Doug Halliday at Adobe PLM

The day has finally arrived

Yesterday was a big day for Adobe and more importantly our customers. Acrobat 3D Version 8 is now available After months of anticipation and sneak previews, the day has finally arrived when you can have the same software we will be presenting and demonstrating. We want to let everyone know how excited Adobe is to get the shipping version in our customers hands. We really believe this major release will dramatically improve user productivity and enable new workflows.

Read on for more information about version 8 and other news...

The Day has finally Arrived

Yesterday was a big day for Adobe and more importantly our customers. Acrobat 3D Version 8 is now available (http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200705/053007Acrobat3DShips.html ). That means that when we head back out on the road next week to the PTC User World Show in Tampa (http://www.ptcuserworldevent.com ) we’ll be talking about a product that is “on the selves”. After months of anticipation and sneak previews, the day has finally arrived when you can have the same software we will be presenting and demonstrating.

I will be speaking at the conference on Monday, early afternoon. My topic is “Leverage Acrobat3D and PDF to Bridge the Collaboration Gap Through More Secure CAD Data Exchange and Interoperability”. The pre-release phase has been fun, but I am really looking forward to this show. We want to let everyone know how excited Adobe is to get the shipping version in our customers hands. We really believe this major release will dramatically improve user productivity and enable new workflows.

Here are a few of the highlights:

• Version 8 includes industry leading compression technology that can create ultra compact 3D PDF's that can be easily transmitted through email. V8 supports large assemblies, provides the capability to store precise CAD Geometry in a 3D PDF, export to STEP for Acrobat 3D, PMI support, PRC support, enhanced U3D support just to name a few enhancements.

• The PDF format is even more powerful than before. Now PDF includes support for 3D model based definition such as precise geometry, metadata and Product Manufacturing Information (PMI), high compression technology. PDF can now be used for long term archiving of CAD data since it can contain precise CAD geometry.

• Perhaps the most frequent question asked is what CAD formats are supported? Acrobat 3D Version 8 supports conversion to 3D PDF from over 40 formats, including those for Autodesk Inventor, CATIA, PTC Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, and UGS NX and I-deas. Here is the answer: www.adobe.com/go/a3d_supportedformats.

• The new Adobe Reader 8.1, which will be released on June 5, will enable users to have access to PMI and metadata, enhanced sectioning & measurement tools, stronger and easier-to-use navigation tools. Performance will be even better.

Temporary Advisory

Since Reader 8.1 will not release until 6/5, only Acrobat 3D V8 users will be able to open newly created 3D PDF's (created w/PRC) until Reader 8.1 ships. As a result, we are taking measure to inform prospects of this news on critical areas of the Acrobat 3D V8 web site.

Want to try it?

It’s easy. Just go to the Acrobat 3D home page (http://www.adobe.com/acrobat3D) to see the new features, download a 30-day trial or see some of the reviews from the press.

What questions do you have?

At every event we attend we get several questions. For example, at a SolidWorks event earlier this year, a common question was “how does this compare to eDrawings”? The short answer, by the way is that we support different use cases, such as extending collaboration and combining disparate document types into PDF’s and PDF bundles. For a more complete answer see Jim Merry’s Blog at http://blogs.adobe.com/mfg/. As I mentioned earlier, the question of supported formats surfaces a great deal. We are starting to hear from more and more customers who have been using Acrobat 3D to develop animations, order forms and work instructions. So, now that V8 is on the street, what questions do you have?

Posted by Doug Halliday at 04:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More News and Coming Events

We just completed some very interesting events and trade shows. I thought I would spend just a few moments to give you my impressions and perhaps some insights:

On April 23-24 were at AUTOe in Rochester Hills Michigan, on the campus of Oakland University. This Product Lifecycle Management themed event is always a good show. Dr. Michael Grieves and the Oakland University Team continue to impress. The speakers (present company excluded) were wonderful. Due to the proximity to many of the world’s premier automotive manufacturers and suppliers, the show is appropriately focused upon the challenges and opportunities these manufactures face. Of course, other industries face similar challenges of making things work on a global basis, so it’s not all automotive.

For me there were some key takeaways:
o Supply chain integration is still crying for standards. Despite years of effort, there is still much room for improvement.
o PLM solutions have clearly gone from “toys” to “tools” in manufacturing. The leaders have made the transition to electronic processes in manufacturing engineering and plant floor operations. The story that began in product development continues to grow. It is interesting to see how the best companies are better leveraging their investments in CAD to make it available to the enterprise.
o The industry has, for the most part, mastered data exchange and data sharing. Collaboration is clearly the direction for the industry. To me, the winners will have learned how to move from proprietary interfaces to portable interfaces. Collaboration will be natural and people-centric. Data management will be a feature of collaboration solutions, not the main event. Several of the presentations, including mine, focused on the need to get to the next level of collaboration.

Members of the Adobe Team participated in Design and Manufacturing South in Atlanta, April 24-26. Naturally we feature Acrobat 3D. This was a good show for us. We talked to hundreds of customers, which is always the most enjoyable part of the job. Of course our marketing people like to touch base with as many customers as possible, so the “traffic” is appreciated. More important to me is the opportunity to discuss challenges in interoperability. We get lots of questions about support for PMI and Meta-data viewing, for major CAD applications , which is a definite need for certain manufacturing workflows. Yes, Acrobat 3D version 8 will provide the needed function. We also get many questions about comparisons to other visualization tools. People appreciate that A3D is a collaboration tool first, and usually start to describe current and planned uses in areas like bid packages, manufacturing work instructions and technical illustrations where document-based collaboration is huge.

We were at the SME Interoperability and 3D Collaboration Event at the Marriott Renaissance in Detroit on May 2-3. This was an outstanding event, and lots of fun for me personally. I discussed design collaboration and CAD data interoperability on May 2, in the afternoon. I also participated in a panel moderated by David Prawel of Longview Advisors: “Lightweight 3D Formats – Ask the Vendors” on May 3. Check out Longview advisor’s 3D Ubiquity Blog http://3dubiquity.com. The depth of the questions and insights from our customers was really amazing. In addition to the normal demonstrations and sharing of information about product, I walked away with several “to-dos” to help customers and answer their questions. There seemed to be a number of people who were interested in things like adding animation in the 3D Tool Kit portion of A3D. For those of you who would like to see what the Tool kit is for, or maybe get a “tune-up” on how to navigate it, there are some good tutorials on line at www.adobe.com. Just look under products -> Acrobat -> Acrobat 3D. By the way, I still have a few “to-dos” to follow-up on. Hopefully I’ll be up-to-date shortly.

What’s next?
The rest of May will be taken up with Adobe marketing events, webinars, numerous customer visits and some exciting work with partner companies. Two events planned for early June look to be super opportunities:
1. The PTC User World Event June 3-5 in Tampa Florida. I will once again be presenting at the conference. I’m looking forward to seeing you in Tampa. Check it out at www.ptcuser.org.
2. The Atlantic Design and Manufacturing show is scheduled June 12-14 in New York. Stop by and say hello if you plan to be there. You can check out the show at www.atldesignshow.com.
That’s all for now. Comments welcome and appreciated!

Posted by Doug Halliday at 01:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)