An upgrade for the online 3D modeling software designed to built content for Virtual Earth has been made available for download the past week. 3DVia is a solution designed to permit the creation and integration of three dimensional objects into Microsoft's mapping, location and search platform. In the video embedded at the bottom of this article you will be able to access a comprehensive demonstration involving putting together and publishing a 3D model to Virtual Earth via 3DVia.

“For some time Microsoft has had a relationship with Dassault for publishing consumer 3D models into Virtual Earth using 3DVia,” Chris Pendleton, Virtual Earth tech evangelist Microsoft Live Search, revealed.

“When you install the Virtual Earth 3D Managed Control you have the option of downloading 3DVia free of charge, and then off you go and create models. Well, if you’ve never created your own 3D models, the task can be quite daunting. Dassault has finally changed that with the latest release of 3DVia.”

There are three essential steps in inserting a three dimensional model into Virtual Earth. First off, the users will have to decide on a certain location and navigate to it in VE, then take their model and publish it “on the spot.” According to Dassault, the new version of 3DVia is offered to address theor requests.

In fact, as a direct consequence of user feedback, the 3DVia upgrade brings to the table the evolution of the graphical user interface, with a focus on improved object manipulation. In this context, just as demoed in the video, models introduced into Virtual Earth can now very easily be positioned, scaled, and rotated.

“What makes this so simple is (a) leveraging Virtual Earth’s geocoder right in the software, (b) the tie-in to their library of 3D objects in 3DVia’s community cloud where sharing is caring and (c) the native controls for adjusting models, which then translate to model settings in Virtual Earth. Super easy,” Pendleton added.

Virtual Earth - 3DVIA is available for download here.