Adobe brings whole new meaning to manufacturing collaboration

Adobe Acrobat 3D is the electronic publishing giant’s first push into a vertical sector in its 22 year history – and looks set to do for collaboration more than almost anything since the concept of integrated ERP. The company, which early last year introduced Acrobat 7 – able to embed and work with multiple file types, and allowing comment and mark-up – has further developed its software for engineering companies and their supply chains to make PDFs the mechanism of choice for interaction everywhere. It’s a superset of Acrobat 7.0. We’re talking about starting with a 3D CAD model or finite element analysis – from any of the vendors – and hugely widening what can be done with it, without paying for a single extra seat of CAD or worrying about the complexity and specialisation of that environment. Instead, for around $1,000 you get the ability to save a rendition of a CAD file into a dynamic PDF – everything that is except the parametric data (although part structure and hierarchy are retained – tessellated to whatever resolution you need. Then you can send it to any of the billions of users with free Adobe Reader so they can see and interact with it. Think of it as an extension to digital mark-up for non-engineering designers. And instead of, say, 20Mb files, these are more like 1.5Mb – with added text etc. So marketing, managers, procurement, business development people – so called knowledge workers – but also production, indeed anyone, can instantly see a realistic model view with dynamically linked text relevant to them. They can also see animations, and the system lets them link to standard forms, like purchasing requisitions or training documents. They can manipulate the rendered model for clarity and understanding, and if we’re talking about the design cycle, they can also comment, mark-up etc, all in a secure environment that provides full version control. At the receiving end, the software tracks, audits and aggregates comments, with Office-like find, accept, reject features. Think of customers, suppliers, even the board viewing your proposals – concurrently, in a familiar environment and with easy understanding. Adobe’s message: it collapses development and learning cycles in a universal, comfortable, helpful and safe environment. Safe because, with the features already in Adobe Livecycle, document rights are controlled by sender even after it’s long gone, and that mechanism also covers version control and policy management. Adobe already has partnership arrangements with UGS, PTC, Autodesk and ???, and is currently in talks with Dassault around support.