In speaking with a customer today about 3D models and their role in service information, they described a really simple but powerful use case. Part of the power of being able to rotate 3D models is not seeing the entire model from lots of different angles but from your current physical perspective.
Two scenarios were discussed:
1) A part currently in a service technicians hand and positioning the 3D model in the same orientation.
2) A person looking at the right-hand side of a complete piece of equipment when a 2D illustration only showed the left.
The utility of associating the virtual model with the physical product is obvious to me now, but I couldn't have put it into words before today.
-CA