Tech Soft 3-D, a provider of software development tools and 3-D PDF solutions to the engineering industry, has announced Tetra 4-D Enrich, an application that enables anyone to create rich, interactive 3-D PDF documents quickly and easily directly inside of Adobe Acrobat (Professional).
"Manufacturers are constantly facing extreme pressures to lower product development costs, manage global supply chains, work with multiple suppliers and customers and speed time to market all while trying to make sure that critical data is getting into the right people's hands," said Dave Opsahl, VP Corporate Development of Tech Soft 3-D and former Executive Director of the 3-D PDF Consortium. "People often use more than one CAD system and manufacturers need the ability to easily and quickly combine the CAD data with critical metadata and business intelligence, add interactivity between the 3-D and 2-D data and share that in a lightweight format with anyone, even non-CAD users. This enables manufacturers to innovate and compete."
Model based enterprise (MBE) is a business strategy, a set of practices and technology with the goal to leverage the outcome of a model based design (MBD) activity by delivering all of the information relevant to a workflow or set of workflows in the most efficient way possible. That kind of information can and does exist in multiple forms, including non-graphic or metadata, 3-D models, 2-D data from CAD as well as other critical business systems like PLM and ERP. As important to what information is provided, is how it is delivered.
3-D PDF plays a crucial role in a company's ability to execute an effective MBE strategy, and this approach is already saving manufacturers significant time and money. "Using 3-D PDF to get these fully annotated, properly constrained models downstream in an efficient manner is ideal because companies already have strategies for utilizing 2-D PDF in their existing processes for managing engineering change and release-to-manufacturing (mark-up, comment, review) and can serve to reduce or even replace 2-D drawings," said a company spokesperson. In addition, a 3-D PDF can be archived long-term as a technical data package (TDP).
"The truth is that it is quite difficult to create compelling 3-D PDFs without a costly, customized solution or having programing expertise," said the spokesperson. "The average manufacturer typically cannot afford to do a custom, complex solution. And to build a 3-D PDF on the desktop requires someone that has extensive programming expertise - again, something that the average manufacturer typically does not have.
"And while there are more solutions coming to market that can generate 3-D PDFs, not all 3-D PDFs are created equal. The functionality of most 3-D PDF solutions stops at providing little more than 3-D data on a page. There is value there for communication and for workflows such as design review. However, there isn't the ability to support additional workflows such as maintenance and repair, inspection, work instructions, release to manufacturing or any other workflow."
Tetra 4-D Enrich is a solution that allows anyone to create data rich, interactive 3-D PDFs inside of Adobe Acrobat and without the need for development skills. Tetra 4-D Enrich consolidates all required product information in one document (CAD, metadata, external data like ERP or PLM attributes) to make it interactive. Users are able to create their own template, as well as utilize existing templates that are highly customizable. Once one of these templates are created they can be reused to create compelling documents such as work instructions, part catalogs, maintenance or repair documents and technical data packages.
The interactive 3-D PDF created with Tetra4-D Enrich functions more like an app that has all the data needed to support a workflow and allows the user to consume the data using the ubiquitous Acrobat Reader. The Tetra4-D Enrich interactive 3-D PDF app also enables the user and other stakeholders to review multiple steps in a process in one document, as opposed to reviewing dozens or hundreds of static individual pages of each item or step in a process. Data can also be captured in any business process, and forwarded for further processing by other applications.
Tetra4-D Enrich works with Tetra4-D Converter to convert CAD data from over two dozen formats into 3-D PDF files. Tetra4-D Converter is used by more than 10,000 customers including manufacturers such as Boeing, Proctor and Gamble, Honeywell, B/E Aerospace, Zodiac Aerospace and Goodyear Aerospace (now United Technologies).
"Today's engineering documentation requires specialized interpretation, leading to errors that cost real money," said Chad Jackson, analyst at Lifecycle Insights. "Confusion over CAD applications and formats and ensuring project stakeholders even have the right version of the engineering deliverable is an issue that persists. Being able to quickly and easily create 3-D documentation that contain all the data necessary for anyone, even non-CAD users, to provide feedback and make informed decisions will provide a tremendous savings in time and money, and enable stakeholders to focus on the most important aspects of a task."
For more information contact:
Tech Soft 3D
1567 SW Chandler Ave, Suite 100
Bend, OR 97702
541-383-4126
www.techsoft3d.net
www.tetra4d.com