The company demonstrates interactive IPA-generated 3-D documents at the SolidWorks World conference in Boston.
At theSolidWorks World conference here on Monday, Immersive
Design Inc. wooed the crowds
with interactive 3-D PDF documents created with its flagship product, IPA. The
interactive 3-D assembly procedures, service manuals and parts catalogs
showcased were produced using 3-D information from SolidWorks Corp. software.
Immersive Design CEO Gregory Smith said the company is still tweaking the
product and is working closely with Adobe Systems Inc. to fine-tune the
features, but he said he expects the product to be released within this quarter.
"This product is going to impact part catalogs, user guides and service
manuals, and long-term it can impact any business in helping them present their
content and graphics in a better form," Smith said.
"To give an example, if you have an automotive service manual, the user
can click on the text or the picture and a live 3-D model is activated. Or we
tie together the part number in the text with a live model, within the PDF form.
So the text might say, 'Put the cover half on the rotor,' and you click on that
text and the 3-D model then animates that procedure. It simplifies the entire
process for the user. You have to have Acrobat 7.0 to use it, but there are over
a half-billion copies of the reader out there."
Immersive Design sees PDF files as the ideal way to distribute the
interactive IPA-generated 3-D documentation, Smith said. For a demonstration, go
to immdesign.com/templates/jigsaw.pdf (PDF).
"We're the only company I think that's connecting the text within the PDF
and driving the live 3-D from the text," Smith said. The challenge of the
product is less on the technical side and more on the process side, he added.
"To us the technical part is easy; it's getting people to change the way they do
their processes [that's difficult]. For instance with publishers, or tech
publish groups, the idea of using a 3-D interactive documentation model is brand
new. It will be a slow process with hesitancy, but we know that with early
adopters the rest will follow to keep up with what the competition has to offer.
The ease of this is that it's all embedded within the PDF file--no new software
download is required for the user."
Smith said the product has a number of applications, including in the
medical field. "[We are] working with a number of medical companies for
troubleshooting guides. Any type of mechanical product in the future can be
applied to it. It works as well with text in articles for instance with
magazines, anywhere you can view the PDF this product will apply," he said.
Immersive will take advantage of Adobe's support for the Universal 3-D
format in Acrobat 7.0 and Adobe PDF, Smith said.
