Is there a 3D format which is a 3D extension to SVG?

Question

SVG is the W3C's standard for 2D vector graphics. Something quite solid. Is there a 3D version of SVG? A kind of extension of it, so converting from .svg to .ext and reverse is quite straight forward programatically.

Answer 1

No, there is no such standard extension to SVG as part of the W3C.

The closest that exists is the W3C Community Group, "Declarative 3D for the Web Architecture Community Group".

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Editorial: nor should there be. While SVG is great and vector, it is a presentation format, not a data-interchange format as you seek for 3D. For example, the painter's model of SVG describes the visual layering of elements, a concept that is unrelated to the vector data. Similarly is the presentation markup on fill and stroke color/opacity, instead of metadata such as material. Though it's not a great format IMHO, you should look at COLLADA if you want an XML-based file format for 3D data.

Answer 2

If the W3C feature of SVG is critical, I don't know of anything. And if you want to make an SVG graphic into 3D by changing some outer tags and leaving the rest alone, I don't know of anything either.

But if what you like about SVG is that it is a declarative language for 2D graphics that can be rendered in a browser, and furthermore that the objects are "persistent" in the sense that you can change an attribute in the DOM and that change is reflected in the browser (in contrast to a canvas approach where making a change means redrawing the picture), then X3D is a candidate. They appear to have liaison and cooperation agreements with W3C etc. Javascript libraries support rendering in a browser; see demos at X3dom, Cobweb.