×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Acrobat 3D
3

Acrobat 3D

RE: Acrobat 3D

It is cool.  I believe this is why SW made the switch from BlueBeam to Adobe for PDF creation

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
President: Northern
Vermont SolidWorks User Group
www.robrodriguez.com (updated 2/22/06)
SW 2006 SP 3.0

RE: Acrobat 3D

I have not had the chance to read up on or see Acrobat 3D. Is it not basically the same as Edrawings? Also, I was not aware that Solidworks switched over to Acrobat from Bluebeam. When did that switch take place? I am still using SW2005 and have not had a chance to look at 2006.

Regards,
Dan Olid

RE: Acrobat 3D

The switch took place in SW2006 SP2.1 I believe.  Essentially yes, Acrobat 3D is like e-drawings but it allows you to combine an e-drawings like model into various types of documents.  As an example, you could create an entire electronic owners manual and all the graphics in the manual would have the same ability you would have in e-drawings.  The Acrobat 3D file also gives you more options when it comes to file sharing and security than e-drawings.

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
President: Northern
Vermont SolidWorks User Group
www.robrodriguez.com (updated 2/22/06)
SW 2006 SP 3.0

RE: Acrobat 3D

(OP)
Also, from my experience CAD users of other systems will not use eDrawings because they see it as "belongs" to SolidWorks. Now they can view any solid model thru Acrobat, which everyone uses.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 05
AutoCAD 05
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

RE: Acrobat 3D

(OP)
Well, tried to watch the webcast today. I could hear them talking, but the video would not play! uuugh! I informed Adobe support. I'm going to download the 30 day trial and check it out.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 05
AutoCAD 05
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

RE: Acrobat 3D

2
I am using a 30 day trial of Acrobat 3D, and for those of you using SW06, forget about using it because it it doesn't work.

Quote:

Acrobat 3D Capture supports capturing objects in OpenGL mode only and does not support DirectX.
(snip article)
Supported application settings in Acrobat 3D: SolidWorks
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/332661.html
I set SW for OpenGL and used the 3D Capture settings in Acrobat 3D, but the capture was all garbled up.

Well I found this other article later:

Quote:

Acrobat does not import SolidWorks 2006 files (Acrobat 3D on Windows)
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/332983.html

Just an FYI for some thinking of trying it out and who use SW06.

Flores
SW06 SP4.1

RE: Acrobat 3D

I've never quite seen the potential advantage of Acrobat 3D over eDrawings--especially considering the price.

Anybody know?

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

RE: Acrobat 3D

I'm no expert but the advantage I see is the ability to have a page (or document) containing text and graphics (much like a tech bulletin or instruction sheet may look)with the graphics portion being 3D interactive.  E-drawings only really allows the graphics, no text.

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
President: Northern
Vermont SolidWorks User Group
www.robrodriguez.com (updated 6/05/06)
SW 2006 SP 4.0

RE: Acrobat 3D

eDrawings is geared more toward the mechanical design/review world.
Acrobat 3D is geared more toward the multi-format documentation/presentation world, but could also be used for design/review.

cheers
Helpful SW websites  FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions  FAQ559-1091

RE: Acrobat 3D

Sounds like a perfect hint to eDrawings as to what they could add as an "enhancement".

Thanks for the replies, it's good to consider.

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

RE: Acrobat 3D

I haven't tried this, but the comments about adding text to an E-drawing made me wonder if this could be done by saving the E-drawing as an HTML file and editing the HTML to include the desired text.

I believe the viewer would still need to download the necessary browser plug-in, but this might work.  Just a thought......

RE: Acrobat 3D

Actually you can add text using the "Markup" function in the Professional version.

cheers
Helpful SW websites  FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions  FAQ559-1091

RE: Acrobat 3D

Sounds like everyone is going about the eDrawings wrong.  What you have to do is open a drawing of your project, and save the DRAWING as an eDrawing and not just a part or assembly as an eDrawing.  Now you have all of your text and dimensions showing, and if you want to rotate a view, just hit the rotate button, and you can zoom, rotate, etc.  Pick the sheet on the right pane, and now you are on the drawing again.
You can create an assembly instruction so they can see how it is assembled, then pick a view and spin the model to see things in a 3D world.
I downloaded a Acrobat 3D sample, and it is painfully slow to rotate the model and it is not a polished product yet.  Supposedly the free Adobe reader 7 can open an Acrobat 3D so try it yourself:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat3d/
Go to the "View a sample file with embedded 3D (PDF, 2.4M)
I even saved a copy and opened it locally with the Acrobat 3D (not free viewer) and it is slow.

