Editor’s Pick: Low-Cost Application Creates 3D PDFs

By Anthony J. Lockwood

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

QuadriSpace just released a new low-cost application for translating your 3D CAD models into interactive 3D PDFs. It seems to do all that I would need to wow clients with a nifty interactive 3D PDF that they can fiddle withfor a cool $99 introductory price.

The skinny on Share3D PDF is that it’s an entry-level product that gets you into 3D publishing fast. But it’s not entry-level entry-level. It provides you the ability to take a 3D DWF, Inventor, Rhino, SketchUp, or SolidWorks file and convert it to a PDF that readers can pan, zoom, rotate with Adobe Reader 9 or higher. (An optional module is available for PTC Granite .asm and .prt file formats as well as ACIS, IGES, Parasolid, STEP, and VDA.) A cool part of it is that your model trees get translated, so the PDF receiver can click and interact with a 3D something in the tree.

Share3D PDF is also engineered to be easy to use and quick. The key way it accomplishes that is that it is template-driven, meaning that page designs are defined and your text, images, and 3D controls determined by your template. Share3D PDF comes with 50 templates—data sheets, engineering drawings, presentations, etc.—so you can get productivity out of the gate without hassling.

But you can fuss with your file from the get-go. Text, images, materials, and colors are customizable. You can add notes and animate exploded views. Share3D PDF’s preview function lets you view and interact with a document before publishing it to PDF. Since I tend to gild the lily, I may never finish a Share3D PDF.

You can read more about QuadriSpace’s Share3D PDF in today’s Pick of the Week write-up. A link at the end of the write-up takes you to a complimentary 15-day download, which was easy to install. I clicked the button to go to the “getting started” pages on the QuadriSpace website and downloaded the manual, which seems well done. (Hint: Demo models are available at “import model.”)

First impressions: The interface is very clean and straightforward. The help files came up and responded—always a good sign. Things worked as assumed. The Share3D PDF “getting started” page promises video tutorials soon, but you can watch an intro video from a link at the end of today’s write-up right now. After that, you can do the trial download.

Share3D PDF sounds—and feels—like a good one. The list price will be $199, so, with the hundred bucks off introductory price, now is a good time for a test drive. If you have to share your work, Share3D PDF might be the easy, fast, and reliable way to do it that you’ve hoped for.

Thanks, pal.—Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood
Editor at Large, Desktop Engineering

Read today’s Pick of the Week write-up.

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