You do not need to purchase software to view 3D objects online. However, you may need to install a (free) browser plugin, depending on which 3D model website you visit. Sketchfab, one of the most popular 3D content sharing website, outlines its system compatibility here.

A constant internet connection is necessary to view the 3D mode via a browser. If you want to download the 3D to your computer to view offline (or to edit the 3D model), you will need to download a 3D editing software. We recommend MeshLab, it's open-source and compatible with Windows and Mac computers.

You can view 3D objects on your mobile devices. You may need to install a (free) browser plugin, depending on which 3D model website you visit. Most of the time, you will not be able to download the 3D object onto your mobile device. This means a constant internet connection is necessary to view the 3D model on your mobile device.

Embedding the 3D model in your course, or linking to a 3D model on a website, is a quick way to share 3D models. How long it takes to load the 3D model in the browser depends on your internet connection speed. When you access the same 3D model again at a different time, the same 3D model will need to be loaded in your browser once again.

One way to mitigate long load time due to slow internet connection is to download the 3D model to your computer and view it using a software like MeshLab. Once the 3D model is on your computer you do not need an internet connection to access the model. On websites like Sketchfeb, the content creator would specify if the 3D model can be downloaded.

This video shows how to download the 3D model to your computer:

This video shows how to download the 3D model to your computer:

Most of the time, you can not easily modify or annotate an existing 3D object directly on the website you found the 3D model. To edit, first  download the 3D object (if enabled by the original content owner), edit it using a software like MeshLab, and upload the 3D object file to a sharing site like Sketchfab under your own account. Once the model is uploaded to your own Sketchfab account, you can then add annotations. Tip: Check the Web Resources for 3D objects you can reuse.

Yes! Our technical documentation on the photogrammetry procedure is available at https://wiki.ubc.ca/3D_Educational_Resources.

This video shows step-by-step how to embed a Sketchfab 3D model in Canvas

This video shows how to put 2 Sketchfab 3D models in a side-by-side comparison