Flores
SW06 SP4.1

RE: Acrobat 3D

Great point, Flores.  I use markups, but hardly ever create drawigns for eDrawings--normally assemblies with configs, etc. for quick-change views.

Thanks, too, for the heads-up on what appears to be yet another overpriced Adobe product.

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

RE: Acrobat 3D

If you have already installed Acrobat Reader 7 version (as I did) in response to some Web site indicating you needed to update your Reader version you MAY start noticing problems.  On two different systems – my home computer and the laptop I use on the road – I noticed the computer slowing down when reading an Acrobat file off the Net.  Sometimes the computer locks up completely and sometimes the PDF file doesn’t display at all.  I fixed the problem by removing Acrobat Reader 7 and reinstalling Acrobat Reader 6.0.  If you’re experiencing problems it’s probably worth your time to do this fix.  You can find "Acrobat Reader 6.0" it on the Net simply by searching for the term in quotes.  If a Web site asks whether you want to download version 7.0 my recommendation is to answer “No” unless you have a really good reason for answering "Yes".  Attempting to read 3D Acrobat files may be a good reason . . . or maybe not.

Mark Stapleton
Watermark Design, LLC
Charlotte, NC
www.h2omarkdesign.com

RE: Acrobat 3D

I just downloaded the sample (after installing Reader 7) and it worked fine for me ... not slow at all.

The reader has some nice features for presentations like render styles & lighting options, but I will stick with eDrawings for my clients mechanical review needs.

I believe the full 3D package also has measure & explode abilities.

cheers
Helpful SW websites  FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions  FAQ559-1091

RE: Acrobat 3D

Hello all,

This is an incredible product for anyone working in a MultiCAD environment. What other viewer can open: UG, CATIA, SolidWorks, VRML, JT Open ... and do it at such a reasonable price.

eDrawings is great, but you need a separte license for each different CAD product. With Acrobat 3D, you just need 1 license.

Note that it has some impressive markup abilities and to view an Acrobat 3D file all you need is Adobe Reader 7.0.

One more thing check out these cool examples:


3D helicopter animation
 
ftp://ftp2.bentley.com/dist/collateral/Web/Building.pdf
 
3D video camera
 
http://www.kaon.com/Kaon3DPDF.pdf
 
Immersive Design Example
 
http://www.immdesign.com/templates/barretthand.pdf
 
 
Cheers,

Joseph

RE: Acrobat 3D

$1,000 for a (buggy) 3D publishing program?  I wouldn't pay it, but perhaps that's worth-while for all those who have already purchased SolidWorks, UG, Catia, etc.

Cool examples, but I wouldn't swallow the price.  (Then again, I don't have a "full" version of Photoshop, either, so I don't fit the profile of one who splurges on software.)

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

RE: Acrobat 3D

I think we need to determine the "what-fors" and "whys", before we make decisions on software like Adobe 3D.  

For example, we are looking ways to communicate design intent, product definition, etc - using the solid model and a viewer instead of investing in drawings which can't "answer questions" like a intergatable (sp?) model in a viewer.  

So, for our use, we've narrowed it down to two products, neither of which are partnered tightly with our current MCAD.  Adobe 3D is great and exciting, but it just isn't good for communication between engineers and manufacturing.  

That's my two cents...

RE: Acrobat 3D

Hello Theophilus and Zissou,

Very good points, am thinking that perhaps Acrobat 3D may be best for the following:

- Technical Publications, thus saving the need for another CAD license
- Marketing, one can create simple renderings without a rendering add-on or software
- 3D PDF animations

Just tossing a couple of ideas. We were not impressed with the measure tool that Adobe has, but then again we are not experts by any means.

Cheers,

Joseph

RE: Acrobat 3D

When we looked at 3D viewers, the measurement tools where one of the key functions that we assessed.  I agree with you, josephv, that Adobe's measurement functions where poorly implemented.  I will honestly say that I was very excited when I first looked at Adobe, but that has sense worn off.  

I do agree with you, though, about the technical pubs.  How great it would be to have a "live" model in a service pub.  I think with OLE most of the viewers can be inserted as an object into Word, etc.  

This, along with other software moving us closer to Y14.41 compliance, is a very exciting part of our world.  

RE: Acrobat 3D

(OP)
All very good points. Thanks.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-05)

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources