Jonathan Bowman’s AEC & EPC Blog

Acrobat 9 AEC eSeminar Next Tuesday 6/24

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:03:32 -0600

Most of you will be shocked when you see all of the new features for Acrobat 9! It is going to be a very exciting release and we have a lot of AEC specific functionality to show. Highlights will include the flash integration giving you a real rich engaging way of delivering your documents. BIM Support with the support of the IFC file format and subsequent object data. New Geospatial Features leveraging the pdf file format. Video conversion with review and comment features. Document Comparison that will allow you to compare multiple different files types to include text, drawings, scanned images, etc. We will also be showing Acrobat.com that will allow you to share documents and communicate real time across geographic locations. Plus the many enhancements to existing functionality such as Form creation, 2D drawings, Shared Reviews and much more. This will be one eSeminar you don't want to miss! You can register for the event by clicking here.

Acrobat 9 is coming!

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:13:59 -0600

I would like to welcome Chris French the AEC Product Manager who was kind enough to submit a blog entry that is going to tell us all about Acrobat 9 and its exciting new features. Chris French writes:

It's the result of several long months of hard work and I'm excited to finally be able to talk publicly about it. Acrobat 9 was announced this morning and it has a lot in it for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction professionals.

The Future of Security for the AEC Industry

Wed, 28 May 2008 17:19:41 -0600

Most of you who have seen my presentations have heard me make the claim that the Adobe product LiveCycle Rights Management, formerly known as LiveCycle Policy Server, is the future of security for the AEC industry. So what is LiveCycle Rights Management and how does is fit into your AEC workflow? LiveCycle Rights Management policy protects documents down to the document level. When you think about how you manage security today you are managing it at the application level. Most AEC companies have a Document Management application like Documentum, ProArc, etc. which protects the access point and what a user can or cannot do. Such as a user may have rights to a folder and they can view the document in that folder or even download. When a user downloads the document you now have lost full control of that document. LiveCycle Rights Management applies a policy to the document and you can maintain control even if the user has downloaded the document to their hard drive, burned it on a CD, put it on a thumb drive, etc.

AEC - Voice of Customer eSeminar 5/21/08!

Wed, 14 May 2008 09:14:46 -0600

This is an eSeminar that you don't want to miss! You have heard about all the great functionality we have put into Adobe Acrobat to address the needs of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industry, now it is your opportunity to hear how several customers are using it to address their mission critical business needs. This event will be moderated by Steve Jones - Business Development - McGraw Hill Construction and will include presentations from John Moebes - Director of Construction - Crate & Barrel, Shawn Pressley - Director of PM Systems and Development - Hill International and Paul Connolly - Project Automation Department Manager - Fluor. They will be discussing how they are streamlining communication, improving productivity, and reducing costs by standardizing several of their processes on the pdf file format. This is an All Star lineup of presenters and a webcast that you don't want to miss! The eSeminar will be held on Wednesday May 21st at 10 am PST or 12 pm CST. You can register for the event here.

We Are In This Together – Implementing ISO 15926

Wed, 07 May 2008 12:17:00 -0600

Last week on Monday and Tuesday something very ground breaking happened. Fiatech held a Technology Vendor Workshop in Houston and invited all the members that were technology providers to have a round table discussion on how we were going to support ISO 15926. Why is this ground breaking? Well the discussion was focused on how we were going to work together. Yes, that’s right, technology competitors coming together to address the needs of the industry. Companies participating in the first meeting were: Adobe, Aspentech, AVEVA, Bentley, COADE, Dassault Systems, Intergraph, Innotec, Metegrity, Noumenon, NRX and Oracle.

New York City & Houston - Live Engineering Seminar

Fri, 02 May 2008 11:16:31 -0600

Alright New York City & Houston, here I come. I will be presenting the Adobe Engineering Seminar live and in person at the Marriott Marquis in NYC, Tuesday May 6th from 9 -12 pm EST and at the Marriott Westchase in Houston, Thursday May 8th from 9 - 12 pm CST. You can register for the events here and we will be taking onsite registrations as well. The events are FREE and there is no charge. This event will be well worth the 3 hrs that you invest. I will be demonstrating live Acrobat, Acrobat Connect and LiveCycle. I have a full agenda, and I am really looking forward to it. Recent feedback from one of the live events was "I thought I was using 50% of the features that Acrobat offers, after the presentation I realized I was using less than 10%, but I could be using 75%-100%!".

Engineering eSeminar Tomorrow 4/30

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:28:34 -0600

Tomorrow, I will be presenting the Acrobat 8 for Engineering Professionals eSeminar at 12 pm CST (10 am PST). This seminar will be focused on functionality across several engineering disciplines, and not specific to the AEC vertical market. It is focused on Engineering as a type of work versus solving an industry vertical pain point. To register for this event, or see the event details, you can find it here.

Acrobat and Adobe Reader Updates

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:32:45 -0600

One of the question/complaints I get when I tell someone I work for Adobe is how do I turn off the updates? Most of the time it is the Adobe Reader that is in question and they are refusing to actually update, and they just close the update window each time. What I will tell you is that the updates are very critical and will become even more critical as we advance applications like Acrobat 3D. Only certain versions of both Acrobat and the Free Adobe Reader will support some of the new functionality. My advice is to update when notified. If you absolutely insist on turning off the updates, you can go through the Help - Update and then at the end of the update you can click "preferences" and uncheck the box that says automatically check for updates. If you are IT administrator you can disable updates during the installation using the Adobe Customization Wizard. We are having an upcoming IT eSeminar on May 1st if you would like more information.

