WU-3D

A browser recreation of VU-3D, the ZX Spectrum and TS2068 3D design program (#51807). As in the original, you build a solid by drawing stacked 2D cross-sections, one per Z plane, using Open, Start, Line, Delete and End, then Figure, Magnify, Reduce, Next z, Close and Quit. Figures may not cross, but one may sit inside another to make a hole. Modify walks back through the planes, and Display moves you round the “observing sphere” to view the object as wire lines, with hidden lines removed, or shaded from a choice of light directions. Colour, Save, Load and Abandon are on the main menu as before.

The new edition draws in WebGL 2. It has three shading modes: Grey, Pattern (the Spectrum-style eight-by-eight halftone tiles, the faithful one) and Bayer dithering. T switches between the original 256×192 screen and high resolution. Menus can be clicked, and the mouse places points and drags the view. Saving goes to named slots in the browser, with .json export and import, .stl export of the solid for 3D printing or CAD, PNG in place of SCREEN$ and the browser’s print dialogue. A sample scene (a twelve-sided wine glass and a cube) is on the Load screen. The cursor keys 5–8 still work, with Shift for fine movement.

WU-3D is by Josef Jelinek. It is a single index.html with no dependencies, released into the public domain. The README credits the original VU-3D to Psion, 1982. A copy runs on this site at /apps/wu-3d/.

Release files

• WU-3D-92590e8-source.zip (source code)