Inventor ETO Server and the UI Tools enable customers to configure products in two different modes: a lightweight mode that provides instantaneous graphical feedback with fewer details on the model and a 'full fidelity' mode that updates the CAD models/drawings. The typical workflow for a user of the web-based system would be to use the lightweight mode to do the configuration, and when satisfied with the configured product, invoke the full update to produce manufacturing drawings and such. The rules-based system is common to both these modes; only the graphics generation sub-system is different.
This section focuses on the lightweight configuration mode. The graphics for this mode are rendered in a WebGL viewer using meshes (represented by STL files). The positioning, scaling and rotation of the assets is done using frame based positioning as described in the following sections.
Although the Intent model is configured using a Web page, the actual development work on the Intent model is done within Inventor ETO. Because development is done in Inventor, there are a few things that need to be considered.
Each component in the Intent model that is to be displayed on the web will need to have an STL asset created in order for it to create a 3D model in the viewer. These STL's can be created in advance in the assets subfolder of the Intent project location, or generated on the fly. To create an STL representation of an IPT, simply open the IPT in Inventor, and then choose "Save As". In the Save As dialog, set the "Save as Type" to be "STL". Click on the "Options" button and make sure that the format is set to Binary. Only Binary STL files are currently supported for performance reasons; they are significantly smaller and faster to load. Choose the resolution you wish to use for the STL, and then click OK. Now simply click Save. This process of creating the STL file can be automated.