Does Dassault Systemes Consider 3DXML Evil?

They say the written word lives on even after you don’t. When searching for something today I came across this interesting post on the 3DMojo blog from September 2006. I vaguely remember reading this piece back then. But reading it again today made me smile. Basically, the author is venting out his anger at the fact that Dassault’s 3DXML format is not an open format and begging his readers not use it in their business processes. Here is part of the post:

What’s got me so bent outta shape? 3DXML. While we aren’t the first to complain about it not being open, Dassault’s recent Paris press event resulted in a new rash of public pumping up of the “grand vision” for 3DXML.

Why is it that one of these magic shows always accompanies the promotion of these pseudo-open standards? Simple: it’s about focusing you on something else while you are slipped a closed, lock-in technology. While you are wowed at the prospect of consumers immersing themselves in your 3D model, the looming addiction to expensive, proprietary software becomes obscure and more palatable.

Because we’ve seen this so many times before, this whole 3DXML thing has gotten under our skin a little (and should make yours crawl).

…[Snip]…

We’ll be returning to this topic, and often. But for the moment, please…think it through. If you are interested in making 3D design data widely available inside your company’s core business processes, is there any reason to do it this way?

We certainly don’t think so.

Back then 3D Mojo was the official company blog of Seemage. A year after writing this piece Seemage was acquired by Dassault and became part of the 3DVIA brand, of which 3DXML is an important part. Obviously, now the blog has nothing but praise for the technologies that go to make up the 3DVIA brand.

Maybe someone from Dassault PR should spend some time sanitizing the 3DMojo blog. Someone who does not know all this history may end up getting the wrong message. Personally, I prefer that the blog stays just the way it is.