AcrhiCAD 10 - Acrobat 7 Pro - U3D

[Steve Jepson]

Does anyone know if ArchiCAD 10 going to have the ability to generate files we can use with the Acrobat like AutoCAD and Microstation already have?


http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/MicroStation/Interactive+3D+PDF.htm

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/pdfs/aec_sb.pdf

http://studio.adobe.com/us/tips/tip.jsp?p=1&id=101244&xml=acr7sd3dcontent

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/vector/a7_aec_swf.html

[Karl Ottenstein]

Nobody who knows is allowed to say anything about future products.

(One post in one forum is enough, maybe?)

Posting wishes is the best way to get a message to GS for future versions. 😉

Karl

[Steve Jepson]

If it is not in ArchiCAD 10 then it is perfectly ok to talk about it right?

Besides, this category is specifically for talking about other products. Considering that this is an ArchiCAD forum it seems only natural that we should talk about the other products in the context of how they relate to ArchiCAD.

It would be different if Universal 3D format and full PDF compatability were something the competition didn't already have available.

I think it is a very legitimate question to ask. They don't need to tell us when they plan to implement anything, just if they have any inclination to catch up to the competition in this area, or not.

Perhaps they feel that it is not important because we can already publish to .dwf to get the same thing, or that they are working on something better, or that a partner is trying to market a similar program already.

I posted this topic in the Developer category also because the relation of ArchiCAD to Acrobat is about both another product (Acrobat 7 Pro) and about developing an ArchiCAD add-on (or something) to help bridge the gap between the worlds best CAD software and the worlds best documents handler.

Wouldn't it be great if we could put .pdf's into our ArchiCAD plans?
How would you like to have that add-on ?

[Karl Ottenstein]

Of course it is OK to talk about the possibility, and I understand your enthusiasm for U3D.

My point is that (under normal circumstances) you will not get an answer until AC 10 is announced, and if you want to get the message to GS about how important you think this is - then you should make the point in one of the 'wish' forums, where people can add their votes. One of us asking for something never gets far - having the votes to back it up often results in something. 😉

We go through this with every AC release - people wanting to know if it will contain "x". The answer is always the same: nothing will be said until the product is ready to be released and/or GS decides it is time to begin marketing. (Or someone violates their nondisclosure agreement.) It is no different with any other company. Well, I take that back ... we all know of some companies that have announced their intentions long ahead of their delivery date (vapor-ware), only angering users because not only did the delivery date slip but also the promised features were not there.

Please do talk about it ...and sure, this thread in Other Products is a great place to talk about the technology of U3D. But, if you want it in AC 10 or beyond, make it a wish for others to vote on. 😉

It is pretty cool. (And, you know that you can embed QT VR's etc in a PDF also, right?)

Cheers,
Karl

[Steve Jepson]

no. I didn't know about he QT VR's. Wow.

[David Collins]

Steve wrote:
no. I didn't know about he QT VR's. Wow.

Me neither. Wow2.
How does this work? Can you have text in the document as well, so that what looks like a photo is really a VR? Scenes and linked panoramas or just VR objects? Would clients need some special advanced version of Acrobat to read these?
This would be like a document in a Harry Potter book....!

[Karl Ottenstein]

David wrote:
How does this work? Can you have text in the document as well, so that what looks like a photo is really a VR? Scenes and linked panoramas or just VR objects? Would clients need some special advanced version of Acrobat to read these?
This would be like a document in a Harry Potter book....!

Open the attached PDF ... and see the next message and screenshot, too.

Create your PDF document leaving placeholder rectangles of the desired size where you want your QuickTime content to be (VR's being the most compact of course, if jpeg compression - movies will increase file size accordingly).

In Acrobat Pro, Tools > Advanced Editing > Movie Tool (or use the button on the toolbar) and drag a rectangle on the page the size of the desired media viewport.

A dialog comes up. Browse to your MOV file. Check “Snap to content proportions” to avoid distortion and “Embed content in document” and click OK.

With the cursor inside the red, handled box, drag the box to the desired position. Shift-drag the handles if necessary to scale the viewport with proportions constrained. Press enter/return.

A dialog appears to let you choose when and how to play the media, as well as to give it a title, etc.

There is a sample on this page which was created in Word. I blocked out a box at the upper right using the Drawing palette tools to create a frame and then placed the VR as described above. The VR shown is generated from a Epix file in the Piranesi (Informatix) tutorials.

Obviously, you can have as much media as you want on a page. I’ve kept this one simple so that it is small for me to upload.

See next message / screenshot for Harry Potter...

Karl

[Karl Ottenstein]

Security settings in Reader 7 prevent the automatic playing of media in an "untrusted" document. Looks like a hassle to sign a document and become "trusted".

You'll probably get the dialog below when opening the PDF I just posted.

Just click the Play button.

You can navigate around the VR in the document by dragging as usual (when you see the bullseye cursor). But, for some reason, the other QT VR functionality is absent ... e.g., pressing Shift and Ctrl do not zoom in and out. Any ideas?

Karl

[Karl Ottenstein]

For true Harry Potter behavior - moving images as you open the document without the dialog in the last message, it seems you either need to do the signature/trust thing, or to disable QuickTime security for untrusted documents in the attached Preference screen.

I haven't heard of any security dangers from playing QT content...??

Karl

[David Collins]

Karl wrote:
The VR shown is generated from a Epix file in the Piranesi (Informatix) tutorials.

WOW! Welcome to Hogwarts!
First of all, apologies to Steve Jepson for hijacking his topic a little bit.
Many thanks to Karl for the tutorial! I have a major presentation of VR panoramas coming up and I was wondering how to do it. I can see an entire presentation with key plans and comments about what to look for in each VR. Lovely.

One question: your VR scene shows a full spherical view, you can look directly up in the air as well as directly down at your feet. QTVR in ArchiCAD seems to limit the vertical viewing angle. Am I missing a crucial trick in ArchiCAD or was the VR generated someplace else? Not in Piranesi, surely?

Thanks again
David