Work / Smile Train 3D Surgical Cleft Repair Simulator

January 2013 - April 2014

From 2013 to 2014, xeolabs worked with BioDigital Systems and the Smile Train charity to develop the browser-based Smile Train 3D Surgical Cleft Repair Simulator. Since its release in 2013, the simulator has been used by surgeons to learn cleft repair procedures in over 1100 hospitals, in 150 countries.

Powered by SceneJS


We developed the simulator on SceneJS, an open source WebGL-based 3D library from xeolabs.

One of the first WebGL libraries (2006), we forked a private version of SceneJS specifically adapted for BioDigital in 2015. Read more about SceneJS in OpenGL Insights (2012).

Awards and Recognition


  • BioDigital and Smile Train received an award for Outstanding Achievement in Modeling & Simulation by the National Training Simulation Association in December 2013.
  • The companies were selected to showcase the technology at the 2014 TEDMED Conference in Washington DC.

Learn More


  • Check out the BioDigital Human, another project xeolabs lead graphics development on at BioDigital.
  • Try xeokit and xeogl, two more WebGL libraries from xeolabs, built on lessons learned developing SceneJS, the Simulator, and Human.