Another Option: 3D PDF Creation

[CEHill]

Does Autodesk DWF Viewer now provide a way to convert 3D DWF files to 3D PDF files?

If it does, I could not find it.
My manager stated an AutoCAD competitor's 3D PDF capabilities were impressive.

Any views or experiences are appreciated.

[RobertB]

Since Autodesk developed DWF to be better than PDF, why would they spend development dollars to write a convertor?

[williamjems]

Hi Clinton.Hill.

I made a 3D PDF yesterday for the first time (as a trial). What I really like about it is the fact that the 3D image sits on a document, rather than being the document.
If Autodesk could do that for DWF, it would be cool.
If 3D was a viewport render option in AutoCAD, that would be even better.
Thank you.

[Mlabell]

Not to start a war but a limitation I have noticed with 3D PDF is size and reliability. I have seen 1,000,000 SFT large buildings in dwf that are 10MB and you can cruise around the building with no issues. Refresh rate has awesome no lag between frames and zooming. I have seen the same building in 3D pdf at 5MB yes smaller, and way less BIM info may I add but the performance was terrible. It took 30 seconds to zoom in and out walking the building was impossible because it could not refresh the frames quick enough. There were no materials just general colors so it wasn't anything to graphics intensive. Not sure if it is a limitation of adobe, but they are years behind the game in 3D models viewing. Autodesk has been doing 3D dwf since ~2003 maybe earlier, where adobe jumped in the game ~2007.

[bulletproofdesign]

Okay....

We use 3D.pdf often due to market penetration of Adobe reader.

There are 2 main ways of getting 3D.dwf into 3D.pdf.
The first is to buy Deep Exploration, from Right Hemisphere which can open .dwf natively.
The second is to capture the 3D using Acrobat Professional Extended (required for pretty much all 3D.pdf creation) from either an older version of design review (doesn't work with 2010 or 2010 even if you change the render engine to OpenGL). Note, when capturing from Design Review, you need to be looking directly at the bottom of the model or your capture will be rotated. The best result I have managed (outside Deep Exploration) is to use Deep View (a free viewer from Right Hemisphere) which allows seamless capture by Acrobat Pro Extended.
Another method is to open a .dwf file with Acrobat Pro Extended, though it does not deal with railings well, and the z axis is often swapped with the y axis. This can be corrected with Adobe 3D reviewer (bundled with Acrobat Pro Extended) though is not so easy. When opening .dwf directly, the 'standard views' are also omitted making navigation difficult.

Pros;
* Everyone has Adobe Reader.
* Supports texture mapping, transparency, and lighting.
* Supports different render modes.
* Has exceptional javascript extendibility if you have programming skills

Cons;
* 3D.pdf is a large and cumbersome file format.
* Performance is sluggish even on a high spec. 3D workstation.
* Metadata is difficult to include without 3rd party software.
* Adobe have sacked all their 3D staff in May 2010 and will not be developing 3D capacity any further.

If I had my way, we would use .dwf for all 2D-3D output. This is not the case unfortunately.

[luke.s.johnson]

Right Hemisphere technology was incorporated into Acrobat 3D Version 8. You can open a 3D DWF and then save as PDF.

http://whatrevitwants.blogspot.com/2011/09/create-adobe-3d-pdf-directly-from.html