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3D PDF

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hi everyone,
I'm trying to build up my first 3D pdf for client presentation.

I did an easy test exporting the 3d model of a simple wall as .u3d file, and then I placed it in my empty pdf page.

Then I tried to import the .u3d file of a building in design, but Acrobat crashed a few times. The size of the .u3d model I'm trying to import is 60-70 Mb.

Does anyone use 3D pdf on a regular basis? Is my file size too large?


Thanks!

Enrico
32 REPLIES 32
Reader works fine. This is the reason why the VBE is not very interesting to me.

ArchiCAD 25 7000 USA - Windows 10 Pro 64x - Dell 7720 64 GB 2400MHz ECC - Xeon E3 1535M v6 4.20GHz - (2) 1TB M.2 PCIe Class 50 SSD's - 17.3" UHD IPS (3840x2160) - Nvidia Quadro P5000 16GB GDDR5 - Maxwell Studio/Render 5.2.1.49- Multilight 2 - Adobe Acrobat Pro - ArchiCAD 6 -25

rob2218
Enthusiast
Amazing...absolutely amazing.

you can even change shades or rendering, the way it appears on the window...I wonder how "big" of a u3d file you can embed in there?

I noticed theres a bit of a "lag beach ball bouncing time" from the point which you say.."Click to initiate" until it actually initiates.
...Bobby Hollywood live from...
i>u
Edgewater, FL!
SOFTWARE VERSION:
Archicad 22, Archicad 23
Windows7 -OS, MAC Maverick OS
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Steve wrote:
Reader works fine. This is the reason why the VBE is not very interesting to me.
3D PDF cannot do what VBE does for illuminated, textured walkthroughs that let you walk up stairs and bounce off walls.

But, it is an amazing technology, with multiple saved views including section cuts. (The dynamic section cutting is much like SketchUp. Something VBE cannot do.)

Cheers,
Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 28 USA and earlier   •   macOS Sonoma 14.7.1, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
I don't want to get you too excited but are you interested in construction animations with Adobe ?

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

There might be something here to inspire you.
ftp://ftp2.bentley.com/dist/collateral/Web/Gallery/BDP_Proposal.pdf

check out page 8. It's 3d.

ArchiCAD 25 7000 USA - Windows 10 Pro 64x - Dell 7720 64 GB 2400MHz ECC - Xeon E3 1535M v6 4.20GHz - (2) 1TB M.2 PCIe Class 50 SSD's - 17.3" UHD IPS (3840x2160) - Nvidia Quadro P5000 16GB GDDR5 - Maxwell Studio/Render 5.2.1.49- Multilight 2 - Adobe Acrobat Pro - ArchiCAD 6 -25

rob2218
Enthusiast
I fell off my chair when I saw the helicopter sample...and that you can manipulate the 3d environment...AS..the helicopter and cars are still being animated...change shade rendered looks...on the fly...WOW!!!!!

but can we output this kinda of effects with Archicad???

GS....have you seen this??
...Bobby Hollywood live from...
i>u
Edgewater, FL!
SOFTWARE VERSION:
Archicad 22, Archicad 23
Windows7 -OS, MAC Maverick OS
Anonymous
Not applicable
Extremely interesting. I am one of the ones which looked into this 3d pdf years ago when it was pretty bad. Now it looks heaps better and worth a closer look.
From my first impression one of the drawbacks is the export file size of .u3d . Saying this after importing the file into PDF and save the file, the size did look fine. Further investigation is needed but I am looking forward to it as this is surely something clients are interested in. Glad the topic came back.
rob2218
Enthusiast
Here's what I don't understand.
How can the Bentely system make a 3.3MB (...yes that's only 3.3MB) animation (for Petes sake) file that is completely interactive?

You can manipulate the shading/rendered look of the model.
You can interactively decide how you want to see the "flyby" helicoptor.
You can stop the flyby...and let it continue.
There's animation all around you happening.
There's a large design with all it's context (granted boxes they may be but)...
There's the google earth background as a context site...

I mean...what do we need to do to have GS provide it's users with this kind of 3 dimensionality and only at 3.3MB file size?

I tried to save the house design I was working on....and embed it into a PDF file....it was a 69MB file...which I couldn't get it to load.

Any suggestions folks??
(and please don't say switch to Benteley cause that's not an option here).
...Bobby Hollywood live from...
i>u
Edgewater, FL!
SOFTWARE VERSION:
Archicad 22, Archicad 23
Windows7 -OS, MAC Maverick OS
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Here is an ArchicadWiki article on how to embed U3D into a PDF:

http://www.archicadwiki.com/U3D
One of the forum moderators
AC 28 USA and earlier   •   macOS Sonoma 14.7.1, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Mats_Knutsson
Advisor
rob2218 wrote:
Hey...do any of you guys know if Adobe Reader (the freeware tool) can view these 3d u3d embedded images or does the person HAVE to have the full blown Adobe Acrobat??

Please advise.

thanks.
I can't mount the .u3d with Reader 9.4 on mac. I have no 3D Tool. I guess it's Pro only.
AC 25 SWE Full

HP Zbook Fury 15,6 G8. 32 GB RAM. Nvidia RTX A3000.
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Mats_Knutsson wrote:
I can't mount the .u3d with Reader 9.4 on mac. I have no 3D Tool. I guess it's Pro only.
Correct - you can only embed the U3D into a PDF using Acrobat Pro. Once embedded, the 3D PDF can be viewed with Reader.

Cheers,
Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 28 USA and earlier   •   macOS Sonoma 14.7.1, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB