October 26, 2000--ASPire3D, an ASP portal created by Imagecom, announced today that its 2Dto3DCAD.com portal is now in operation. According to the company, this is the first ASP to offer automatic conversion of legacy 2D CAD drawings to parametric 3D models, through Imagecom's FlexiDesign technology.

Employing a conversion process based on Imagecom's FlexiDesign technology, 2Dto3DCAD.com currently supports the following output 3D formats:

• Mechanical Desktop
• Inventor
• AutoCAD
• STEP AP203
• IGES
• SAT

Other formats, including SolidWorks, will be available in the future.

At the website, users are required to register, then select either a self-serve or full-serve option, and specify the 2D to 3D conversion in which they are interested. When the conversion is complete, users are alerted by email to login to a "My Conversions" page and preview a VRML version of the 3D model--no need to download any special software or plug-ins. If the model is accepted, it can be downloaded after payment is received.

"You only pay if you like what you see," says the company's website. New customers can obtain their first two conversions at no cost to learn how the process works and evaluate the quality of the output.

by Eric Skjei