prenolds

Hi All, I finally had some more time to play with Acrobat 3D before my 30 day trial expires. You are right, Bernd, exporting to x_t and then creating the pdf does retain the part names and hierarchy which was as I hoped. I found that the viewing window in Acrobat 3D tended to flicker a bit (3D Labs Wildcat video card) and at times the window was just black. As soon as I left mouse clicked as if to rotate the model, the image would re-appear and rotate etc., only to vanish to black when I released the mouse button. I plan to install it on my other IC seat which has an ATI Fire GL video card to see if this quirk is video card related. Also, rotation of the model was not as fluid or intuitive as in IC. The model would skew and it was a bit of a hassle to re-orient it. Not impossible, but for my non CAD clients, it would be a bit less user friendly than I would expect. I think it is great that IC is working with/on Adobe to get IC included for direct import but in all honesty for me, exporting via x_t is not that big a deal. Currently I assemble all the component parts into one assembly in IC then generate a file in STP format and the client uses the edrawings viewer from solidqworx... From what I read about the rights management in Acrobat, that is also of great potential for security and revision control etc. I didn't try it all, but I understand you can set a self destruct date when you create the pdf so the file will stop opening after a specified number of days or date. As my use is generally for client review during development, this feature will prevent some person (probably in marketing - haha) from using an old model. Conclusion at this point - the potential is huge, but I think the Acrobat folks have some more work ahead of them before I will invest a grand in their package. Maybe the discussions bewteen IC and Adobe should be more along the line of IC helping Adobe get their GUI right! Cheers, Peter

Has anyone else tried converting IC files into 3D viewable pdf's? I'm running IC8.02 and just installed the free trial version of Acrobat 3D after attending an Acrobat 3D seminar some time back and being very impressed with its potential. No more 3rd party viewers - just let client run the latest free Acrobat viewer and they can see and rotate a model, turn parts on and off, take measurements etc. Tantalising... Anyway the capture and conversion sort of works, but there are major lighting problems trying to see the model on my system and most unfortunately, the sceen browser (part names) doesn't import. Just wondering if anyone else has had some success (maybe IC 9 will be better for this?) Kevin, is IC working with Adobe on getting this to work properly? (I didn't see IC in the list of supported CAD applications.) Cheers, Peter

When I had to design some cast aluminum parts, I used my CAM software to scale the parts to allow for shrinkage. I would suggest you talk to your moulding company and ask them if they can scale the models according to the shrinkage of each type of plastic. That way you only have to supply 100% size part models. Might save you a lot of work too. Cheers, Peter

Thanks Mike and Tom, You were right Mike - assigning the desired mouse button to "Autoscroll" gave me back my orbit function in IC. The mouse came with the 5.0 driver so I'll keep that info re the 4.x version driver in the back of my mind - but now everything seems to be working great. FYI, I think my Logitech mouse was over 10 years old. I'm sure going to miss her but her buttons have become intermittant and all the textured plastic on the side has worn to a polish... Cheers, Peter

Hi All, My trusty Logitech Mouseman+ has pretty well expired after dozens of "open-heart" cleanings... I just purchased an MS wireless mouse because it feels pretty much the same as my Logitech in my hand. Unfortunately I can't figure how to assign the middle button function to one of the extra buttons. In the mouse config, you have tons of options but they all seem to relate to surfing and there isn't a "middle" button option. Has anyone figured out a workaround? I really need the orbit function... TIA. Cheers, Peter