The promise of "run anywhere"-CAD has always been a hollow claim, no matter how often a marketing department repeats it. Running something as tough as CAD requires fast hardware and the most up-to-date Web browsers -- and a sufficiently fast Internet connection and the right operating system and the correct graphics support...
HTML5 and WebGL are the standards by which today's CAD-in-a-browser operates, and here is an overview of which browsers work (credit To3D) on desktop and laptop computers. Notice the limiations I highlighted in italics:
WebGL is a binding of OpenGL ES 2.0 for Javascript. It lets webpages do fast 3D graphics in the browser. The spec is still a work-in-progress, and support is only starting to appear in browsers.
Mozilla Firefox
WebGL has been enabled on all platforms that have a capable graphics card with updated drivers since version 4.0. Mozilla Firefox 8.0 and newer versions use Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) to control all WebGL cross-domain textures.
Google Chrome
WebGL has been enabled on all platforms that have a capable graphics card with updated drivers since version 9. Google Chrome 13.0 and newer versions use Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) to control all WebGL cross-domain textures.
Safari
Safari 5.1 and newer versions installed on Mac OS X Lion and Mac OS X Snow Leopard implemented support for WebGL, which is disabled by default.
Opera
WebGL has been implemented in Opera 11 and 12 alpha (pre-release) snapshots.
Internet Explorer
Microsoft has not announced any plans to support WebGL. The Chrome Frame plugin can be used to add support for WebGL to Internet Explorer 6.0 and newer versions.
To test your browser go to http://get.webgl.org
Ralph, your link to webgl.org seems to be broken...
Posted by: Alain | Jun 05, 2012 at 08:12 AM
The correct link should be get.webgl.org
Posted by: Ralph Grabowski | Jun 05, 2012 at 08:28 AM
Enable WebGL on Safari > enable the Developers menu in the Preferences. Then you can enable WebGL through this menu. Just a simple toggle.
Posted by: Stefan Boeykens | Jun 07, 2012 at 11:58 PM