloaded from our resources page: http://hiperia3d.googlepages.com/x3dresources
The X3DV Module Suite is a free set of modules to code in X3D, the open standard for interactive and immersive 3D on Internet. With it, you can create virtual worlds in 3D, using the great edition features of Netbeans.
Three modules are available now: language and files support for X3DV, a palette of code for x3dv, and now, with this new version, it has also support for VRML.
What are Netbeans and X3D? Netbeans is one of the main free Java editors in the market. In fact, it can be used to program in many computer languages. I have already explained what are VRML and X3D in a previous post. With them, you can create 3D virtual worlds.
The Netbeans X3DV Module Suite is for editing X3D inside Netbeans, in classic VRML encoding (with .x3dv extension). The classic VRML encoding is very easy to read and understand.
What is included in this module Suite? The three modules contained in the v2.0 version of the Suite (X3DV Encoding, X3DV Palette, and VRML module) can do all this:
You can edit and create new X3DV files inside Netbeans.
With the 2.0 version, you can also create and edit VRML world files.
Brackets and quotes completion.
Icons for X3DV files and VRML files.
Syntax coloring that makes editing easier.
A practical palette of x3dv code that will make you build worlds faster.
A button to show the palette.
Have a look at these screens to see how it looks.
First Module: X3DV Encoding
You can create new X3DV files:
It is ready to make your custom code templates:
In the code editor, you can see the X3D icon in x3dv files, and how syntax coloring is applied. As you see, the header has special colors so you can quickly recognize x3d files. Words like PROTO, ROUTE, TO, etc. are in red to easy locating them. Nodes are in blue and fields in green. As you write, in Netbeans, words are colored. So if you make a spelling mistake, you will know instantly because the node or field is not colored. Comments are in light grey, and the rest in black.
Here's one example more. As you see, DEF and USE words have a different and bright color because when one codes in X3D needs to find these very often, and this allows you to make it quickly.
Here's how are colored inputs and outputs in Script nodes. As you see, types have a bold black color, it helps to see if you typed them well. I used blue for inputs, red for outputs, and green for inputOutput. The reason is psychological, it allows to distinguish them easily. It's easy to think in this like it was a kitchen, the input enters cold (blue) and exits hot (red), being green something neuter that can be used for both.
The initializeOnly fields are in black, as they are just fields that are used later, and don't take a direct play in the output.
Here you can see how strings are colored:
And routes can be easily read because both ROUTE and TO are highlighted in red:
Second Module: X3DV Palette
The X3DV Palette can help you to write code faster. It places a new palette on the right, similar to the Palette that Netbeans has, and when you press one of the icons, a piece of code is copied to the clipboard. Then, you can paste it everywhere you like. This was done this way because you may want to paste it several times. To copy another code piece, just click another button.
It is based on the practical x3d worldbuilding, so you will find the most used text, without having to remove useless fields. It saves you from typing the same things over and over.
You know which button you have pressed because the icon shows a spark when you click it.
The X3DV Palette has not only code snippets of X3D nodes, it also has a material palette, to create good material, shine, and color properties for objects quickly.
You can minimize the X3DV Palette to the right. To show it, just click its icon again.
For quickly opening the palette you have an icon for your toolbar and also a menu option in the Windows menu, both with the same icon.
Third Module: VRML
Added in the 2.0 version of the X3DV Module Suite. It has all the same features of the X3DV Encoding module, but for VRML.
I decided to add this module because many people still use VRML today, or are migrating their files to X3D, so this tool is very useful for them. Keep informed, and install what you want
You can install all the modules, or just those that you like, as they are independent. More features will be added to these modules, and more modules will be added. If you like these software, I suggest you to subscribe to keep informed about this.
Watch the video
Support this project
If you like this project and want it to continue growing, or if your business, project or 3d artwork uses it, consider making a donation. By donating to this project any quantity (from $5 to $250), even if it's small, you benefit yourself too.
These founds will be used for the project growing and promotion, and also encourage further developing.
A 5% of the amount is given to SourceForge to help the community of free software developers.
By donating through this button, your donation will be registered and eventually displayed in this projects donors. If you prefer to donate directly through PayPal, you can do it here.
Click this button for making a secure donation via PayPal and SourceForge
If you can't make a donation, another way of helping is voting it in any social bookmarking site you use, or simply voting it in the Netbeans Plugin Directory.
