Archive for February, 2009

Adobe, Boeing, and Penn State collaborate on real-world mfg integration issues

Posted on February 27, 2009 by Jim Merry | Comments (0)

Over the last 2 years I have had the privilege to work on an on-going three way collaboration between Boeing’s Rotorcraft Division, the Penn State University College of Information Science and Technology and Adobe to provide PSU students exposure to real-world problems faced by manufacturing companies. The students take on the role of consultants to Boeing and are presented with a set of detailed requirements that they must analyze and clarify. They then research and propose a potential solution that meets those requirements–all under their own direction. The last three semesters have focused on how Adobe’s 3D PDF, Acrobat Pro Extended and LiveCycle products can be leveraged to solve real issues Boeing currently faces related to providing suppliers with 3D Model-Based Definition information in a secure, reliable and cost effective way.
The Penn State College of Information Science and Technology wrote an in-depth article describing the project which you can find here.

Collaboration and Interoperability Conference Survey

Posted on February 27, 2009 by Jim Merry | Comments (0)

The 2008 Collaboration and Interoperability Conference was by all measures a great success and we are looking forward to the 2009 event this May. As part of each year’s conference Longview Advisors plans to conduct a survey of the attendees to gain insight into the mfg community’s current set of issues, hopes, and vision for collaboration and interoperability. They have graciously decided to share the results of this effort with anyone and everyone. If interested you can find the 2008 results here.

Mfg Companies leverage 3D PDF for Global Collaboration

Posted on February 27, 2009 by Jim Merry | Comments (0)

The folks over at Plastics Today posted a great article on their Injection Molding website written by Adobe’s own Rak Bhalla that discusses the advantages 3D PDF offers to manufacturing companies. It includes data from a Harris Interactive poll that gives insight into the importance of collaboration in today’s manufacturing environments and then discusses how common problems and bottlenecks encountered when you need to collaborate with suppliers, partners and customers using 3D CAD data can be mitigated by using Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended and 3D PDF. The article includes quotes about specific ROI achieved by several companies that have deployed Acrobat and 3D PDF including Eaton, Prokka, Indak, Atrus, Bradrock Industries, and Sunbeam.
The article also discusses how the Adobe Acrobat 3D PDF platform can be leveraged by other software companies and points to several CAD companies who already support 3D PDF today like SolidWorks, PTC, Lattice, Right Hemisphere, and Actify—all of whom now output 3D PDF files directly from their systems.
You can find the article here.