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Adobe PDF Release for ISO Will Include PRC 3D

Posted on Monday, January 29, 2007 9:30 AM
[Editor's Note: As originally published, this article contained subtle errors regarding the timing and content of Adobe' releases, which are now corrected.]

Today's announcement that Adobe is releasing the PDF specification to standards bodies (as reported elsewhere) is not news in and of itself. Adobe has previously made its intentions clear that it would release the full Portable Document Format specification to AIIM, the Enterprise Content Management Association, for the purpose of publication by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). What is news is that the PDF 1.7 standard (based on Adobe Acrobat 8) will now be released, and that as soon as it becomes available, an update to PDF Specification 1.7 will include the newly added PRC intermediary format for 3D data.

The addition of the PRC format—which is compatible with a wide variety of proprietary 3D file types—will strengthen Adobe's bid to be the de facto standard for the digital storage, publishing, and archiving of engineering and design data.

Since the current status of the PDF 1.7 standard matches Acrobat 8, which does not yet contain all the power that it will once Acrobat 3D is released, Adobe intends to publish the addition PRC information separately, with the hope that the AIIM working committee will be able to incorporate the new information into their final release of the PDF standard.

Adobe acquired the PRC format as part of its purchase of 3D file translation expert TTF of France last year. It is Adobe's goal to see all of PDF Specification 1.7 become part of the PDF/E standard for engineering data storage in PDF. In  closely related news, last week Adobe announced a free upgrade for Acrobat 3D that gives users the ability to import a wide variety of proprietary file formats, mostly ones used for manufacturing. A full list of those formats is at the end of this article.

Since 1995 Adobe has participated in various working groups that develop technical specifications for publication by ISO and worked within the ISO process to deliver specialized subsets of PDF as standards for specific industries and functions. Today, PDF for Archive (PDF/A) and PDF for Exchange (PDF/X) are ISO standards, and PDF for Engineering (PDF/E) and PDF for Universal Access (PDF/UA) are proposed standards. Additionally, PDF for Healthcare (PDF/H) is an AIIM proposed Best Practice Guide. AIIM serves as the administrator for PDF/A, PDF/E, PDF/UA and PDF/H. 

Adobe will release the full PDF 1.7 specification as defined in the PDF Reference Manual available at www.adobe.com/devnet/pdf/pdf_reference.html to AIIM for the purpose of submission to ISO. The joint committee formed under AIIM will identify issues to be addressed, as well as proposed solutions, and will develop a draft document that will then be presented to a Joint Working Group of ISO for development and approval as an International Standard. AIIM holds the secretariat for the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committee (TC) 171 and 171 SC2 for Document Management Applications, and is the administrator for the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to ISO TC 171 that represents the U.S. at international meetings.

The free update to Adobe Acrobat 3D supports the following formats:

  • ACIS, up to version 13.0

  • Autodesk Inventor, up to 10

  • CATIA V4, up to 4.2.4

  • CATIA V5, up to R16

  • CGR

  • IGES, up to 5.3

  • JT, up to 8.0

  • Parasolid, up to 16.0

  • Pro/ENGINEER, up to Wildfire III

  • SolidWorks, up to 2006

  • STEP, AP 203, AP 214

  • STL

  • I-DEAS, up to 12.x

  • NX (Unigraphics), up to NX4

  • VRML, up to 2.0

  • XVL, P-XVL

The update requires that Acrobat 3D 7.0.8 or Acrobat 3D 7.0.7 Trial is installed. To determine which version of Acrobat 3D is in use, choose Help > About Acrobat 3D. The version number appears in the upper left corner below the Acrobat logo. Acrobat 3D requires Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2, Windows XP (Pro, Home, or Tablet), Internet Explorer 5.5, a minimum of 512MB RAM, 1GB available hard disk space, 1,024x768 screen resolution, a CD-ROM drive, a video card with pixel shader support and DirectX 8.1 required for video hardware acceleration (recommended for optimal performance), and an Internet connection.

  --RSN

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