To install it, you just need the main package, that is named "X3DV Module Suite v.2.0 Install".
The other packages are thought for developers. If you are a developer, respect the LGPL license, and report any improvement you make to the modules.
How To Install
The install process is described in a txt file inside the zip packages, but here it is:
Download and install Netbeans IDE. You can use any Netbeans bundle. For example, the Java SE bundle, that can be used to program in Java, and is only 25 MB (or the PHP one, that is only 16 MB, or for C/C++, just 14 MB).
Open Netbeans IDE
Go to menu: Tools/Plugins
Go to tab: Downloaded
Click "Add Plugin" button
Search the .nbm files of the Module Suite. Add them all, or those that you like, in any order.
Click "Install" button
Acept the license, and click the "Install" button
Click "Continue" when asked about the firm
Click "Finish"
Feedback
If you have any feature suggestion, wish list, idea or comment, please use this site and post to suggest it.
Recommendations There are many domain names to choose from when a webmaster decides upon hosting. One should always go for a deal compatible with ppc.
This module will be released soon, and consist in syntax highlighting, icons, new file wizard and template for VRML world files.
Although I recommend to use X3D in its classical vrml encoding (x3dv) from now on, I notice that many people still use VRML. And also, many of us try to adapt our files in VRML to X3D, or incorporate parts of those files.
So a syntax coloring for VRML in my Module Suite may help very much in these tasks.
MixED started his activity recently. It is conceived as a collective 3D art gallery. It's collective because its aim is to show the woks of many worldbuilders in the VRML and X3D scene.
And it's a 3D gallery in which we can visit the artworks of the worldbuilders. As they are talking about 3D worldbuilders, the possibilities are bigger. In addition to reading interviews, you can watch the photos of their worlds, watch videos too, visit their worlds...
It is focused on VRML in the artistic sense. It is in French and English, which makes it accesible for many people.
From time to time, they will organize collective themed exhibition and activities, that focus on a topic. For example, the exhibition that will be the opening of MixED will have as theme "My First Word". It will last from april 25 to june 25 of 2008.
In the first day of each exhibition, there will be a 3D chat party, that is your opportunity to talk with the artists, visit their 3D worlds and ask them all you like about their works. These meetings will take part in the 3D chats available.
The fist meeting will be on25 of this month (April) 2008 at 8h PM - GMT/UTC (you can check the UTC hour from time to time in our sidebar clocks.
It will take place in 3DPlanets, a Blaxxun-based VRML chat community. Registration is free. Blaxxun Plugin, for Internet Explorer only, can be downloaded here.
The worldbuilders that will be featured in this exhibition will be: Lionel, Legloups, Marco, McFly (Nuli Ibrahim, recently reviewed here in Hiperia3D News), Nums, and Mirko Vignozzi. They all will show the first works they did when they started in VRML. All them are now popular and remarkable worldbuilders, and great members of the VRML community. You can also read their interviews at MixED.
The exhibitions will last approximately for 2 months, and then they will change the topic or rotate the artists.
They also offer their RSS Feed, which is great so you can always stay up to date with the activities of this promising community. I have subscribed, and I recommend you to subscribe too. They also have links to other communities and many resources.
These all are the reasons that have made me link them permanently here from Hiperia3D (in the sidebar). I long for having more news and updates from this new concept, that is really something original, and demonstrates that the VRML and Web3D community is alive and full of activity.
Netbeans is one of the main free Java editors in the market. In fact, it can be used to program in many other computer languages, like C/C++, Ajax, Javascript... Netbeans can be extended adding modules that add new features. So you can have a programming editor customized to your needs.
This tutorial can be of interest for all those who want to create a module that adds support for a new language inside Netbeans IDE.
The process of creating the first of the modules that compose my X3DV Module Suite was similar to the one described here.
We will learn how to make a module that has these features:
Syntax highlighting that is specific for the language we will define.
Brace completion and auto-indentation.
Icons for the new files of that language.
To be able to create new files written in our new language.
Template for the new files written in that language.
Just download the last version of Netbeans (download Netbeans IDE 6.1 beta). Then, follow all the steps described here. This tutorial is valid for the 6.1 version of Netbeans, which has many improvements that make module building easier.
