Communicate in 3D

Doug Halliday has a nice write up on how to better extend your 3D CAD assets outside of engineering and integrate the product development process across the extended enterprise using Acrobat 3D.

While there is definite overlap between Acrobat 3D and other CAD viewers (ie. the ability to distribute 3D geometry and 2D drawings with a no cost viewer), where Acrobat 3D is totally unique is the ability to combine all relevant project information from spreadsheets to proposals to 2D/3D geometry into one unified and archivable document. Doug’s write up goes through a simple how to scenario that makes this clear.

Author: Josh Mings from Solidsmack.com

Everything you do in engineering a product is part of a workflow. This is the case whether you have a finely tuned system of processes or a desktop and file cabinet spewing forth sheets of documents. They both (eventually) get information from one point to the other. “Eventually” is what we want to work on. One product in particular can save you time and improve how you communicate along the winding road that is the Engineering process.

The Power of a Model
In the world of 3D CAD we have a unique method of communicating our design that is seldom used. Our model. We’ll make views in a drawing and add screenshots to an email when there’s an issue to resolve. Eventually (there’s that word again) our ideas are communicated and our questions are answered.

The methods to get the answers and complete a project are typically set for how change has been communicated in the past. It’s not very smooth and we want to change that with a quickness. Here’s how to do it by adding Acrobat 3D to your workflow.

The Workflow
Typically, an Engineering process may look like the following:

• Review relevant design information
• Outline the proposed entire assembly structure
• Resolve preliminary design issues
• Create assembly, sub-assemblies, and details
• Resolve modeling construction issues
• Create preliminary drawings
• Perform preliminary model review
• Submit to check
• Refine model
• Submit for review

This may be more or less complicated than what you have, but the general idea is there. It’s a process that seems to follow piece-meal approach to engineering with little collaboration. What we want to do is refine the above and get review up front. A 3D PDF makes this easy. Here’s the new workflow.

• Outline the rough assembly structure
• Create preliminary model from design information
• Create 3D PDF and send to design, check and review
• Incorporate feedback from PDF
• Create preliminary drawings
• Submit for review

The Benefits
A lot of the detail and items that slow down progress on design can be eliminated by creating the 3D PDF up front and making it a key component of the review cycle. You don’t have to completely restructure your system either. Try adding it at different places to see what works best. In the end you find a much smoother process. Here are the benefits you’ll see in a nice short list.

1. Allows design review up front
   You’re moving ahead on the modeling and ahead on creating PDFs, instead of waiting till the end and using them to capture document revisions.
2. Allows reviewer to add comments and mark-ups to the design
   The reviewer are getting an electronic document that has mark-up and commenting capabilities. While it takes a little getting use to, it becomes much easier than printing out a bunch of paper you have to scan and email back. Show people how to use it to make it easy for them.
3. Adds a record of the design iterations you may go through
   Since it’s up front in the design, you’re capturing the changes you’re going through. It can be created at any point of the design so you don’t have to wait till drawing view are created or mess with copying and pasting screenshots.
4. It’s a real model
   It can be measured, rotated and exported. You can control what’s allowed, but if you working with a company that needs a concept, you can send a small file they can view and use in their models.
5. Supplies useful data when design is complete
   Instead of going back and forth to create special views for technical publications, brochures etc., you can send this to the right people and they can create the views and sections they need. And of course you will have a nice archive of your model in 3D PDFs right up to the end.

Written by Josh Mings
www.solidsmack.com

Doug Halliday has posted a blog entry on the transformation happening in the Manufacturing industry of conveying “design intent” using 3D-only processes.

3D intent information goes by a number of names : “Functional Tolerance and Annotation” (FT&A), “Geometric Dimension and Tolerance” (GD&T) and “Product Manufacturing Information” (PMI) .

But regardless of the abbreviation, the basic concept is to define multiple views of a 3D CAD model that attaches feature dimensions and tolerance specifications to specific part of the product geometry. This information can be used by a manufacturer for costing, inspection and conformance validation.

Doug points out that this kind of manufacturing specific information is typically problematic to extract from most CAD systems with proprietary formats. (i.e. PLM vendors generally are not too eager to give easy access as this undermines their ability to leverage their format as a tool to sell the post-CAD downstream applications to their CAD customers.)

Acrobat 3D Version 8 does includes the ability to extract PMI information from the main high-end CAD systems. So Doug proposes that this poises Acrobat 3D to be the defacto tool to move to a 3D-only communication workflow across the supply chain.

