Progress of the Chronospedia project

Progress of the Chronospédia project

The Chronospedia project is a supposedly horological know-how preservation project that makes many promises, but has a rhetoric full of approximations and contradictions. It presents itself in particular as innovative and revolutionary for horological 3D, as well as open. It has rallied a number of museums that do not seem to be versed in 3D or in research. In reality, the Chronospedia project is neither revolutionary, nor open, nor even at the forefront of technology, as shown in the table below. But above all, I believe that this project is dangerous for horological heritage, because it does not take into account the priorities of horological conservation and is not involved in horological research (neither technical nor historical). A detailed study of the problems of this project has been given elsewhere.

In the table below, I examine the achievements of Chronospedia in relation to the needs of the researchers of which I am a part, on the one hand, and to the priorities of heritage conservation on the other hand. 3D is far from being a priority for the conservation of horological heritage and the real priorities should be inventory and documentation. By focusing on 3D, entire sections of horological heritage risk being even more neglected and may disappear.

		Validation
Criteria		4 Feb. 2025
3D files	Original 3D files (SolidWorks, Rhino, etc.) online	✖
	STEP files online	✖
	split STEP files	✖
	STEP files can be reassembled	✖
	STEP files accessible without authentification	✖
	glTF files online through viewers	✔
	glTF files online through viewers with motion	1
	downloadable glTF files	✖
	glTF files online with selectable parts and metadata display	✖
	glTF files online with selectable parts, metadata display and motion	✖
	GLB files online for Augmented Reality (AR)	✔
	Parameterized 3D models	✖
3D models online for particular clocks	The horizontal clock from the Encyclopédie (2015)	✖
	Vaux-le-Vicomte (2017)	✖
	Cluses (2018)	✖
	Mafra (2019)	✖
Technical descriptions	Descriptions	✖
	Restoration reports (of clocks that were modelled, or from other clockmakers)	✖
	Plans of clocks	✖
	Technical descriptions of the clocks 3D scanned in Toulouse, in Besançon, at MIH and elsewhere	✖
Videos and animations	Miscellaneous videos	✖
	SolidWorks videos	✔
	Blender videos	1
Photographs	of restored clocks or clocks that have been 3D modelled	✖
Photographs	of other clocks	few
Archives	Museum archives	✖
	Clockmaker archives	✖
	School archives	✖
	Company archives	✖
Know-how	Preparation of thematic files with precise references to the classical literature	✖
	Gathering of clockmakers' oral and written recollections	✖
	Study and documentation of tools (including in 3D and with videos, as done in Horopedia)	✖
Inventories	Systematic inventory of tower clocks in France, for each department, and with easy access to researchers	✖
	Systematic inventory of the clocks in museum storages	✖
	Close collaboration with the DRAC (administration in charge of the French National Heritage) and the CAOA (curators surveying the heritage)	✖
Research works	Historical researches (in addition to Archives)	✖
	Technical researches	✖
	Publications	0
	Relations with researchers working in the domain	✖
List of publications of the projet		✖
General bibliography		✖
Downloadable PDF files for no longer copyrighted works		✖
Links towards similar or older projects		✖

Notes of February 4, 2025:

As for the project's publications, the project leaders (F. Simon-Fustier and K. Protassov) have not published ANY technical or historical articles on clockmaking or particular clocks as of the beginning of 2025. Their only publications are a few announcements relating to the Chronospedia project and its structuring, as well as "press releases" in the AFAHA bulletin. Furthermore, Pierre Judet, member of the steering committee, defended a thesis in 2000 on the subject "Horlogeries et horlogers du Faucigny (1849-1934)", but it can obviously not be included in the project, otherwise we would have to include all the horological literature in the Chronospedia publications.
Almost all of the points presented here could be validated. The 3D models could be put online, it is possible to present a glTF file with access to the metadata (I did it at the end of January 2025), restoration reports could be put online (at least those of Mr. Simon-Fustier), photographic files too (for example, there are 500 photographs in the file of the restoration of the Cluses clock), etc.
According to a presentation of Chronospédia from 2023, the project was considering using Google's modelviewer, or Smithsonian's Voyager viewers, but the truth is that none of these viewers are necessary, and they are also not adapted to clockworks. Chronospédia can and must develop its own viewer, exactly like I did.
So, let's wait and see!

Notes of February 5, 2025:

The Chronospédia site features a few models accessible in Augmented Reality (AR) through GLB files. However, one should note that there isn't anything extraordinary here, because GLB files can be produced from glTF files, or at the same time as glTF files, and they can be put online with a few lines of code. I have done it myself here. (In order to work, your phone needs to be ARCore compatible.)
In the end, it appears that the Chronospédia project contains almost no own know-how. This project is putting forward technologies that anyone can easily manipulate without Chronospédia.

Notes of February 7, 2025:

I have put online a model of the Notre-Dame clock in glTF with at the same time selectable parts, metadata and motion, something that Chronospédia has still not yet been able to do.

Notes of February 8, 2025:

The Cluses and Mafra 3D viewers made around 2019 seem to be based on JSON exports of SolidWorks, then rendered with Three.js. They do not use the glTF format. It should be noted that for the Mafra viewers parts can be selected, but the number of teeth are not displayed.

Notes of February 9, 2025:

On February 9, 2025, I sent the Chronospedia team an example of a SolidWorks script that goes through all the objects in a scene and produces for each object a standardized STEP file (i.e. placed at the origin) and a metadata file with the position of this object. Such a script therefore makes it easy to answer the first points of the previous table regarding the online posting of separate STEP files (one file per part) that can be assembled (thanks to the metadata). The Chronospedia team can therefore no longer say that this online posting poses problems, because it does not pose any.

Denis Roegel, version of 9 February 2025.