Adobe Systems Inc. this week released a new version of its 3D PDF software, adding compression technology, precise CAD geometry, and CAD data interoperability to the the product, which is targeted at discrete manufacturers.
Acrobat 3D version 8 converts files from more than 40 CAD formats, including Autodesk Inventor, Dassault Systemes CATIA, PTC Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, and UGS NX. The resulting PDF can be accessed through the free Adobe Reader.
Version 8 adds compression technology obtained last year through Adobe's acquisition of Trade Technology France (TTF). The TTF technology can compress a CAD file by a ratio of 150:1, according to Adobe. The ability to squeeze a file down from megabytes to kilobytes allows for transmission of the file through e-mail, as well as the ability to easily archive technical files, company officials said.
Acrobat 3D, introduced in January 2006, is part of the Acrobat product family that includes the Acrobat Standard and Professional offerings for post-script document viewing and collaboration. Designed specifically for the aerospace, automotive, consumer electronics, heavy machinery, and architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industries, the latest release of Acrobat 3D allows users to combine CAD files with other project documents, such as a spreadsheet containing product specifications or a bill of materials, and share that information with non-technical constituents who may need access to design information to help with a product launch.
People viewing CAD designs via a 3D PDF can add digital sticky note comments, view cross sections of the design, or see specific measurements, but they can not change the design.
"With Acrobat 3D, you are never sharing native CAD files, which are the crown jewels," said Rak Bhalla, senior marketing manager for Acrobat 3D, in an interview with Managing Automation. "You are just taking a CAD file [and] bringing it into Acrobat 3D, which saves it as precise CAD geometry, or as a bunch of triangles, referred to as tessellation," Bhalla explained. "If you save it as a tessellated file, while it looks like the original CAD file, at no time is there any intellectual property in there ... so someone can't reverse engineer it."
That protection is important if files are shared with suppliers outside of the company, for example. Sharing information for collaboration purposes, however, is at the heart of Adobe's mission, and a key factor in that strategy is its free Adobe Reader, which has become a ubiquitous icon on PC desktops.
While CAD users need an Acrobat 3D license to create the 3D-enabled files, others in the organization simply require Acrobat Reader. A license for version 8 costs $995; upgrades from the existing version cost $295.
Maximizing the use of CAD data throughout the enterprise is a priority for manufacturers that need quality products built in an accelerated time-to-market cycle. "Executives are scrambling to find a way to take the millions of dollars invested in CAD data and use it everywhere," Bhalla said.
"The important thing here is that [Adobe] has opened the door for 3D viewing to a huge population of people," said John MacKrell, an analyst at CIMdata. MacKrell also noted that Acrobat's ability to pull data from different sources and file formats is a big benefit. However, Acrobat 3D is still somewhat limited in its ability to translate information in a highly engineering-intensive environment, MacKrell said. He noted that Cimmetry Systems' AutoVue can combine and analyze electronic data with mechanical data, which can't be done in a PDF view yet.
While the Acrobat 3D program can create PDFs from CAD files created in the major software applications, it touts key partnerships with SolidWorks, PTC, and UGS, Bhalla said.
Acrobat 3D version 8 is available immediately in English, French, and German. PDFs created by the new version will be handled best by Adobe Reader version 8.1, which takes advantage of the new compression capabilities and will be available in June.