Hey Brent, how are you? Lucas and Matías here, Lucas writing. Hope you are doing well. First of all, thank you very much for such awesome software you created. It was the second tool we bought back in 2015, just after our little hobbyist mill and it is essential in our design process. We are writing this topic because we want to ask you about embedding BikeCad on our website. In October we are planning to lunch our first noncustom frameset. A gravel frameset in three sizes and we think that the web version of BikeCad can be very useful for us and the potential clients.May you instruct us on the correct way to do it? it's included in the PRO cost or it costs extra? Also, we have designed a custom rear dropout for this frameset, is there any way to include it in the design? I don't think it merits going on the list of the dropouts you have in the PRO version, but adding it to our custom applet would be very, very nice. Thank you very much for your time. Cheers! Lucas and Matías
Tue, Aug 24, 2021
#1
ABOUT Embedding a Custom Applet on our Website
Thanks for the kind words about BikeCAD! I'm sorry my emails don't seem to be reaching you. I've responded to your email on the same subject a couple of times now. I wonder if my messages are in your spam folder. Anyway, I'm glad you reached out on the forum. A few others have asked about this as well.
I used to offer an option described at: bikecad.ca/bikecad_for_the_web. Unfortunately, with all the limitations browsers now impose on the deployment of Java applets, this is no longer practical.
For a long time, the free version of BikeCAD which ran as a Java applet was quite a headache for me. The Java applet could be made to work, but you had to jump through a whole bunch of hoops to make it happen. I ended up getting a ton of angry emails from people frustrated because they couldn't get it to work. I've subsequently set things up so the free version can now run without any Java plugin. The trick was involving a third party transpiler called CheerpJ. It is free to embed any BikeCAD model in your own web site as demonstrated here. It has been my intention to add more functionality to this option such as include a way for designs created in the embedded applet to be emailed to the owner of the site in which the model is embedded. I'm open to working with you to add whatever additional functionality you might like. However, we should first be sure this is something you're interested in. My main concern is that the app currently takes a very long time to load. While I may be able to modify it to include extra functionality such as emailing you designs saved by your users, it is currently beyond my control how long it takes to load. It may be that the long load time is at this point a deal breaker for you. If that is the case, I don't want to spend too much time trying to implement other features.
I would be happy to add your dropout to the next update of BikeCAD. I would just need the dropout in the form of a 3D STEP file. It would also be helpful to have a 2D view of the dropout in PDF for DXF form. It is not an option to make the dropout only available to you, but I'd be happy to add it to the program for the benefit of all your fans and customers.
Thank you very much Brent! Indeed a have not received your reply, not even as spam.... I don't what can be the problem.
Also thank you for your complete answer! Like I mentioned before, this was destined for a noncustom frameset, so the idea behind embedding the applet was to speed and automatize the client experience without our supervision. I feel that the app loading time will be counterproductive for the customer.
Nevertheless, I appreciate immensely your service. I will send you our family of droupouts as soon I get them validated.
Cheers!
Lucas,