Core Concepts

Short introduction to various concepts related to the instant3Dhub Unreal Engine Plugin. We recommend reading this page in its entirety before starting to work with the plugin.

Plugin Workflow

The plugin is intended to work at runtime, meaning in the Play-In-Editor and Standalone modes and in packaged games / applications. We currently do not support loading geometry in the level editor.

Hub Connector

The hub connector is the central actor of the instant3Dhub Unreal Engine Plugin. You can place the hub connector in a level anywhere you like. It serves as the origin for the geometry loaded from the instant3Dhub and provides access to all our APIs.

3D Space (formerly Session)

A 3D space is a spatial workspace containing 3D data resources as well as additional authored content such as drawings.

It enables interactive collaboration across the instant3Dhub ecosystem by allowing multiple clients (web or native) to join the same 3D space and automatically synchronizing the state of the 3D environment between them.

The state includes, for example, what resources (models) are loaded, visibility and transformation states and auxiliary data like clip planes and drawings.

3D spaces are currently the primary way of interacting with the Unreal Plugin. A typical workflow is to set up a 3D space on the web and then join it from the Unreal application.

Culling and Geometry Streaming

We employ advanced culling techniques and dynamically stream CAD data based on visibility results. Therefore, geometry might “pop” in as it is being streamed and we make no guarantees on loading order or loading of out-of-view geometry.

Coordinate Systems

When loading geometry we perform a coordinate system transformation to conform with the Unreal Engine standards (left-handed coordinate system and using centimeters for distances). You might have to rotate the hub connector depending on which axis is the up-axis in your original CAD data. For more information see here: I3DHCoordinateSystems.

Async APIs

Our APIs are highly asynchronous. For more information see here.