Companies performing design and development activities are coming under increasing domestic and global pressure to release products in ever-shortening product cycles with paradoxically fewer engineers.  Also, as companies become more and more finely-tuned centres-of-excellence, their engineers collaborate with an ever-increasing number of external organisations for design and performance activities, styling, manufacturing, assembly etc.

Such scenarios mean that designs developed using sophisticated 3D design tools must be shared with internal departments and external organisations, most of who possess different or no CAD tools, or software more suited to manufacturing activities.

For partners who need to share overall design concepts, this problems invariably leads to a flattening of 3D designs into 2D screen captures, greatly compromising understanding because only a finite amount of information is available.

Strip-down versions of CAD applications are available, but are still relatively expensive, certainly not that intuitive, and of course, not always available.  Also, there is a high chance that non-technical resources can misinterpret data if information if it is prepared in traditionally 2D format.

Communication with manufacturing partners is generally performed using neutral file formats.  In the very early phases of product development, truly spontaneous communication is not possible because these file must be accompanied with 2D documents carrying text, dimensions and tolerances.  Also for example, purchasing engineers lack detailed understanding of how the designer and supplier are making decisions about fundamental aspects of a design.

Given the fact that Adobe Reader is a free and available or upgradeable on nearly every business machine, the ability to view and interrogate 3D geometry in PDF format represents the answer to many organisations’ prayers.

Translated into .u3d format for Adobe Acrobat 3D, the 3D data possesses outstanding detail, keeps colours and transparency, can be manipulated and interrogated very quickly, and even retains detail about the build structure.

Now a mechanical design engineer can share their 3D data quickly and easily.  For example, they can show production engineers how they intend to assemble their designs, or show an electrical engineer how they intend to route cabling between two electrical sub-assemblies.

The designer also has the ability to communicate design intent with a supplier far more spontaneously, perhaps without having to prepare 2D drawings like in the past.  The supplier has the ability to manipulate the model or assembly, create cross-sections at will, and interrogate physical dimensions.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, a company has the ability to show a consumer how to perform installation, maintenance or repair, and can show information in realistic coloured views that can even be exploded and animated.

Of course, there are almost an infinite number of applications for such a capable product.

For sure, PDFs with embedded 3D geometry will allow organisations to continue to use their CAD data in an ever increasing number of processes, speeding up the ability to communicate, increasing understanding and enriching presentation.

Coming soon

Using PDF files with embedded 3D data

Creating PDF files with embedded 3D data

Security Issues

Adobe Acrobat 3D versus eDrawings

Adobe Acrobat 3D v8