Did you try 3DVIA Printscreen?
Share models from your favorite 3D scenes with 3DVIA Printscreen !

This easy-to-use application gives you the ability to save 3D scenes in 3DXML format from both OpenGL and Direct3D rendering API. Everyone can now save and share 3D models, it is as simple as classical print screen usage.
Go to the 3DVIA Printscreen page to download the application.
How does it works?
1. Launch 3DVIA Printscreen application first.
2. Open your application based on OpenGL, Direct3D 8 or Direct3D 9.
3. Grab the 3D scenes. Give focus to the application, then press the 3DVIA Printscreen hotkey (F10 by default). A 3D XML file is saved in your output folder.
4. Upload the result to 3dvia.com.
Enjoy !
Rafale 3D model captured with 3DVIA Printscreen
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Can we expect to have kinematic or at least camera view point recorded in 3DXML in a more or less near future ? (using 3DVia printscreen of course…)
Very usefull product thk you :)
tips & tricks :
- For CATIA V5 users, if you use 3DVia Printscreen to create your models (as I do)remember to hide the tree, the compass (boussole) and to have a view point at the top of your object (to be sure having your object on the ground :)
(you should also hide camera to 3DPrint…and this tip can be used for other sofware,
hide everything you don’t want to capture in your model)
- Using 3DVia printscreen with CATIA V5 is the best way for me, better than saving as 3DXML file using CATIA, you don’t have to care about options and the release of your Catia ;)
I gots me a 3d xml model. So what do I do with it now ? I can view it on the viewer and that’s it ?
Have you actually tested the 3DVia Printscreen with various 3D applications?
Tried it both in Softimage XSI Foundation v5.11 and Carrara 3D 6.02 – both with OpenGL interactive renderer active and Geforce 7600 GS card. OS is XP Pro SP2.
The printscreen chews for a long time and int the complex model case produces a 22 MB .EXE file, but the XML viewer shows nothing… (except a grid ).
Hi Rune,
I have used 3D PrintScreen with quite a few applications, where a large 3DXML file is created, but nothing appears except for a rectangle or circular grid.
This happens because the OpenGL data contains UI objects, that are in addition to the 3D model you saw on the screen. Because these UI objects can be large (VERY large compared to the model data) it often appears that they are the only thing that the PrintScreen captured.
However, it is possible to “clean up” PrintScreen models by using the object “Hide” function available in 3DXML viewer. The best way to do this it to select one of the large visible objects (like the rectangle) and then Right mouse click and select Hide. This causes the large rectangle to disappear. Then you look for the next largest visible object, and do the same thing (Right click and Hide the object).
When you are done use the “Reframe” button on the left bottom to resize and display and remaining model data. In most cases this will be the object you wanted to capture.
While this sounds like a lot of trouble, I find you can usually do the cleanup in a couple mouse clicks, and that in some cases, the captured data can be very detailed and perfect.
Please let me know if this procedure works for you.
thx for nice&easy program that’s work well, just got some problem that “hot key” never respond in some program, so…
1. can you add some count down feature? (1-2-3-capture!)
2. or maybe possible capture target to running “app list ” like task manager in window,
maybe “app list” appear when right click in 3DVIA task bar icon
3. or add “capture” to app context menu just like nvidia do in nview options
that’s would be nice!, thx again ;)
Hey I thought this program doesn’t work in shockwave but actually I wasn’t using OpenGL or DirectX 9 like I was supposed to. You can change this by right clicking and changing the “3D Renderer” to OpenGL. It might look weird but you can change it back. DirectX 5 or 7 don’t work.
Just tried it and it works great. I just uploaded 2 models, one straight out of a VRML viewer and 1 captured from a 3D program.