Case Study: Smithsonian Institution preserves the Spirit of St. Louis with RapidPipeline's 3D optimization Blender add-on

Smithsonian Institution reduces the Spirit of St. Louis model by 82% with RapidPipeline

The Smithsonian Institution needed to digitally preserve the historic Spirit of St. Louis aircraft, but the original 3D scan was too large for real-time and web applications. They partnered with RapidPipeline and utilized its Blender add-on for CAD tessellation and optimization to address this challenge.

RapidPipeline implemented its solution to drastically reduce the model's mesh and file size. The mesh was decimated by 82%, from 702k faces to 148k faces, and the file size was reduced from 414 MB to 8 MB with no visual loss in quality. This optimization, which included atlas baking and normal map baking, resulted in a beautiful, web-ready 3D model that is now fully accessible to educators, researchers, and the public worldwide.

Smithsonian Institution