Sharing the 3D Models
Uploading to Sharing Platforms and Social Media
Video sharing platforms such as Youtube and Vimeo are well-known as practical solutions to host content which can then to be embedded on your own website, or on most social media platforms. For 3D models, there are now numerous platforms offering a similar service of hosting 3D files and making them easy to share and invite others to view.
Often, these platforms double as marketplaces. For museums, being able to choose a licensing model for their content, such as a Creative Commons licence, and being able to share the content widely might be important considerations when choosing such a platform.
Many 3D hosting solutions are free and open-source, but require expertise and infrastructure for set-up of servers within the host organisation. This may be suitable for museums that are more advanced in their digitisation journey. Overall, it can be said that commercial platforms and marketplaces are more user friendly and offer more features, while public service products tend to require more maintenance and self-hosting of files.
Below, we have collated some suggestions for easy-to-use 3D platforms that may be particularly appropriate for museums or volunteers in the cultural heritage sector who want to get started with dissemination of 3D content.
https://sketchfab.com/
3D hosting platform and marketplace, founded 2012 in France. Hosting over 6 million models in total, this platform has been by far the largest collection of cultural heritage models, which have their own category, "Cultural Heritage & History". There is a free subscription tier, which allows upload of limited file size and number of models. However, larger organisations and enterprises often use a commercial account including extra support features. Community features facilitate collection buildings, favourites lists, following and commenting. Sketchfab entries can easily be embedded on websites and shared to social media platforms.
https://sketchfab.com/blogs/community/sketchfab-embed/
Models can be annotated to create virtual tours. Due to its widespread use, there are many tutorial resources available.
https://sketchfab.com/blogs/community/category/tutorial/
Acquired by Epic Games in 2021, Sketchfab is currently (2024) slated for integration into Epic's new marketplace, FAB (fab.com). Due to Sketchfab's standing within the cultural heritage community, this has led to some insecurity and discussion among museum and heritage users regarding its suitability for digital cultural heritage.
At the time of writing, Epic Games have reassured their cultural heritage sector users, that "functionalities and community features that users rely on will not be removed from Sketchfab until they are fully replicated on FAB. The creative commons licenses that are popular with cultural heritage content, are also considered for integration into FAB's licensing model." Once this replication is complete, it is anticipated that Sketchfab will close down, and all models will be migrated to FAB.
https://visual.ariadne-infrastructure.eu/
Part of a deliverable for the FP7 EU-INFRA Ariadne project, this platform's use is intended to be a sharing and collaboration tool for organisations, but not a permanent hosting or public facing platform, although entries are browsable.
The platform accommodates different still image formats as well as 3D models such as photogrammetry-derived 3D files. Models are not downloadable.
https://kompakkt.de/
3D hosting by Cologne University (DE) with limited features.
Using the media on your own website
As the range of 3D hosting platforms available to the public and appropriate to cultural heritage content is very limited, museums might also consider hosting the 3D files on their own web server and embedding a 3D viewer on their website.
With this option they retain some control over the content and its use. With larger data volumes, however, hosting costs can rise rapidly, so this is mostly suitable for museums that have up to 10-15 models they want to showcase, or for museums with a larger IT infrastructure already available.
For embedding 3D files on a website without hosting it on another platform, the model will have to be available on the web server, in the same way that other media such as images do. The second component is a 3D viewer, such as a WordPress plug-in other other component. For this use of 3D models, it is important to ensure that the model's file size is not too large so that the website's loading speeds are not affected. A file size of between 15-40 MB allows comfortable viewing on mobile devices as well as desktop computers.
Below are a number of 3D viewers that are easily embedded into websites. The final choice of plug-in depends on desired aesthetic, ease-of-use and availability of tutorial material, and the expertise of the web developer available.
WordPress 3D Viewer Block | https://wordpress.org/plugins/3d-viewer-block/
WordPress 3D Viewer - Product Embedder | https://wordpress.org/plugins/3d-viewer/
Google API Model Viewer | https://modelviewer.dev/