Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

Is it possible to create a 3D PDF from Inventor 2012? Or is there a third party software that is needed to do this?

[#2]

Possible..yes with Adobe Acrobat.

Easy.. No not really. Its a pain in the arse. Tons of posts/information about this.

[#3]

We use Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended to take a IV model, export it to ".stp" file, then create the 3D PDF using Acrobat. This sucks for more reasons than just the extra export step in the process. The version of Acrobat Pro Extended we use is 9.4.2. We received an email from Adobe when version X was released that simply stated the 3D PDF creation functionality has been removed from all versions of Adobe Acrobat from version X on (we haven't verified this). The email stated that there are several programs out there that do this and they aren't going to worry about it anymore. They even pointed us to a location where we could get a discounted version of one of them. So, we haven't upgraded our Acrobat because we need the 3D PDF creation and we don't have the desire to purchase another application.

Hope this helps.

[#4]

Wow.  Between their Grand Canyon-sized secruity holes and their cavalier attitude towards their customers, Adobe is like an unstoppable zombie built out of suck.

[#5]

You might look at Inventor Viewer, which is free and DWF which is easly exported out of Inventor.

Adobe & Autodesk, don't play well together or like each other.

[#6]

yep ^^ I'm still using my Adobe Acrobat 3d Version 8. It was actually really cool for about 3 months when you could  open an iam/ipt file directly in Acrobat. The process was super easy. Then the new version of Inventor came out and Adobe wouldn't have a patch for 9 months.. So for 9 months it was a pain. Then Adobe finally released the Inventor patch and for 3 months it worked again... Then the new version of Inventor was out..and on..and on.  Then Adobe had an OpenGL capture that worked really nice... Then Inventor ditched OpenGL in favor of directx.. And down we go..

We said screw it.. And just moved to nice rendered images. Now ray traced images which really saves time as I don't need to wait for Studio to chug along.

[#7]

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mcgyvr wrote:

We said screw it.. And just moved to nice rendered images.

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I saw one of your images in post a while ago and was completely in awe of how fantastic it looked. We should be upgrading to 2012 here soon (always wait until the next release is announced) and I hope I can make images that look as good as yours easily.

I wish we could get our clients to use DWF's instead. I attempted to get one of my contacts to learn it and he said the measuring tools were so frustrating in Design Review that he gave up on it. Same old reasons, same old argument (IT, ease of use, another application, more training, blah, blah, blah).

[#8]

Tetra 4D's 3D PDF Converter + Acrobat Pro X will enable you to convert your Autodesk Inventor parts and assemblies to 3D PDF so anyone with the free Adobe Reader can view and interact with your models.

As noted in your post, Adobe no longer directly supports 3D Conversion of CAD data directly in an Acrobat product like they did with Acrobat 3D (v7 and v8) and Acrobat Pro Extended v9. Instead they decided to spin the group responsible for that technology out and Tetra 4D was formed by Adobe employees who were working on 3D PDF at the time. Tetra 4D provides a plug-in for Acrobat X Pro that is essentially the same technology built by the same group that worked on the 3D technology for  Acrobat Pro Extend and Acrobat 3D.  Since spinning out of Adobe, much work has been done to update the various CAD importers and as of now, they are all current, e.g., the product supports Inventor 2012.

The product also supports export to several neutral formats including STEP, IGES, Parasolid, STL and PRC so you can use it as a translator as well for publishing to 3D PDF.

[#9]

I have tried Tetra 4D. Pros:

• Opens Inventor 2012 ipt/iam files.

• Material styles correctly read in (including transparent materials).

Cons:

• Expensive

• Does not recognize LoDs so all parts in assemblies are rendered.

• Did not generate 3D models for all parts in the assembly even though these parts would render if placed in a new assembly. I worked with our VAR to find solution but they gave up without finding one.

I also tried Share3D from QuadriSpace. Pros:

• Opens Inventor 2012 ipt/iam files.

• Material styles correctly read in (including transparent materials).

• Less Expensive

Cons:

• Does not recognize LoDs so all parts in assemblies are rendered.

After trying out both products we ended up going with Share3D. You should be able to get a trial software (~30 day period) for either.

- Jonathan

[#10]

for both Tetra 4D and Share3D, do you also have to buy and have installed the full version of Adobe?