Microsoft will work with Dassault Systèmes, a 3D design and visualization software developer, to add a new dimension to its Virtual Earth mapping and satellite imagery service, the companies announced Tuesday.

Through this partnership, Microsoft will be able to invite users of Virtual Earth to contribute their own 3D models of buildings featured on the maps, much as Google does with the "3D Warehouse" layer in its Google Earth software and the free modeling tool Google SketchUp, now at Version 6.

To encourage development of models for inclusion in Virtual Earth, Dassault Systèmes has built an online community, 3dvia.com, around consumer uses of its and other companies' 3D-modeling tools. The community began life as Teapotters.com, a creative project set up by a group of Dassault employees, but opened its doors as 3Dvia.com.

As a demonstration of what's possible, Dassault Systèmes is offering a free 3D model of a much sought-after electronic gadget -- not partner Microsoft's Zune music player, but the iPhone to be launched by Apple on Friday. The iPhone model can be viewed using the 3D Life Player browser plug-in from Virtools SA of Paris and, if you catch the angle just right, offers an unexpected view of the inside of the gadget.

Dassault Systèmes also announced partnerships with two French companies, Realviz of Sophia Antipolis and Allegorithmic of Clermont Ferrand, to make their technology available to members of the 3dvia.com community.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

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