This tutorial takes a fictional language called Foo Language as a sample. I suggest to follow the tutorial as it is, and later, adapt it to your needs.This is not a highly technical tutorial, but a quickstart guide that can be very easy for newcomers.
First Steps With Your Module
Create a new Netbeans project:
Choose Netbeans Modules in Categories and Module in Projects:
Fill in your project Name, locate the directory where its project folder will be placed, and mark it as a Standalone Module.
Fill the info for your module. You just have to fill the two first text boxes: change the Code Name Base to what is appropriate for your module and choose a Display Name.
The project will be created. Now we will add the basic: support files for the new file type.
New File Type Support
Over the project name, right click and select New/File Type:
In the dialog that appears, you must enter some data so the Netbeans IDE recognizes the new file type. In MIME Type you must enter text/x- usually followed by the main extension of the file type. Why does it say text/x-? As you may note, what you enter is not the true MIME type. For the IDE, all the extensions we create are text files.
In Extension(s) you must enter them separated with spaces. In our example, there's only one extensions for Foo Files: .foo
In Class Name Prefix, you enter the name of the file type, so all classes generated by the IDE for this module will start with it.
In Icon, you must locate in your hard drive a gif icon of 16x16 pixels. In our example, it's this:
Although in some tutorials they say that jpg and png images can also be used, I found that sometimes they're not displayed. So I recommend using gif images, as they are less error-prone. The IDE will copy your icon to the project directory.
At this point, a bunch of files will be created by Netbeans IDE and opened in the code editor. Close them all, you don't need to edit them.
Now our module is ready to recognize and create the new file types. But we want the new files to have a default content. So we will edit the generated template. Locate the file named:
Edit it and write the content that you want to be the default when you create a new file.
Locate the XML Layer in the module. The XML Layer file is the soul of our module. It controls most of the things that a module can do.
Locate these lines:
The next step if to create a description of the new supported file type that will be displayed when you want to create it, in the New File Wizard. This description will be stored in a file called "Description.html" (strange... uh?).
Add this line after the one highlighted in blue, modifying it to your project url:
This line we added describes where the Description of the new file is. Right click over your project and select New/Other. Select Other/HTML file.
Name the file "Description", and leave the rest as it is.
Replace all the contents of the generated file with this:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <title></title> </head> <body> Creates a foo file that is useful for nothing at all. </body> </html>
This is what we will see as a result of these steps once the module is finished and we want to create a Foo file.
Create the Language Support
Now that we have the new files recognized, we will add syntax coloring and other features to our language module. To be able to support language features, we must do the following: right click over your project and choose "Properties". The properties of your module will be displayed. Click over libraries (on the left) and then the "Add..." button.
In the list, search for the entry called "Generic Languages Framework", and add it.
Now, right click over your project and select New/Other.
In Categories, select "Module Development", and on the right, select "Language Support".
Then enter the MIME Type and Extensions as we did in the first section of our tutorial.
You will see that the XML Layer has changed and now has more things added. Between them, there's a new file that describes our language. That file is called "language.nbs".
As the XML Layer has been modified, the icon of our files may have disappeared, so we need to add something to the XML Layer file to recover it.
Close all the opened files. Locate the file called XML Layer, and open it. Locate the line highlighted in blue in this image, that says
<file name="language.nbs" url="language.nbs">
And replace that entire line with:
<file name="language.nbs" url="language.nbs"> <attr name ="icon" stringvalue= "org/yourorghere/foolanguagesupport/foo_gif.gif"/> </file>
Editing The Language File
The default language.nbs file is filled with contents that may be a good start point for a scripting language. For declarative languages like VRML or X3D, or markup languages like HTML or similar, these contents are not useful.
In our example of the Foo Language, we will use a very simple language definition. This way you will understand the basics of defining languages.
So delete all the contents of the file language.nbs, and replace them with this:
# To change this template, choose Tools | Templates # and open the template in the editor.
# definition of tokens TOKEN:header:( "# foo language v1.0" )
The Tokens are the words that are part of your language, and you want them colored. They define types of words that have something in common in your language. You group them into a category, that is a token. The words are between double quotes, and separated by a | sign.
This defines the colors used for each token. You can specify more properties for colors, but these are the basic ones. All these properties are very easy to understand by their own names, as you see. The colors can be specified by their names (although it recognizes only a few) or by its number.