One of the most compelling new features in Acrobat 3D 8 is the portable PRC format. This is the magic that allows for large assemblies, high compression that stores exact geometry, and the tolerances necessary for export to STEP or IGES for manufacturing. Specifically it enables:

• assemblies and parts
• tree of 3D entities : coordinate systems, wireframe, surfaces and solids,
• exact geometry representation
• tessellated (triangulated) representation
• markup
• regular compression : enables to represent DIRECTLY CAD data without loss or transformation from the originating CAD system.
• high compression : enables to store very small files, which are at a given physical tolerance from the originating shape. Tolerance is typically 0.001 mm for exact geometry and 0.01 mm for tessellation.

Adobe has released the PRC specification in the Acrobat 3D Developer Center

This means that developers can start building Acrobat 3D 8 plug-ins to manipulate PRC files or CAD and 3D Modeling developers can create applications that read and write PRC format files and Acrobat 3D 8-compatible PDFs.

Believe It Or Not! Engineer converts 347 MB SolidWorks Assembly into 2MB PDF and can use the resulting PDF to machine the parts

If I told you that I could take an ordinary 49 MB Photoshop file and compress it down to 125 KB without data loss, ready to create 4 color print separations, you would probably find it a bit hard to believe (must be a trick file).

Similarly hard to believe: Take a 49 MB Solidworks assembly file and convert it down to 125 KB fully interactive PDF, with a precision level that can be used to machine the parts. Sounds like the kind of thing you would read in Ripley’s Believe it or Not!

Well while the Photoshop scenario might be wishful thinking, the CAD to PDF scenario is reality. Check out the 3D samples gallery for Acrobat 3D 8 files (they have the little 3D 8 tag). Several of the files show the original CAD file size along with the lossless compression factor. Note: you will need to download the Acrobat 3D 8 trial to view these models as they use they new PRC format.

With Acrobat 3D 8 and its support for PRC, you can have bigger, smarter, but smaller models with accuracy tolerances sufficient for manufacturing or iterative editing.

Tuesday May 29, 2007 is the official release of Acrobat 3D Version 8. This is the first time that people who weren’t involved in the beta program can actually try out the product and test the compressions levels.

Regardless of your field of interest - CAD, 3D modeling, Architecture, Industrial Design, CFD - the ability to convert your 3D files into email-size friendly interactive 3D PDFs, without having to sacrifice precision, is truly exciting.

My strong advice: Take the trial version out for the 30 day test drive. For simple previews and animations, try creating U3D models. For precision, import as PRC. And if you create a 3D PDF model that you would like to share in the Gallery, be sure to send us an email (acrobat3d[-at-]acrobatusers[-dot-]com)

Also if you would like to write about your experience using the new Acrobat 3D 8 in real world production (fun or professional), let us know.

The time is nearing when we can expect the release of Acrobat 3D 8 and I’m getting excited. Acrobat 8 Professional offers some great new features, but my interest is CAD and 3D, and Acrobat 3D v8 promises to delivers some gangbuster enhancements that will entail a giant step for the industry.

Everyone will have their own favorite feature, but to me one of the most interesting and significant change will be the inclusion of the high compression, geometry-preserving, high performance CAD format - PRC.

PRC (acquired in the purchase of the 3D file translation company TTF) will be supported in the 1.7 PDF format and will completely change Acrobat 3D in terms of performance & manipulation, format support, files sizes, editing and use in manufacturing. (Note: full details about PRC integration have not been released yet by Adobe. What I am writing about is based on the information I could find out there on the web - but that is enough to get me salivating. Hopefully nothing is too far off the mark.)

So what will PRC bring?:

Superior File Size Compression:
PRC will dramatically shrink file sizes (up to 100x smaller than the original CAD file). PRC compresses both geometrical and tessellated parts, so you can get great compression without any loss of data.
I have no idea how it actually achieves this, but the result is that you can:

• Compress files in seconds.
• Easily transfer light files through Internet, even low bandwidth. (Which means real time collaboration is fully possible.)
• Access compressed files fast

Enhanced Performance
Details are sketchy on this part, but everything I’ve read says that PRC performance, manipulation and display (refresh, frame rate, memory management etc..) is very strong.

