Live status, alarms and sensor readings shown directly on the 3D model – and every manual, drawing and spare part list attached to the exact component it belongs to. In the browser, on any device, without a cloud.
A classic HMI panel shows tag values, trend curves and alarm lists – and leaves the mapping to the machine to the person standing in front of it. A 3D HMI turns this around: live PLC signals drive the 3D model of the real machine. Drives move, sensors switch, an alarm highlights the exact component that raised it. Operators and service technicians see where something happens, not just which tag number changed.
In the four levels of the digital twin, the 3D HMI is the final stage: the digital shadow of the running machine. The same model that served sales visualization, plant simulation and virtual commissioning now shows live production – build once, reuse everywhere.
A machine information system attaches everything a technician needs to the component it belongs to: operating manuals, electrical drawings, spare part lists, maintenance history. Click a motor – its documentation appears. When an alarm references the manual, realvirtual WEB opens the PDF on exactly the cited page.
The EU Machinery Regulation 2023/1230, applicable from January 2027, allows machine documentation to be delivered digitally – provided it stays available over the machine's lifetime and can be printed, downloaded and used offline. That is a chance, not a burden: a machine that ships with a 3D information system instead of a paper binder is the better product. realvirtual WEB delivers the documentation versioned via Git and runs on your own infrastructure for 10+ years.
Connected to the running machine, the 3D HMI becomes a monitoring station: OEE dashboards, state timelines, piece counters and alarm lists update in real time next to the 3D model. Typical industrial update rates of 10–50 ms are more than enough for smooth live motion in the browser.
Everything runs on-premises. The browser loads the application from a server in your own network – no cloud subscription, no data leaving the factory. Air-gapped OT networks are a supported case, not an exception.
When an alarm is active, the operator can ask the built-in AI assistant. It reads the live signals, searches the machine's own manuals via retrieval-augmented generation and answers in plain language – citing the manual page as its source.
Documents, search index and embeddings stay on your backend. Only short text excerpts reach the language model – which you choose yourself. The API key never reaches the browser.
The bridge between controller and browser is realvirtual CONNECT: a native gateway that speaks Siemens S7, Beckhoff TwinCAT ADS, OPC UA, MQTT, Modbus and EtherNet/IP and streams the signals to the 3D HMI over WebSocket.
CONNECT is free for up to 20 signals – the fastest way to see your own PLC live in the browser. Learn more about realvirtual CONNECT →
They complement each other. SCADA systems control and archive; a 3D HMI adds the spatial layer for people: live states and alarms shown on the machine model, documentation attached to components. It connects to existing SCADA and MES landscapes through open protocols such as OPC UA and MQTT instead of replacing them.
Through realvirtual CONNECT, a native gateway that reads Siemens S7, Beckhoff TwinCAT ADS, OPC UA, MQTT, Modbus and EtherNet/IP and streams the signals to the browser over WebSocket. Update rates of 10–50 ms are typical and sufficient for smooth live 3D motion.
No. realvirtual WEB is delivered as source code and runs on your own infrastructure – an industrial PC next to the machine is enough. Air-gapped networks without internet access are fully supported. No data leaves your factory.
The Machinery Regulation 2023/1230, applicable from 20 January 2027, explicitly enables digital machine documentation – provided it remains available for at least 10 years and can be printed, downloaded and used offline. realvirtual WEB is built for exactly this delivery model: versioned documentation, offline-capable, hosted by the machine builder on own infrastructure.
If the machine was engineered with realvirtual in Unity, you export it as a GLB file with embedded metadata – the browser twin inherits your kinematics, signals and logic. Alternatively you start from any CAD-derived GLB and map PLC signals to components directly in realvirtual WEB.
The source code is open source (AGPL-3.0) and free to use under its terms – without support. The commercial development license (€1,920 net per developer per year) is only needed while you actively develop, and it includes support; when development ends, so does the license. Delivered machines keep running: €300 net one-time per machine for a perpetual, offline-capable runtime – no cloud fees.
Open the live demo now – or talk to us about your machine, your controllers and your delivery scenario.