Adobe Solutions for Manufacturing

Acrobat 3D,PDF,PMI,3D MBD,Model Based Definition,CATIA,UGS NX,IDEAS NX,ProEngineer WildFire,JTOpen

What is 3D Model Based Definition, or 3DMBD?
3DMBD refers to "3D-Model Based Definition" the goal of which is to enable a product designer to annotate a 3D part or assembly with all of the information required by a fabricator to build it--basically it is a 3D analog of a 2D blueprint. In fact, one of the main goals of 3DMBD is to shift all process communication away from 2D drawings in favor of fully annotated 3D models. The types of information required by fabricators include geometric dimensions, tolerances, surface roughness, datums, etc. and collectively are commonly referred to as Product Manufacturing Information, or PMI. (Note: Most of the major CAD systems provide tools for annotating parts or assemblies with PMI but often give it a different name. E.g., CATIA V5 uses 'Functional Tolerance Annotation' (FTA), CATIA V4 uses "Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerance" (GDT). Siemen's Unigraphics NX CAD system uses PMI.)

What are the benefits of moving to a 3DMBD process?
By moving away from mailing suppliers 2D paper drawings to electronically transmitting digital files of 3D parts and assemblies annotated with PMI, manufacturers expect to several different benefits, including:

• Decrease the time required to resolve design issues
• Reduce design and fabrication errors caused by misinterpreting 2D data
• Enable increased usage of 3D product information throughout the product lifecycle
• Save money by eliminating material, printing, and courier costs associated with paper
  

By supporting the extraction of PMI information from the major CAD formats (CATIA V5, Unigraphics NX, IDEAS NX, ProEngineer Wildfire, and the JTOpen format) and making it available in PDF documents that can be viewed by anyone with the free Adobe Reader, Adobe is providing a robust collaboration platform that enables manufacturing companies to fully embrace 3DMBD and deploy it throughout their entire supply chain in a cost effective, low risk manner. XDT Software has created a great website with more in depth information on the trend in manufacturing towards 3D Model Based Definition and how Acrobat 3D and PDF help companies evolve their processes in this direction.

Posted by Jim Merry at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Acrobat 3D,Acrobat 3D Version 8,PDF,Adobe,CAD,Manufacturing software

Acrobat 3D version 8 was announced September 18, 2006 along with the entire Acrobat 8 Product family and includes a lot of very exciting features for manufacturing companies. So what are they?

The major enhancements in Acrobat 3D Version 8 include:

• Viewing of Product Manufacturing Information (PMI) entities extracted from the major proprietary CAD formats
• Encapsulation of Exact 3D Geometry in PDF
• Enhanced Compression of 3D geometry stored in PDF
• Export of Precise Geometry to standard neutral file formats

As Acrobat 3D is a superset of Acrobat Professional, it includes all of the new features included in Acrobat 8 along with several 3D specific features and enhancements. While there are quite a few new features in Acrobat 8 Professional, there are a subset that will likely be of interest to manufacturers. These include:

• DWG PDF Maker
• PDF Packages
• Reader Enablement of digital signatures and saving form field data
• Shared Reviews Forms: Form field auto-recognition and improved form distribution and tracking

For more detailed information on the new features of Acrobat 3D version 8, please see the following link: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat3d/

Posted by Jim Merry at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is probably one of the most common questions I get asked about Acrobat 3D and it turns out there is more than one way to bring 3D data into PDF documents with Acrobat 3D...

Acrobat 3D can import 3D models in one of two ways:

1. Reading 3D model, part or assembly files
2. Capturing 3D models from OpenGL-based applications

Reading 3D Files

Acrobat 3D can import ~40 different 3D file formats including proprietary CAD formats like Catia V5, Catia V4, Solidworks, UGS NX, UGS IDEAS, ProEngineer, AutoCAD, Inventor, and Solidedge. Numerous neutral files like STEP, IGES, VRML, Parasolid, ACIS, JT and STL may also be read. Additionally, Acrobat 3D is bundled with the Acrobat 3D Toolkit which can read additional 3D file formats like 3D Studio MAX, Maya and Wavefront and these can be saved in the U3D file format and then inserted into PDF documents using Acrobat 3D. Acrobat 3D Version 8 added support for several new formats like CADDS 5. For a complete list of supported formats and the versions of those formats, see these documents:

Acrobat 3D Version 8 Supported Formats

Acrobat 3D Version 7 Supported Formats

 

Capturing 3D Files

Acrobat 3D's 3D Capture feature enables 3D Models to be captured or extracted directly from any OpenGL-based application. This feature can be used to capture visual information that is not stored in native file formats or to capture 3D information from applications that use proprietarty formats that Acrobat 3D cannot read directly. For instance, many CAD applications have integrated analysis modules that only provide for saving the final results of the computation; with Acrobat 3D's 3D Capture feature it is possible to extract and save to PDF any intermediate view of the results that are desired. There is a configuration process required to enable Acrobat 3D to capture 3D models from OpenGL-based applications. For details on how to do this for different 3D applications please see this document.

Posted by Jim Merry at 05:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)