3D Repo

Business globalisation and Internet are redefining the way we work and communicate. Not
surprisingly, the demand for geography-bridging web-based work tools and collaborative
services continues to expand. Online information sharing, document editing and project
planning can indeed accelerate and improve results, especially where multiple stakeholders
are contributing towards a common project from different physical locations. For many
industries including, but not limited to, architecture, design, engineering, gaming and film, 3D
content is an essential part of the business model whenever distributed teams require common
access to the assets.
3D RepoTM (http://3drepo.org) is an open source version control system that enables
coordinated access to large-scale 3D data. It is currently the only cloud-based architecture able
to support maintenance and transmission of 3D information as well as rendering on the scale
required by the industry. Based on the results of our academic research we propose significant
improvements in the Building Information Modelling (BIM) workflow that supports
collaborative development not possible otherwise. Instead of designers and stakeholders
sharing massive files in a costly and time consuming manner, they would simply point their
web browser to a shared 3D repository in order to collaborate over the Internet. With our
system, the stakeholders will be able to seamlessly examine all project stages virtually, even
on mobile devices.
The objective of this project is to turn these novel concepts into a practical solution that can
be applied on a live architectural project as an industrial demonstrator for the technology.
Even though the initial development is driven by the built environment, 3D Repo will be
applicable to all aspects of Computer Aided Design (CAD) including aerospace, automotive
and 3D printing applications. In the long term, we aim to develop the technology into a
commercial grade open source solution.