Adobe Systems has introduced Acrobat 3D - a product aimed at accelerating the process of designing and building products. The software allows manufacturing companies to author, edit and distribute documents that offer many of the same functions available in CAD programs. Acrobat 3D is built on the same technology as the company's existing Acrobat products and Breeze collaboration software.
Using Acrobat 3D, engineers can forward three dimensional images created in CAD programs that can be read by anyone with a current version of the freely available Acrobat reader, instead of necessitating a license to one of the expensive, specialized design programs.
By partnering with many of the CAD market's leading players, such as Autodesk Inc. and UGS Corp., said Adobe Product Manager Rak Bhalla, the software makes it seems as if someone viewing the files in Acrobat 3D is using the actual programs the files were built in.