Acrobat 3d - Any Successes?

[prenolds]

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

[Bernd Meißner]

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?)

15777[/snapback]

 

 

Peter,

 

I successfully did this with v8, although I didn't go the 'capture' route. I exported my model to Parasolid/X_T format, which loaded fine into Acrobat (or the 3D Toolkit) including part names and hierarchy.

 

Regards,

Bernd

palm_ic.pdf

Edited September 29, 2006 by Bernd Meißner

[Mike Twining]

Wow... that works a little too well. How long till we can export a .pdf out of the scene in addition to the drawings?

[Bernd Meißner]

Well, not knowing what "too well" means... this question has been asked in EVERY forum of EACH 3D application I use, and there are some ;-)

 

Basically it would mean the ability to export directly to *.u3d, but I don't know how to bridge the gap to PDF format output from *.u3d files. Distiller (PDF Printer) doesn't do that yet.

 

Bernd

[Mike Twining]

Ahhh... I guess I am confused again. How did you produce that .pdf? I was under the assumption that you:

 

1. Eport IC Scene to .x_t

2. Import the .x_t into Acrobat and convert to .pdf.

 

It seems that the list is a little longer no?

[tlehnhaeuser]

I think the ability to have IronCAD files in these PDF's with all the correct colors and decals would be EXTREMELY helpful in helping companies in their Sales and Marketing efforts.

 

If you could even keep the "rendered" state with shadows, etc.. The would be the ULTIMATE.

 

Not sure if this relies on IronCAD or Adobe at this point.

 

Tom

[Bernd Meißner]

1. Eport IC Scene to .x_t

2. Import the .x_t into Acrobat and convert to .pdf.

15815[/snapback]

 

 

Mike,

 

yes, this is exactly what I did in order to create the PDF file above. The list isn't any longer, the procedure is as simple as it looks.

 

I just mentioned *.u3d as it is the "native" (not really) 3D format that Acrobat uses. If an application wants to create 3D PDFs on its own, I guess it has to do this via *.u3d AND needs to wrap this into a PDF by itself. Acrobat Distiller doesn't do this. So I just stated my (technical) opinion about direct 3D-PDF export from IronCad.

 

Bernd

 

 

[Guest IronKevin]

I've been told we have been working to get Adobe to add IronCAD to the list of direct imports, not sure how long that will take.

 

IK

[Bernd Meißner]

Just FYI, this seems to be the way one has to go in order to implement the feature into an application:

 

Nemetschek and Acrobat 3D

 

Bernd

[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