A lens for searching for 3D models, CAD, or 3D assets in general.
3D models can generally be grouped into engineering CAD (for example, 3D printable objects & tools) and 3D assets; it seems reasonable to group both under the same lens.
Similar products include Yeggi, for example.
Searching with the lens would focus search results on:
- A known list of 3D model sites (e.g GrabCAD, Thingiverse, etc.)
- 3D-model filetypes.
Long term, such a feature might display renderings of 3D models, or offer filtering by type (3D asset e.g .blend file; mesh (STL, OBJ); solid (STEP, Parasolid)
As is, users can use bangs to filter search results for 3D models, but there is not one common "meta-bang" that aggregates 3D model sites.
This feature likely represents significant scope and entry into a market that Kagi does not currently serve; I am unsure of the utility to other users.
Nonetheless, as Kagi likely has a significant user demographic of engineers & other technically inclined people (who will recommend it to their less technically inclined friends), it may be worth implementing.
The feature could be activated as any other lens, i.e by a bang or by selecting it on the main search page. Results could be presented as text-with-thumbnail (as the main search page) or similar to image search. Model metadata (# of triangles, size) would be useful; this would require significant indexing power if this metadata was not immediately available in queried files, however.
The closest existing service is Yeggi. It offers a decent 3D model search and has an excellent index; however, it lacks various search-by-metadata parameters and primarily focuses on indexing 3D model aggregators like Thingiverse (rather than searching the web for 3D models in general, or tying in to an existing index).
