Subdivision methods of converting STEP into VRML on Web

A typical product development team working in global manufacturing and marketing environment is often dispersed all over the world. Such a team may need a tool to aid effective communication and cooperation among the work groups. A 3 dimensional STEP geometry browsing system has been developed on the Internet and its associated Web. A major issue in implementing the system is the efficiency of computation and communication time of 3D visualization models. An adaptive subdivision method is developed to convert STEP data into a VRML visualization model. The method has been implemented and experimented, and the results show a substantial improvement in computational performance.