Inventor Exports to XVL

Autodesk Labs now has a XVL exporter for Inventor 2008 for download here.

XVL is a highly compressed 3D format for viewing CAD models using the viewer from Lattice Technologies. In addition to the usual viewing options, XVL Player also does:

-- Display color contours.
-- Several rendering styles.
-- Selectable element displays.
-- Surface processing.
-- 3D animations with support for hot links and triggers.
-- Scriptable via JavaScript and VBScript.

Download the XVL Player free from here, after registration.

PostScript

The CEO of Lattice Technology, Hiroshi Toriya, has written a book on "3D Manufacturing Innovation: Revolutionary Change in Japanese Manufacturing with Digital Data" but at $119 for copy of the 115-page book, I don't know how many it'll sell. (Well, Amazon.com has it for a bit cheaper -- $94.90 -- which you'll find here.)

Update

An, the marvels of dynamic pricing. I checked Amazon's Web page for this book, and now it is up to $102.