# brace completion COMPLETE "{:}"
What these lines do is that when you type a { sign, the editor automatically will type } after your caret, speeding your work and making it less error-prone.
# brace matching BRACE "{:}"
# indentation support INDENT "{:}"
This sentences make that when you place the caret over a brace, the matching brace will be highlighted, and that lines after those signs will be indented.
Final Note
Now you know all that is needed to create the basic support for a new file type and language syntax highlighting. You can add anything you like to your module, that you think is important for you and that could make your work easier.
There's much more than can be done with Netbeans IDE. I invite just to test it, join its huge community of users, and experience it by yourself.
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Nuli Ibrahim, also known in virtual worlds as MC Fly, is an active member of the VRML/X3D community of worldbuilders.
"One of the best aspects of web3d is the collision of sound, visuals, narrative and environment. The combination of all elements with the artist at the helm is opening the door for a new art form." (Nuli Ibrahim)
He started in Active Worlds, and soon he felt a strong attraction for building fantastic and science-fiction environments. He takes his inspiration from movies, sci-fic books, metal rock and psychedelic music, art and spirituality...
"I was introduced to 3d max from a friend in Active Worlds and this tool allowed me to build environments from scratch. The tool also has a VRML export tool which makes it very easy to export a world." (Nuli Ibrahim)
Fine tuning the VRML export of Max is not easy. So he extended his skills taking a course in San Francisco State University. This lead him to build great sceneries for the Web.
What Nuli Ibrahim finds more interesting in building 3D worlds is the combined art of joining movement, sound and interactivity.
"I've always been creatively inclined, but found that usually sound and visuals are separated. It was great to see the two areas being combined into one output."(Nuli Ibrahim)
He uses many tools to build his worlds, from audio to image editing, modelers, and virtual worlds editors. In his website, he lists the tools that he used to build his worlds.
You can visit his worlds in his domain: X3DWorlds.com
International3D Rooftop
This was one of the worlds that we visited in the Virtual 3D Tour of Friday 15th. I must say I enjoyed the visit very much. This world has a mix of interesting effects that make it unique. All of us spent a long time there, exploring it.
The visitor appears inside an elevator, and enters in a wide room with monitors on the left and a world map on the right. When you click the monitors, the sky changes. It's a fantasy that makes you believe that from this room, you control the whole world.
In one of the sides there are some stairs that lead to the terrace. There you can have a full view of the sky that you have chosen. The tall buildings in this sample make a strong feeling of vertigo.
The humorous part of this scenery is the flying van, that also appears in the next world.
Pink's Terrain 01: CubeHead Lake This is a world inspired by Pink Floyd music. You arrive to an awesome landscape surrounded by mountains, with a big lake in the center.
After some time, something in the sky will surely catch your attention...
"Been watching a little too much Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Bladerunner.....and Up In Smoke!" (Nuli Ibrahim)
Pink's Terrain 02 : Moonies on Pink's Terrain
More Pink Floyd influence, and the sci-fic references are obvious. A really psychedelic world, where flying alien ships travel across the sky.
Dome
This is one of the most enigmatic worlds that Nuli has done. Since the beginning of my arrival there, something reminded me of Moebius, the fantasy and comics artist.
"Moebius along with Heavy Metal comics and graphic novels has been an enormous inspiration.I also associate music very strongly with comics and also with the Vrml I made." (Nuli Ibrahim)
It's strange but the complex spherical building reminds also some of the classical movies of the last decades: the planet of Superman, the white universe of the Matrix... In some way, the author has put a piece of all that together into a 3d enigma.
ELEVATOR
This world is not completed yet, but it looks promising. Again, the sci-fic influence is patent. While walking through the corridor, all those movies get back to our memory.
The elevator awaits at the end. Where will it take us to?
The worlds of Nuli Ibrahim
Don't hesitate and pay a visit to Nuli Ibrahim's worlds. You'll be transported to worlds where all is possible, where imagination is triggered by the mystery of the unknown.
Recommendations A 650-621 enables one to study 70-630 as well as 70-282 without any expert guidance. Later an added credit of 642-432 qualifies one for the complex E20-001 as well.
Finding quality free 3d models is hard. And finding quality 3d models that can be used for anything, commercial or not, and modified at your will, is near impossible... But here you are a resource with thousands of 3d models for commercial and personal use.
Hiperia3D News is a Netbeans Community Partner, in recognition for developing the 