Enhanced Format Support:
TTF was made famous from its translation technology libraries for CAD, CAE (computer-aided engineering), CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) and MVP (mock-up, visualization and 3D publishing) . So while there might be a dearth of U3D translators out there, translation to the PRC format will be enabled from all the major CAD-related and 3D formats. (these same libraries are actually used in many current market leading CAD/3D products).
Note 1: Adobe recently released an update to Acrobat 3D v7 which includes a bunch of new and enhanced import formats
Note 2: Acrobat 3D 8 will continue to support the U3D format, and its compression will be improved (files reportedly up to 3x smaller than produced by the current version).

PMI Data Support:
PRC can import and display Product Manufacturing Information (dimensions, tolerances, notes, etc). (See earlier blog why this is important)

Now all of the above-mentioned good stuff is just for starters.

High compression, enhanced performance, better format support and PMI are very compelling. But Acrobat 3D v8 PRC support has a few more tricks up its sleeve that will make it a strategic format for any CAD or modeling company and the future standard format for CAD collaboration.

PRC handles exact geometries and can be used for manufacturing including STEP export
With a PRC model and permissions enabled, a user is able to manipulate, make accurate cross sections, export to other CAD systems, investigate the features, look at the history tree, and extract the design intent because PRC objects are exactly the same as they are in their native environment.

This exactness means that the data in the 3D model can actually be used directly in manufacturing. So 3D PDF is not just for markup (although it it great for that). It is also a format for production.

With Acrobat 3D 8, data from PDF files can be exported in STEP, IGES and Parasolid formats for use directly in CAM and CAE applications. The same file for review and comments, or use in marketing, can also be used for actual production.
Export to STEP also brings 3D PDF to a host of existing engineering and manufacturing applications.

3D PDF using PRC opens the door to “enhanced” sharing - more than just viewing
Right now there are several standards in the CAD industry for sharing design data: eDrawings, AutoCAD DWF, JT, 3DXML and of course, Acrobat 3D PDF. But these are all intended for a “look but don’t touch” form of sharing. You can share the model for review, markup and commenting, but the format is not for editing. This works well when all you need is comments. But what do you do when you want to share a document with someone with the authority to make changes but they aren’t at a computer with one of the very expensive copies of your CAD software. They are limited to red-lining.

But with Acrobat 3D v8 you are exporting the actual design data (remember the exact geometries mentioned above that enable 3D PDF to be used for manufacturing). If a user publishes the 3D PDF and turns on the ability to export data, that 3D PDF is not simply a model for review and markup, but an actual editable model. Collaborators should be able to edit the model data in Acrobat 3D Toolkit or their own low cost CAD software, and return it back to the original 3D CAD software in a fully iterative design process. A little unusual to think of Adobe as a revolutionary company - but this is pretty revolutionary stuff.

As I noted above, all of this is based on the public information out there about the PRC format. I expect Adobe will have a few interesting tricks up its sleeve when Acrobat 3D v8 is actually released, that will make PRC even more interesting. For now, I just want in on the beta program!

One often overlooked use for Acrobat 3D is to create Virtual Training Manuals. Acrobat 3D-based virtual training enables manufacturing companies to combine their existing 3D CAD and PLM data with their operating and procedural manuals to produce interactive 3D simulations (Virtual Manuals).

We have a few examples in the gallery (e.g. how to assemble a wheel brake). But I think the potential for using existing CAD data to create virtual training manuals is enormous.

Acrobat 3D Toolkit lets you create basic exploded views and animations. These can be scripted to be controlled by Javascripts and text or graphic buttons in Acrobat 3D or Acrobat Professional. So you can create interactive demonstrations of how to assemble/disassemble a product,or how to perform basic maintenance on a products, etc. And of course because you are using PDF, you can combine the 3D simulations with complete text instructions and even the schematics or traditional maintenance manuals. As PDF they can be distributed on CD or over the web.

Just what can you do with virtual manuals and why would a manufacturing company be interested? Let’s explore several ideas:

• Repurposing 3D CAD data for interactive training manuals means customers receive improved support and documentation If someone can learn how to assemble, clean, or adjust a product without having to place a phone call to tech support, then you have achieved a significant operating cost savings. Customer self sufficiency reduces the need for direct support. Paper manuals help, but they can’t be rotated or manipulated so that the user can see what is going on from their own viewpoint.
• A maintenance operator can use an Acrobat 3D interactive document to repeatedly go through the steps to perform tasks in simulated environment prior to manipulating real equipment. A 3D simulation (assembling, repair, maintenance, etc.) can easily explain technical instructions that are difficult to articulate in words. For example, a task described as “carefully insert” may actually translate to a sequence of movements that insert an ink cartridge into a small opening and requiring a small tilt at the end. A 3D PDF virtual training manual can show these steps that would otherwise be difficult to explain in words.
• Animated 3D PDFs that show assembly or disassembly are easy to create! You use the CAD data you already own. You create basic animations using keyframes in Acrobat 3D Toolkit, you can add buttons and Javascript control in Acrobat 3D. Try doing this with any other 3D authoring system and then combining it all together in a document that can be read on any platform.
• 3D PDF Virtual Training Manuals can be delivered on-demand to the workplace anywhere in the world via the internet. While this is also true of text PDFs, text manuals have to be translated and available in the specific language of the receiver (i.e. Japanese, French, English, Korean). 3D PDFs on the other hand, have the advantage of being visual and thus understandable any where is the world.

