Adobe Solutions for Manufacturing

Reinventing Product Development

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:41:02 -0500

I have been working with a colleague and mentor, Mike Juras of Vertare Corporation, who has introduced me to the concept of Relational Product Creation. Relational Product Creation is grounded in Complexity Theory, and points to a whole new model of product development. The RPC concept is based upon a business operating framework that requires interoperability, a process framework that requires contextual collaboration and an open source infrastructure. I won’t attempt to fully describe Relational Product Creation in this brief article, but I will focus upon a couple of key elements: in context collaboration and interoperability.

Reducing Costs and Speeding Review Cycles

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:53:05 -0500

Like most successful innovators, Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC) has created created innovative and segment leading products through close collaboration between JVC and its hundreds of parts suppliers. JVC has realized substantial benefits, such as:

Reduced document exchange cycles from as long as 20 days to 1 day
Improved accuracy and timeliness of input from reviewers
Eliminated errors from manual data entry by automating data capture
Shortened product time to market with accelerated document exchange
Increased competitiveness of manufacturers

To learn about how JVC was able to achieve these improvements, continue reading below.

Tutorial - Using Flash as a 3D Material

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:21:58 -0500

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.

Adobe Founders to receive National Medal of Technology and Innovation

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:11:24 -0500

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."

Wohler's Associates discuss uses for 3D PDF

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:32:01 -0500

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.

Sample PDFs with Interactive 3D Content

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:36:04 -0500

The Adobe website has been undergoing lots and lots of revisions over the last few months and we're happy to report that one of the most requested resources is back: Sample 3D PDFs! You can find them here.

They are great way to see what's possible when you use Acrobat Pro Extended or LiveCycle to create PDFs with 3D content and of course, all you need is the free Adobe Reader to view and interact with the PDFs.

If you are interested in PDF Portfolios, you'll want to take at look at the Supplier Collaboration Sample. Anyone interested in seeing how 3D can be combined with interactive forms should take a look at the Work Instruction Samples like the Quality Control Checklist or the .Brake Assembly Checklist.

PDF-PRC and ISO 10303 (aka STEP)

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:14:32 -0500

Yesterday's announcement about PRC moving its way towards ISO certification generated a lot of excitement and some very good questions. Most notable were 1) Does the PRC format Adobe is releasing include the 'exact geometry' definition and 2) if so, does that inclusion of the exact geometry put PRC at odds with ISO 10303 (STEP)?

The short answers are 'yes' and 'not really'. Read on to get the details...

Toward Truly Open Standards

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:06:27 -0500

You may already be aware that PDF is indeed the ISO standard for engineering documentation. To learn more about ISO 32000-1 click here. Recently we received some exciting news about extending ISO certification to 3D content within the PDF format.

As you may know, PDF can extract 3D content from a wide variety of CAD and visualization formats for inclusion and interaction within a PDF container. The formats used internally to the PDF are U3D and PRC. Read on to learn more about PRC and how it is being embraced by the standards community.

Manufacturing jumpstarting the US Economy

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:02:31 -0500

Two articles caught my attention this morning that I thought were worth mentioning. The first one cites a report by the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia that shows manufacturing activity unexpectedly expanding in the Philly area for the first time in over a year. The second article focuses on how manufacturing is the unexpected bright spot in the US economy right now with encouraging signs in (surprise!) the automotive sector. While the signs are encouraging both articles cite substantial risks to a sustained uptick.

Very encouraging nonetheless...

Kubotek to License Adobe 3D Technology

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:03:36 -0500

Exciting news from one of our ISV partners, Kubotek, who announced today they are integrating Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended into their product line. OEM licensing and consulting services will be provided by Techsoft 3D, our reseller for the Acrobat SDK. The full press release can be found here.

Shared Reviews for Product Development Collaboration

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:15:00 -0500

How many of you have purchased CAD and visualization tools so downstream users, including external suppliers, can work with your designs? Have you had to purchase and deploy multiple solutions due to interoperability issues? How many of you have had to punch holes through your firewall to allow access to partners and suppliers. How many of you have had to limit design reviews and approval due to the cost and complexity of orchestrating collaborative activities? What do you do when 2D requirements and specifications need to accompany your designs? There is a better way. It’s is called a Shared Review. Let me show you how it works.

How to create 3D markups in 3D Reviewer?

Tue, 19 May 2009 17:01:59 -0500

There is a 3D markup creation tool in 3D Reviewer that sometimes can be quite useful and complementary to the 3D commenting tool available in Acrobat. In this article we will guide you through the basic steps to create and edit 3D markups then publish them to PDF.

How to create views in 3D Reviewer?

Mon, 18 May 2009 18:24:16 -0500

It is very easy to create custom views in 3D Reviewer using the 'Add Configuration' tool and publish them to PDF. The creation of views in 3D Reviewer offers more advanced features than what is available in Acrobat such as creating exploded views for instance. We will discuss in this article a few tips to remember when using the 'Add Configuration' tool and share with you a quick video showing the creation of different types of views and how to publish the result in PDF.

More 3D Reviewer Features

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:54:56 -0500

In this article, I will review some additional features of 3D Reviewer. I will address physical properties and compare features (not necessarily in that order). We will start today by opening a PDF I created some time ago. This PDF contains two versions of a design. These two CAD files were imported into 3D Reviewer and “merged” into a single model tree, so I can easily toggle between the two or display both if I want to. The file was then saved to PDF using techniques I outlined in previous articles. Click below to take a look at the designs and features I will be showing.

3D Reviewer – “A Moving Experience”

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:49:54 -0500

Acrobat Pro Extended is a very robust rich “product suite”. In addition to Acrobat, Pro Extended includes Livecycle Designer for forms design, Adobe Presenter for training and 3D reviewer, a robust 3D tool set. In this article, I will review some of the features of 3D Reviewer. I will address features such as moving parts and sub-assemblies (hence the title), configurations, call-outs and export. These will help you do more with 3D PDFs.

Click below to learn about these features.