Strata (http://www.strata.com) has released the Strata Live 3D CX 2 Suite of design tools for 3D on the web. It offers one-click publishing to the cloud and the ability to distribute, share and embed interactive 3D content anywhere on the web. Live 3D Version 2 becomes the first solution to make high-quality interactive 3D content as easy to publish and share as a YouTube video, according to Ken Bringhurst, president of Strata.

Live 3D is a cross platform Java based application for publishing interactive 3D content to the web and Adobe PDF, allowing viewers to experience products in a virtual 3D environment with the ability to rotate, zoom, measure, and interact with a model’s features and options. Its content requires no special plug-ins and is already viewable by the majority of people accessing the Internet, says Bringhurst.

Each license of Live 3D comes with a free subscription to StrataLive3D.com, a solution that allows rapid publishing and free hosting of interactive 3D content. Once published, the interactive 3D content can be shared on social networking sites or embedded anywhere on the web using a snippet of code.

Models can be imported from a range of 3D applications and can include basic animation to produce interactive sequences. These sequences can then be built into scripts using Live 3D's menu driven interface with no code writing necessary. Live 3D even includes plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop that export artwork and 3D layers to the web and PDF format.

Strata Live 3D CX is available as a standalone application, or as part of the Strata 3D CX Suite ($1,395) for the Mac and PC. The entire Strata 3D CX Suite is offered at a 50% discount to the manufacturer's suggested retail price of the four individually priced applications.