Photoshop for the AEC Industry

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:52:00 -0600

A quick note to turn you on to a very cool website that has a lot resources as to how Photoshop is used in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industry. The individual that owns this site is Scott Onstott and his site is www.scottonstott.com. On Scott's site he has several video podcasts that are Free as well as some that you can purchase. My colleague Mark James participated in an Architecture technology summit in Vancouver where he met Scott, and could not wait to tell me about Scott's site and his work. Scott shows a lot of the Photoshop Extended product and how you can use other applications for the 3D content. Great site for how Photoshop is used in the AEC Industry!

Fiatech – The Big Easy Way!

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:30:25 -0600

The Fiatech Technology Conference delivered once again. For those of you who are not familiar with Fiatech or more importantly have not joined Fiatech need to engage. I attend and sit through countless presentations that identify the issues that the industry currently faces, but what continues to impress me about this organization is it is delivering solutions for its members and giving a direction to the technology companies as it relates to standards. The conference started with James Porter of DuPont not saying if they were going to implement ISO 15926 but how they were going to require it. This was a very strong statement, and really indicates how far and viable ISO 15926 standard has become in truly addressing Interoperability. Fiatech has delivered in many respects and now it is your opportunity to use and capitalize on it. Adobe was able to participate in an emerging technology panel that gave us an opportunity to present our vision and direction. For those of you who were unable to attend I would like to share some of this with you as well as give you some thoughts and opinions as it relates to the conference.

Next Week: Fiatech - New Orleans & ASPE - Las Vegas

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:57:03 -0600

I am really excited about next week. We are going to kick off the week at the Fiatech Annual Technology Conference in New Orleans. This is the first year that Adobe has been a member of Fiatech and we are really excited about working with this industry organization and to be involved with many of the industry thought leaders. I will be participating in a panel moderated by Ric Jackson to discuss why we joined, where we see our technologies addressing interoperability and how our technology may be used as a solution in the future related to ISO 15926. I will be leaving New Orleans and traveling to Las Vegas for the ASPE BIM Seminar. I have not worked with the ASPE organization yet, so I am very excited about this opportunity as well. I will be doing a presentation on where we are now with AEC specific functionality, and where I see our future as it relates to Building Information Modeling.

Giving Back – Victory Junction Gang Camp

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:57:35 -0600

A couple weeks ago my wife and I had the honor of visiting the Victory Junction Gang Camp and making an Adobe software donation. The Victory Junction Gang Camp was founded by Kyle and Pattie Petty, in honor of their son Adam, to provide life changing camping experiences to kids with chronic medical conditions or serious illness. The VJGC is a non-profit organization and relies on the generous donations of individuals and organizations. The have a full 24 hr production studio on-site that captures photos and videos of the campers and their experiences all through the week and then provides them to the campers and the parents as they depart. I would like to share our experience and our tour with Pronto, the camp director, as the camp is truly an engineering feat in itself.

Change Default: Open PDF in Acrobat versus Adobe Reader

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:44:48 -0600

I have been delayed in posts, recently I have been a road warrior, not to metion getting stuck and not being able to get home due to Texas snow storms in March!. Today I was at a very large customer and we were demonstrating Adobe Acrobat. The question came up twice in different forms. The question was when I go to open a pdf file it opens in the Free Adobe Reader by default instead of Acrobat. They were working with older versions and depending on the order in which you originally installed the applications it would change the default. In Acrobat 8 and the Adobe Reader 8 it does prompt you and ask you which application do you want to be your default viewer for pdf files. If you have this issue here are the steps to be able easily change it back.

AEC eSeminar Weds - Register Now

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:03:12 -0600

I will be hosting the "More Efficient Intelligent Document Workflow's for the Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industry" eSeminar this Wednesday (2/27/08) from 12-1 pm CST. I will spend the majority of time on Acrobat, but will also be demonstrating LiveCycle and Acrobat Connect. You can register with this link: AEC eSeminar.

During this eSeminar you will learn how to:

Capture data from all the applications that support your work
Combine files of differing formats into intuitive document packages
Protect intellectual property and project information with document level security
Streamline communication, redline, and mark-up
Process, collect, and analyze critical data
Extend 3D design assets to anyone with the Free Adobe Reader

I apologize for the late notice on my blog, but register today and I will see you on Wednesday!

Texas State University - BIM - Acrobat 3D

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:22:19 -0600

This past fall I spent some time speaking to several colleges in Texas about including Acrobat 3D in their engineering labs so that students could take advantage of being able to convert their 3D projects into a pdf format that could be shared with anyone with the FREE Adobe Reader. I thought it would be a good way of students being able to communicate with their other colleagues and professors, but also be able to take their models or projects with them and still be able to view and share them without having the native software. I was very surprised in the response from department heads in that most told me in one form or another that "we teach principles, we don't teach technology!" It was not that we were asking them have a course on Acrobat 3D just the ability for students to simply drag and drop models into Acrobat and convert them into a pdf document that gave them 100x compression and the ability to share with others. Most understood the value proposition, but then there was one university that just stood out from the rest and that was Texas State University.