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Adobe Adds Key Collaboration, File-Sharing Features to Acrobat Sign Up to receive Daily News Alerts in your E-mail Inbox
Posted on Monday, September 18, 2006 6:02:00 PM |
Continuing to improve the usefulness of its Acrobat family of tools for sharing of and collaboration around design and manufacturing data, Adobe Systems Inc. today announced plans for a new release of the widely used applications that, among other things, adds real-time collaboration and support for file compression and larger file sizes.
The new Acrobat 8 release includes technologies acquired through Adobe's purchase earlier this year of Macromedia and, in April, of Trade and Technologies France, a small maker of CAD interoperability software.
From Macromedia, Adobe acquired the Breeze real-time collaboration software and services which it is now integrating with Acrobat 8. The new release includes Acrobat Connect, a rebranding of the Breeze product that features integration with Acrobat 8. From Acrobat applications, users will be able to click on a "start meeting" button and be immediately directed to a secure collaboration site where they can exchange documents, notes, and even voice communications with others.
"Acrobat 7 was about collaboration [of] documents, but, with version 8, we are extending the definition of collaboration to include Web conferencing in real time," said Rak Bhalla, marketing manager at Adobe.
The Connect offering will be available in two versions, Connect and Connect Pro. With Connect, users can put together real-time collaboration sessions including up to 15 individuals. Users can also share views of screens and communicate via chat and whiteboard sessions and video.
With Connect Pro, sessions can include up to 200 participants. Connect Pro sessions can also include voice communications -- via voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) technology -- and can be recorded.
Acrobat Connect will be available on a free trial basis from November through the end of 2006. (Information is available at Adobe's Web site.) From early 2007 on, Connect will be available for a subscription price of $39 per month, per user, or $395 per year per user. Users can choose to deploy Connect in house or as an online service.
The Connect Pro offering will be available beginning in December as a licensed product only, starting at $15,000 --depending on the configuration.
Analysts called the integration of the Macromedia Breeze technology and Acrobat a good first step toward true real-time collaboration from within design documents. "This is a first generation and, as such, it has the expected level of functionality," said Tim Hickernell, research fellow at Robert Francis Group, a business consulting firm.
Next-generation enhancements to Acrobat Connect, Hickernell predicted, may include the ability to synchronize document content changes among participants in a Connect session and to launch Connect sessions from directly inside non-Adobe applications such as Microsoft Word.
Besides the Acrobat Connect offerings, Adobe launched a number of significant enhancements to its Acrobat 3D offering. Introduced at the end of last year, Acrobat 3D allows users of a variety of CAD applications to convert CAD files to Adobe's PDF file format. That allows users to share 3D design information with individuals who do not have CAD software but who have downloaded Adobe's free Reader product or purchased one of Adobe's Acrobat products. Adobe estimates that 525 million copies of the Reader program have been downloaded.
The initial version of Acrobat 3D used the U3D file format collaboration standard to convert native CAD files to PDF. Acrobat 3D version 8 adds a second option for file conversion and compression, incorporating the PRC file format acquired in April with Adobe's purchase of Trade and Technologies France.
The PRC format offers several advantages over U3D, Bhalla said. First, PRC supports larger file assemblies, up to 1 gigabyte of data. Second, PRC allows for compression of files, making it easier to send 3D files over a network. And, third, PRC includes support for product manufacturing information (PMI), annotations that can include information such as geometric dimensions and tolerances that can help in determining how a design should be manufactured.
PRC also has better support than U3D for functions such as high-end visualization.
The downside to PRC, Bhalla acknowledged, is that it, unlike U3D, is not an industry standard. Bhalla said Adobe plans to pursue standard status for U3D through the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA).
In the meantime, Bhalla said, Adobe will continue to support both U3D and PRC. Users of the Acrobat 8 products, when converting a CAD file to a PDF, will be asked to make a choice between doing so using U3D or PRC. Users mainly needing to share CAD information such an object's textures will likely continue to use U3D. Users needing more detailed CAD or manufacturing information or needing to share larger files will likely opt for PRC, he said.
Giving users the option of using different file formats should not prove confusing, said Robert Francis Group's Hickernell. "It's not any more confusing than a company like Autodesk supporting multiple file formats, some of them standard and some proprietary," he said.
The version 8 release also includes important new features in the Acrobat Professional version of the product. They include new redaction tools that allow users to permanently remove sensitive text, images, metadata, and other information from a design document. The feature, Bhalla said, is important, for example, for users needing to share documents with overseas contract manufacturers.
The new redaction capability in Acrobat Professional is included in the higher-end Acrobat 3D version 8 product.
Acrobat 8 Professional will be available in November at a suggested retail price of $449. Current Professional users can upgrade to the new version for $149.
Acrobat 3D version 8 will cost $995. Current Acrobat 3D users can upgrade for $295. Adobe officials said Acrobat 3D version 8 will be available sometime after Acrobat 8 Professional, but did not provide a specific date.
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