Imagecom (Arlington, TX; www.ASPire3D.com) has announced the 2Dto3DCAD.com portal, an ASP (application service provider) service in its ASPire3D portal that allows designers to convert their 2D drawings into 3D models over the internet.

2Dto3DCAD.com currently supports Mechanical Desktop, Inventor, AutoCAD, STEP, AP203, IGES and SAT formats, and the company is hoping to add more formats to that list in the future.

The 2Dto3DCAD.com site offers two conversion options. The Self Serve option is mainly suited for machinable piece parts, and the Full Service option has no restriction on the class of mechanical drawing to be converted.

When the conversion is completed you will be sent an e-mail to login to the My Conversions page, which lists all your jobs and their status. At this point you can inspect a VRML version of the converted model and you can either accept and pay for the model, or reject it if you are not satisfied.

The average price of conversions is $50 per piece part drawing. The company says that all new customers will get their first two conversions free.