Flexviz – from curiosity to a browser-first MVR/GDTF workflow

[lwndcdr]

It started with a fairly simple question, a bit too much curiosity, and probably a bit too much time.

The original question was: with decent graphics support in modern browsers, a solid JavaScript 3D framework, and WebSockets to communicate with the world outside the browser — could those be the ingredients for a useful browser-based lighting visualization and planning tool? Not as a replacement for established tools like Vectorworks, Capture or Depence, but something that could live alongside them.

Turns out: yes.

It worked well enough that the experiment slowly turned into something that could actually be useful — especially for collaboration, presentation, and all those parts of the workflow where passing project files, screenshots and PDFs back and forth creates more friction than it should.
 

That eventually became Flexviz.
(I’m a web developer, not an advertising guy, so don’t expect a fancy name here. xD)

A few hundred lines of code later, there’s now a well-performing visualizer running right in your browser, including a shareable view for clients, crew members, or anyone else who needs to see the rig.

And that alone can save quite a bit of time. Yes, I’m looking at all those emails going back and forth just because one fixture eventually ends up 50 cm further to the left.

There’s even live DMX through a small bridge application, which transports Art-Net and sACN safely from any capable console into your scene in the browser.

I also just finished a new MVR importer with a proper GDTF matching step. It can use the fixture definitions included in the MVR, fall back to basic stand-ins if a GDTF contains no usable meshes, or — if you’re logged in with your GDTF-Share account — look for matching definitions directly on GDTF-Share.

Next on the list is real-time collaboration: multiple people working on the same plan at the same time. Video people can do video things, lampies can do their job, and there’s still room for the sound crew to hang magnets inside wooden boxes. Or your whole lighting team can work on a scene together and try things out in parallel. Your choice.

There will also be the usual paperwork people like to have at hand on site — available either as proper printouts or digitally on a tablet, laptop, or whatever device happens to be nearby.

But that’s probably enough rambling for now.

If you’re curious, feel free to have a look at Flexviz and play around with it. Break it, if you like — just please tell me what broke and, ideally, how you managed to break it.

And even more importantly: if there’s something you’d like to see in a tool like this, let me know. A lot of the roadmap is still being shaped by real-world workflows, and feature requests from people actually working with MVR and GDTF are far more useful than anything I can come up with in isolation.

https://flexviz.app