"As U will probably know there is s increasing number of VRML- models
available
online. The problem is to get them into your favorite modelling software.
There are a lot of converters from something to VRML but not back.
Do you know any converters from VRML to something else common (dxf,
3ds,obj,flt...)"
I'm not trying to be rude, please don't misunderstand...
Yes, it would be a helpful tool to have a VRML to WHATEVER (DXF, etc.)
coverter, but doesn't the phrasing of your question implicate a desire to
plagurize?
Using InLines inappropriately (i.e. without permission of the author) is
another one of these ethical issues.
I would put it to you, that the intention to "go shopping" for 3D objects in
ANY VRML file, for use in other VRML files or even for other 3D applications
(i.e. animation, VR, etc.) would only serve to SLOW development of VRML,
because how many people are going to put effort into building complex models
if the rest of the community's primary practice is to grab it, use it, and
not credit the author?
This is true of HTML as well, however a 3D model is much more difsicult to
track as a derivative form of an original than a 2D image (as in, clicking
save this image in Netscape, a feature which promotes this sort of behavior).
If you were to run the VRML code tmeough a converter & back again, you'd
never be able to hide anything in the code to distinguish it as authored by
you. You wouldn't have a legal leg to stand on & any punk w/some 3D software
can steal your models outright.
I have no solution to propose other than perhaps that all of us who would be
authoring VRML keep this in mind & ... as hokey as it may seem... use the
honor system when building. Good 3D modelling is time consuming stuff in any
environment.
Just a knee-jerk reaction, not an accusation.
- Gregory Cranz
[email protected]