3DVIA® - 3DVIA

The astute user might have noticed that we recently rolled out a significant update to 3DVIA.com.  In fact, hopefully you have noticed that we do this quite often!  Our goal to maintain a tight release cycle and respond to our users quickly and frequently.  But of course, this is not anything unusual in the web world.

In order to help reach this goal, we are creating a “What’s New on 3DVIA” column to establish a direct line of communication between our users and R&D.  That’s right — I’m a developer!  By now, you might have seen me around the site.

In this update, I’d like two highlight two new features that I am especially happy to see on 3DVIA: pervasive activity feeds and direct messaging.

3DVIA Messaging

Since I started working here at 3DVIA, by far the most common user request has been a way to communicate directly and privately with other users.  Until now, users were forced to leave comments on models as the their only means of communication.  The communication system was broken and we knew it.  Today we are introducing 3DVIA Messaging as the first part of our solution to this problem.  Let’s take a look…

One of the first things you’ll notice when you log into the revamped “My 3DVIA” area is a new section in the right sidebar called “Toolbox.”  The Toolbox is, as it sounds, your arsenal of tools interacting with 3DVIA.

The latest addition to this arsenal is your Inbox which is your hub for communicating directly with other 3DVIA users. Here’s a shot of my new messages screen:

Our inbox functions in a similar fashion to other communication systems you are used to such as Facebook and e-mail. It also guarantees your privacy, because your real e-mail address is never given out during the messaging process.

Users can send you a message through our new revamped profile pages. These pages are linked from just about anywhere your username is mentioned, and can also be found by searching users. Take a look at my profile, for instance. On the right sidebar, you’ll see a new area called “Connect with username.”

Aside from adding the user as a contact, which you’ll understand the usefulness of shortly, you can now send the user a direct message. The user will be notified by e-mail so they have no excuse for ignoring you!

Activity Feeds

A couple of months ago, we introduced an activity feed on the home page that helps users to keep up with what’s going on on the site.  Recently, we also added an atom feed so you can subscribe for updates via a feed reader. Though we started small, we’ve always had big plans for activity feeds.  Today, I think we can say that 3DVIA activity feeds have grown up.

With this release, activity feeds are now much more pervasive throughout the site.  The first of two new feeds we are delivering is on the user profile page.  It shows activity from a single user only, so if you want to keep tabs on a particular user, this is the best way to do it.

Another way to to follow a user, is to add that user as a contact from the link in the screenshot above.  Doing so will cause the user’s activity to display in our second new feed, which shows on your “My 3DVIA” page.  Since this feed is an aggregation of all of your 3DVIA contacts, its now the easiest way to stay in touch with all of your friends on the site.  Here is a screenshot of what your feed will look like if you have several contacts:

We think this is a great addition that will help people stay in touch and we hope it will help you create a bigger audience for your 3D art.  There is more in store for the 3DVIA activity feeds, so stay tuned!

I hope you have enjoyed our first installment of “What’s New on 3DVIA.”  What you’ve read are just a couple highlights from our most recent release so I encourage you to poke around the site to find out what else is new.

For more pictures from this release, visit our Flickr set.  If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment or send me a direct message!