With training being an enormous cost center in a company, 3D PDF Virtual Training Manuals can go a long way to improving the bottom line.

If you’ve looked at Acrobat 3D at all, you know it is unbelivably cool. But how do you learn how to use it? It is definitely a sophisticated product for the professional CAD and Industrial Design user.

We have a bunch of tutorials posted on the Acrobat 3D Users site which can help.

Recently however, three new Flash tutorials have appeared which go a long way to getting you going. The tutorials cover the basics of the interface and creating technical illustrations, how to optimize CAD files, and importantly, the basics for animation for virtual training.

Normally I don’t have the patience to set through Adobe tutorials - too much marketing trying to convince me about the business proposition. But these three tutorials are focused and are actually content rich.

Check them out:

1. How to access the many features available in the Acrobat 3D Toolkit and set up the right environment to simulate your technical illustration process
2. How to optimize CAD file imports for maximum performance, use polygon reduction, and edit and create materials.
3. How to create exploded views or keyframe-based animations for assembly and disassembly instructions

Combine this with the Acrobat 3D 30-day trial, and 3D PDF becomes very accessible.

With the ubiquity of 3D CAD and industrial design software, it is the rule rather than the exception that new products are designed and validated in 3D and then only later converted to a 2D blueprint.

Besides simply being more intuitive, 3D makes it possible to quickly and easily perform stress analysis, check interference and tolerances, perform motion simulations, and even tool path generation for milling.

A blueprint is generally still required thought as a simple and inexpensive way to mass distribute dimensions and design tolerance to everyone in the manufacturing chain. It is also considered the “long-term data storage” format required so that a product can be manufactured over the course of the product life cycle. This blueprint remains valid even if the company that makes the 3D CAD software goes out of business. You can always read the blueprint even if you can no longer read the 3D model!

However when the design originates in 3D, a blueprint as the sole or even primary means of communication seems kind of weak. First, software or humans need to convert the 3D to 2D blueprints. This is not a trivial task, and can certainly be the source of manufacturing errors. More importantly, the design intent is often lost. A flat 2D representation gives little clue as to how a 3D product actually works or moves.

It goes without saying that Acrobat 3D can come to the rescue of the 2D Blueprint.

1. You can annotate tolerance information needed to manufacture the model, directly on the 3D model. So with Acrobat 3D, your dimension and tolerance information can be built right into the 3D model itself (see this example”)
2. PDF is a long term format that will last long beyond any individual CAD software company. So it has the longevity just like a blueprint (just how long are DVDs now supposed to last?)
3. You can include the blueprint (the 2D representation) in the same PDF along with the 3D model. So you don’t actually have to abandon the blueprint. You can just make sure that the 3D intent information accompanies the blueprint.
4. Unlike a hardcopy blueprint, using Acrobat 3D, you can comment and query directly on the 3D model - in other words, anyone in the manufacturing chain can be enabled to give feedback and obtain clarifications, BEFORE a model actually goes into production
5. Blueprints are difficult to understand! They require taking 2D information and in your head, manipulating it into a 3D representation. With annotated CAD models in Acrobat 3D, that “internal” 3D visualization step is now external. Anyone can understand the 3D model and see the critical annotations without actually having impressive mental 3D abilities
6. For manufacturing purposes you can export your 3D model in the vendor neutral STEP format and attach this to the PDF (not really a blueprint issue - but one that companies need to consider - always save your data in a format that can live beyond your software vendor.) Also note: STEP export will be included in Acrobat 3D 8.

Obviously the blueprint has not outlived its useful. But a blueprint is just a vehicle for communication. Acrobat 3D is also essentially just a vehicle for communication and collaboration. It can take the best features from a blueprint and make them more accessible and more understandable, all at lower costs and faster.