Well had a look at this, it is for the professional, it is very rich in features, there are over 40 3d formats it can publish but at US$699 and 2.35GB of available hard-disk space, I think it's a bit heavy in price and space for the hobbiest.
I guess I'll have to convince the company I work for to buy it.

---------

"I guess I'll have to convince the company I work for to buy it."

That is what I did as well, the great thing about is the ability for all to access and it can also retain CAD accurate dimensions.

That is very cool. Do they make a 3D viewer that works in a browser? Would be nice to have that on a web site.

Ed

Update - I should have searched before asking. There is a browser plug-in. I found a site using it (Hit Play all steps):
http://www.xsive.co.nz/msn/Piston_Rod_Assembly.pdf

Nice find ed.

For communicating in 3d this is fantastic. Who needs a 2d assembly drawing anymore ?

Cheers

Seems you can make that with the free Google Sketchup ;)
And it's not only a viewer ;)
http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/download/gsu.html
If you don't want load the all prog, you can load only the Google Sketchup viewer ;)
http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/download/gsuviewer.html

Hi Pilou, the difference is that a huge number of people already have an Acrobat reader installed.

So for the basic case where you send a PDF file to someone, they don't have to install any kind of software because they have probably already installed the PDF viewer for reading other kinds of PDFs previously.

That's just easier for the receiving person.

- Michael

Sure
But it's just 10 second to install the viewer (Size 6 megas)
The defaut with the viewer is it can't read animations made with "external plugins" or with the Dynamic components :(
In this case full prog + plugins are necessary :)

Except that it can read normal animations :)

Pilou a lot of companies that are large enough to have the evil IT department usually do not allow much in the way of downloading viewers, but 99.9% of them have acrobat reader already.

The big advantage with the (free) version of SketchUp is in being able to dimension your MoI object.
Brian

That is one giant set of governor flyweights Brian. ;)

< Would be nice to have that on a web site
look at 3Dvia http://www.3dvia.com/users/pilou :)
with a TopMod model here


And My 3D model for the Moi contest :)
http://www.3dvia.com/Pilou/models/3D6C61330517293B


Filament is the French name of the "Helper" by Disney ;)

The main point I was trying to make is the file is saved into Acrobat PDF as a Solid &
file size is very small.

No intention to have a peeing match over who's viewer is better, cheaper or free-er.;)
I use PDF's with my clients and they have no intention/desire to install or learn a 3D program.

I also posted this because I'm finding that the files load into 3D Reviewer the same way
as Acrobat, as separate components (non-grouped faces) and was hoping that MoI ver.2 style
groupings can help to pre-group components for coloring/material before saving/export.

Hi danperk,

Have you tried *.stp export from MoI of an assembly, I think this will read in Acrobat as separate objects instead of surfaces.

Cheers

Hi danperk, I believe that it is going to work to have styles set in MoI translate out to PDFs.

But it depends on how they did things in that PDF generator.

My current plan is to export styles in MoI as layers in the 3DM file. If they pick up on layers then it should work.

- Michael

Thanks Danny, tried a step file and it worked perfectly! :)

I upgraded from Adobe Acrobat Pro which I purchased from another supplier,
had no problems installing or registering, might want to check them out:

http://store.purplus.net/adacpro9ex.html

Hi Michael,

That's good news, I haven't had any luck converting 3dm files yet, not in the import list,
but I did find this in the Acrobat directory:



Will have to do more research.

BTW Brian, Reader has the ability to dimension models.

Hi danperk, I thought that Acrobat supported 3DM files directly...

I see now in your original message you mentioned IGES format. There is a concept of a "level" in IGES which is like a layer. I'm not sure yet if the software library that I'm using for IGES is set up to associate a color with a level instead of an object though.

Maybe 3DM is something that you have to enable. If you can enable it that will probably be the way to go.

- Michael

Thanks for the link danperk, it's the cheapest so far :)

Yes Michael, I know styles will work as layers and I know it will work seamlessly, we're waiting dude............we're waiting.

Cheers

It'll also cook your breakfast and do your taxes!

Maybe in v30 ... ;)

- Michael

The attached is to make Grendell (well?) happier!

danpark
That the Acrobat reader can dimension?---I will be busy for a while!

Brian

The animation of the different Piston's pieces above are made inside Acrobat or in another prog?