Adobe Solutions for Manufacturing

The Adobe Flash platform was integrated into the Acrobat product family with version 9 and this enabled a lot of very cool, cutting edge features like portfolios and dependable/flawless video playback in the free Adobe Reader. The collaboration tools were integrated with the video content as well enabling anyone to comment directly on a specific frame of a movie using the 2D commenting tools. In addition to all this, the engineering team also added the ability to use Flash content as a 3D material which opens a whole new world of possibilities for 3D content inside of PDF.
If you are interested in understanding how this works, there is a two part tutorial on AcrobatUsers.com you’ll want to watch. Here’s part one and here’s part two.

John Warnock and Chuck Geschke will each receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama at a White House ceremony next Wednesday.
Here’s an excerpt from a White House press release:

“The National Medal of Technology and Innovation has its roots in a 1980 statute and is administered for the White House by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The award recognizes individuals or companies for their outstanding contributions to the promotion of technology for the improvement of the economic, environmental, or social well-being of the United States. Nominees are selected by a distinguished independent committee representing both the private and public sectors.

From the White House press release:

“These scientists, engineers and inventors are national icons, embodying the very best of American ingenuity and inspiring a new generation of thinkers and innovators,” President Obama said. “Their extraordinary achievements strengthen our nation every day–not just intellectually and technologically but also economically, by helping create new industries and opportunities that others before them could never have imagined.”

The Adobe founders are being acknowledged “for their pioneering contributions that spurred the desktop publishing revolution and for changing the way people create and engage with information and entertainment across multiple mediums including print, Web and video.”

Terry Wohler’s group covers the manufacturing industry and publishes an exhaustive annual report on the current state of the industry. He attended the Collaboration and Interoperability Conference last May in Estes Park and sat in on Chris Senesac’s presentation on how Boeing Rotorcraft Systems has deployed 3D PDF for multiple use cases. He was so surprised at learning that PDF can now contain precise geometry suitable for fabrication along with PMI, 2D drawings and associated technical documentation that he wrote an entry in his blog, Wohler’s Talk. It’s worth a read and you can find the entry here.