Adobe Systems today expected to release software that will allow designers and engineers to save 3D images as PDF (portable document format) files and share those files with anyone who has the free Adobe Acrobat reader, the company says.
A new product in the Acrobat family, Adobe Acrobat 3D, allows users to convert 3D designs from major CAD (computer-aided-design) applications into PDF files, says Rak Bhalla, a senior marketing manager for Acrobat at Adobe in San Jose, California. The product also enables a user to insert 3D CAD designs into Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files and convert those files into PDFs.
In addition, the $995 Adobe Acrobat 3D program allows users to attach notes to certain parts of the PDF providing or asking for comment or feedback on the design. In turn, users of the free Acrobat reader software can send comments back to the designer directly in the PDF file, Bhalla says.
No Special Viewers Needed
CAD is the standard for tools that professionals such as architects and engineers use to create computer drawings of building and product designs. Previously, designers working in CAD applications could share 3D CAD files only with people who had either a CAD program or special software viewers for reading the files, Bhalla says. In many instances, designers would send 2D bitmaps of the designs to the people who needed to provide feedback on projects, such as customers or co-workers.
Those previous ways of sharing 3D files have a couple of drawbacks. The first is that when a company shares the actual CAD designs, it is giving someone else access to its intellectual property (IP). In doing so, it runs the risk of a client or someone else taking those designs and finding another engineering firm to build them, says Nick Butkovich, project manager for Bradock Industries, a company in Des Plaines, Illinois, that builds plastic moldings and assemblies for the automotive industry.
Butkovich, whose company has been testing Adobe Acrobat 3D, says the product even lets users put an expiration date on PDFs created out of CAD files so that people with whom they are shared can't open them with Acrobat Reader after a certain time. He says the product has been helpful for enabling engineers to share and receive feedback on designs without risking IP theft.
"It allows customers to make notations [on the design], but they're not getting anything of any value," Butkovich says.
Another problem with the old way 3D files were shared is that 2D bitmaps of 3D images do not provide an accurate portrayal of the work in progress, Adobe's Bhalla says. With the new Acrobat product, other people can view 3D designs that look the same as what the designer sees, so customers and others working on the project can provide better feedback on the designs, he says.
"New Adobe Software Turns 3D Images Into PDFs" Comments