The main issue with sharing CAD models is that there are various different formats that they are issued in. This is due to the competitive market of different CAD applications available for multi-discipline industries. It will benefit a company to have a favoured CAD system in order to reduce costs, reduce lead times and reduce errors during the digital stage.
The problem with CAD models is that they either require expensive software to be opened in or there is no universal solution to open the data in. The well-known .pdf extension is already a dominated document format and considered a standard format in which documents are exchanged in. Now the .pdf file format has extended its capabilities to allow for 3D models to be shared.
Known as a 3D PDF, it gives the end user the capability to download freely available software to view these 3D models. The problem now is to translate from native model formats to the new 3D PDF format.
Adobe Reader is one of the more readily available free to use 3D PDF viewers and it is much more than a viewer! The viewer itself has its own parts tree where assembly parts can be switched on/off. It allows the user to create sections, to create measures, change views and so much more!!!
Start using the 3D PDF format now!
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