Acrobat 3D (v 8)
By Keith Johnson (www.keithjohnson.net )

Adobe has three flavors of Acrobat 8; Standard, Professional, and Acrobat 3D. This review will focus on Acrobat 3D.

But first, what is Acrobat? Acrobat creates PDF files, okay you knew that much. A better way to describe it is telling you’re what it does. It allows your to create a secure file from different sources/programs. For example; it can take an Adobe program like InDesign or one of Microsoft Office programs and encapsulated into a secure form that can be password protected or digitally signed. You can create a PDF from a web page and even insert Flash video into the document and send it to a friend, business partner or customer and all they need an Acrobat reader to view the file. They in turn could write some comments/notes in the PDF and then send it back to you.

As the name implies you can now bring 3D CAD files including 3DS, 3DM, ASE, DXF, DGN, IGES, OBJ and VRML. It also works with 3D Studio Max, LightWave 3D, Rhinoceros 3D and Right Hemisphere to name just a few of the 3D programs.

Along with Adobe products you can also embed a 3D interaction into an Microsoft Office document (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) and when your done send it in an e-mail. All the viewer needs is Adobe Reader installed on their computer.

I was learning the program using Adobe’s classroom in a book for Acrobat 3D which I strongly suggest picking up to learn all you can do with the program. The book uses a CAD drawing of a jet engine to demonstrate what the program can do. You can control the 3D image with your mouse for a complete 360 view plus you also have the Z factor allowing you to zoom in and out. In this example I could view different areas/parts of the engine by clicking a checkbox in a file tree. Image if an auto parts store had this, bring up a view of the engine and by moving around and clicking visibility check boxes you would find just the part you need and the part number would be the name of the layer in the file tree.

As far as working with Acrobat and Flash you can either embed the .flv or to keep the file size down link to the flash movie. I have seen a brochure from a resort that came as a PDF with Flash videos embedded. To say the least, it was very cool. Acrobat is a powerful application, with some good old creativity, the possibilities are amazing.

It is a high end program, but if you have the need, it is very, very nice.