SolidWorks 2006 compatibilty with Acrobat 3D

I've run the 30 day demo of Acrobat 3D and it looks great, but it doesn't support SolidWorks 2006! I know I can import 2006 files into it by capturing the data, but this isn't as good as directly dragging and dropping the model into Acrobat 3D. I want to purchase Acrobat 3D but am reluctant to do so until it fully supports SW 2006. Does anyone know when this might be?? I am also mindful that SW 2007 is just around the corner! perhaps Adobe are waiting to upgade to SW 2007?!?!? I've posted on other forums (Adobe/SolidWorks etc) but haven't been able to get an answer.

Hope someone out there can help because I really would like to get this software.

cheers

Jeff.

Hello jeffmaddin,

I'll see if we can dig up an answer for you from Adobe. Unless you know the answer already. If so, please share by replying to this post.

Thanks
3DCADTips Help Desk

Hi,
I have read an article this morning about the new SolidWorks 2007 which said that 2007 lets you save files in the new Adobe 3D format. So that sounds promising. I guess thats the problem solved?? The aritcle was brief with regard to Adobe and didn't go into any detail about functionalty. I'm not sure how much you can do to the model when you save it as Adobe 3D, or what you can do with it IN Adobe 3D if you'vbe saved it via SolidWorks 2007.
Any info you could find would be much appreciated.

cheers

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

I just wanted to make sure you were aware of our 3D PDF creation software. We are a SolidWorks Solution partner and we have supported SolidWorks directly since 2002. We support geometry, materials, textures, assembly tree, meta-data, explode steps and more from the SolidWorks files.

We just released a major version upgrade to our product line. We offer complete page design products that include integrated 3D tools. Entire multiple-page documents can be authored and then published to 3D PDF. You can download a 30 day trial here: http://www.document3d.com.

I found this after a lot of digging. For 2006 you have to use Capture versus Convert.

Supported File Types
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/329371.html

Capture Settings
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/332661.html

I use to work with SW and now Acrobat 3D and it's right the capture is slower with SW 2006 and 2007 while it's super fast with 2003. I don't know if this is because of Acrobat or SW - we didn't have the chance to compare 2003 and 2007 capture on A3D v8 - but my feeling is that SW 2007 is from far slower than 2003.

The PDF export from SW sounds strange to me; I couldn't have a confirmation.
Let us know if you have something new. I'll look forward to read news about it!

Thank you 3DCAD for your help !

Hello,
Yes you should use 3D capture, or upgrade to SW 2007 that has a PDF 3D export that works (I tested it on relatively large assemblies) but loses materials.