Free JT for all

If you’re having trouble going to sleep tonight, you may want to stop by the JT Open website and pick up a copy of the recently released JT Open spec document. Ah, there’s nothing like reading technical specs late into the night.
In all seriousness, we finally pushed out the spec this week. This was something that we promised to do way back in February of last year and were just able to complete (if you take a look at the length and detail of the document, you’ll understand why). This is another example of why the structure of the JT Open group works: the members decided this was something they wanted to have done and then UGS provided the resource to make it happen. Its also a milestone in the evolution of the JT Open group: the main reason for belonging now shifts to rest solely on the benefits of connecting with the community of users and developers, since if all you need is access to the format, you can get that for free.
Now, some may say we are late to the game as 3D XML has been available for download for years. However if you take a closer look the story gets more complicated. The 3d XML site starts off well enough:

It seems like all you need to do is find the right URL on this page and you can get right at the spec. But roll down the page a bit further and you’ll find:

Ask for documentation? Who do I have to ask? What criteria is used to determine whether I can have it? How long will it take to get it? What license comes with it? If you’re going to publish something and then put it in a lock box, you might as well not publish it.
Now take a look at what we just did:

Go here, right click and save. Seems pretty transparent to me. However, I don’t think we’re all the way there yet. What else can we be doing?
Coverage around the net:
Cadalyst
WorldCADAccess