Revit to a 3D PDF

[kmarquis]

I'm playing around with exporting an IFC file from Revit of a 3D View to make a 3D pdf with Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended 9. It works great to show clients massing but it ends up being Solid Gray with no differentiation of materials. Does anyone know of a specific setting either on the export or import side to improve the graphics? I attached a quick screen shot of the pdf.

[Tobie]

Do not have any experience with 3D PDF, DWF not an option?

[kmarquis]

The nice thing about the 3D PDF is that you only need Adobe Reader to open the file. I like the option of being able to send a client who doesn't have any expensive design software to see the project in progress.

[Tobie]

DWF viewer is free and there is an iPad and iPhone app that works great. I do 3D, camera views, plans and elevations. I will have a look at PDF and let you know if anything works.

[rosskirby]

Also, you can open a dwf in Internet Explorer, and Firefox and Chrome both have extensions that will allow you to open a dwf.

[kmarquis]

I read this article on creating a 3D PDF in AUGIWorld.

http://www.augi.com/library/revit-to-pdf-an-interactive-model-viewer

[Wanderer]

DWF viewer is free and there is an iPad and iPhone app that works great. I do 3D, camera views, plans and elevations. I will have a look at PDF and let you know if anything works.oooooh, no, new programs are scaaaaary...

I do pdf distribution to anyone in my company who isn't in the engineering or construction departments... heck, even with those in these departments who have a viewer installed... they still try to open up every filetype in acrobat, I'd find it insane if so many people didn't insist upon doing it (which leads me to assume that I'm the crazy one).

[jsteinhauer]

One thing that is lacking in PDF's that is available in DWF's is call-out heads are still linked within your drawing set. You can double click on a elevation, section, call-out tag, and it will take you to the plot sheet where that view is located. Sadly, we still do most of our publications as pdf's. If anyone knows of a pdf plotter script that will maintain these internal hyperlinks, please let me know.

Thanks,
Jeff S.

[scowsert]

One thing that is lacking in PDF's that is available in DWF's is call-out heads are still linked within your drawing set. You can double click on a elevation, section, call-out tag, and it will take you to the plot sheet where that view is located. Sadly, we still do most of our publications as pdf's. If anyone knows of a pdf plotter script that will maintain these internal hyperlinks, please let me know.

Thanks,
Jeff S.

And... don't exist in a 3d view.

I'd go the dwf route. I tend to not trust adobe acrobat stuff. It seems like every week a new security vulnerability comes out targeting it. Reader isn't a standard piece of software.

If you insist on pdf. Just for kicks spit it out as a 3d dwf then print from there to a pdf? Does that work? I don't know but it 'may'.

[jim.merry437401]

I'm playing around with exporting an IFC file from Revit of a 3D View to make a 3D pdf with Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended 9. It works great to show clients massing but it ends up being Solid Gray with no differentiation of materials. Does anyone know of a specific setting either on the export or import side to improve the graphics? I attached a quick screen shot of the pdf.

Hi - Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended (APEX) was released in ~2008 and Adobe is no longer updating the 3D importers, or improving what was shipped. Tetra 4D (where I work) has taken over this work in partnership with Adobe and our 3D PDF Converter product includes a plug-in for Acrobat X Pro that adds to and updates support for the 3D formats that APEX supported. We will have updated support for the IFC format in our next release, but it will not include support for extraction of materials.

We are also working on a direct to 3D PDF exporter for Revit that installs as a Revit add-in. We have an early 'labs-version' available for testing and you can register for access here: http://www.tetra4d.com/tetra-4d-labs.html. This product does support colors and materials from Revit.

If anyone has ideas or suggestions about how to make 3D PDF better for AEC workflows, please let us know!

-Jim Merry
VP Products, Tetra 4D

[Alex Page]

Just tried your demo - downloaded and installed all that I was meant to, but within Revit the addin , when used, says it has expired....