Now, our friendly neighborhood Acrobat reader can have movable, scaleable, and textured models in PDF format.This way you can send your client, who has the free Acrobat reader, a 3D model they can tumble and even write comments on and send back to you for revisions. They can even change the textures of the object, slice it, and lower the geometry count and much more. I know you're thinking, “Wow, that’s awesome, but there has to be a catch!” Well, there is.

Unfortunately this Acrobat 3D program was only designed with engineers and manufacturing companies in mind. The reader likes only certain file types commonly associated with AutoCAD, BIM, Revit, SketchUP, and Autodesk’s ADT. Despite that, the package is powerful for viewing 3D content in PDF form. It now has multiple display modes, the amazing ability to create cross sections in models and it even has a model tree that allows you to view different parts of the model and manipulate them to your desire. Adobe threw in a neat and functional “Toolkit” that that allows the 3D content in the PDF to be enhanced by lighting, textures, materials, and can even create animations. If you need to insert the models into text applications, such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, you can. Just like in the 2D part of acrobat the 3D files are compacted so that file size shouldn’t be too much of an issue. The only really crippling thing is that the reader is really picky when it comes to file types. It supports 3DS, DXF, MAX, DGN, IGES, 3DM, VRML, and OBJ. If you can save out to these formats it’s a simple drag and drop into Acrobat. If not, you have to save it to one of those files somehow. If you can’t save down you can try the screen capture function using OpenGL to import it into Acrobat, but this comes with its limitations. First of all, it only works with most AEC applications such as AutoCAD, Autodesk ADT, Revit, form-Z, and the like. While it allows tumbling, it is extremely limited and there is not much you or your client can do with it.

If you are one of the lucky ones that can get your 3D into acrobat, the sky is pretty much the limit. Your 3D content can now be panned, rotated, and zoomed. In addition to that, you can change and save views and the background color, or you can adjust the lighting. You can show and hide geometry, and you can also isolateand select elements on the same model. There is a model tree option that will let you see the model broken up into its various parts. This comes in very handy for manufacturers showing the latest car engine and how it works with parts flying out in all directions. Your client can even turn off and on the visibility of those engine parts so they can focus on one specific thing at a time. You may also choose to see the model in solid, transparent, shaded illustration, and wire frame. If you are really into the “whole”, lets cut the engine apart and see what’s in it, you can do that in acrobat.

Another great new feature is the ability for your client to put comments and markup reviews right on the model in several different saved views. So, if you have a model that you forgot to put a toilet into a bathroom of a house, all your client has to do is type in “put toilet in bathroom” with an arrow and save it to that view. It’s that easy for them to revise and critique your work. If they really want to monkey with things they (or you) can go into the acrobat file and make changes to the actual model. We’re not talking geometry changes here, but changes like making the textures and shading materials different on the model. They can also play around with lighting and so on, without even touching the 3D software. Lets say your client wants to print out a view and put it in a pamphlet, well, Acrobat will save out high quality 2D images for just that purpose. If you really don’t want your client messing around with the model too much you can use JavaScript to limit what they can do, and more importantly what they can see.

The good thing for your client is that they can see the PDF without buying the Acrobat 3D. The bad thing for you is, get ready to shell out $995 for the software to put it together in. All-in-all this program was designed for the manufacturing community, and windows users. Yes, as of now it is not for the Mac. There is no difference between Acrobat 7.0 and Acrobat 3D (besides the 3D part of course) so if you aren’t into the architectural and manufacturing side of things it’s not really worth the price tag.