Global Mapper v25.0

Export 3D view to PDF-embeddable U3D format?

pgeezer
pgeezer Global Mapper User
edited September 2011 in Suggestion Box
Hello,

Would like to be able to do embed 3D models into PDF documents. To do this, I would need to export the 3D view to U3D.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEuCA22Eq1s

What do you think?

Comments

  • global_mapper
    global_mapper Administrator
    edited March 2010
    Support for U3D PDF files is definitely something for the longer-term todo list. Our current PDF library does not support U3D.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Support
    support@globalmapper.com
  • pgeezer
    pgeezer Global Mapper User
    edited March 2010
    Support for U3D PDF files is definitely something for the longer-term todo list. Our current PDF library does not support U3D.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Support
    support@globalmapper.com

    Thanks for quick response Mike,

    I think I could build PDFs with Adobe Acrobat or LaTeX if Global Mapper exported just the .U3D models. It might make more sense to export the models without the PDF hassle anyway: let the user worry about embedding them, sizing them, etc in PDF.

    The libraries for U3D are here at Sourceforge:
    http://sourceforge.net/projects/u3d/

    Dry reading about specs here (not sure if it matters):
    http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-363.htm

    Edit: Acrobat says it "can create 3D PDFs but only from U3D ECMA 1 files". I figured out how to place the U3D file. Latex uses something called movie15 to embed the U3D. Again, I think the user should have to deal with the document embedding and layout.
  • global_mapper
    global_mapper Administrator
    edited March 2010
    Thanks for the links. I will add U3D support to our todo list. Once that is done then it should be relatively simple to put that in a PDF file.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Support
    support@globalmapper.com
  • pgeezer
    pgeezer Global Mapper User
    edited March 2010
    W00t! This will make my reports pretty spanky when it comes out! With Acrobat it's as simple as drawing a box on the page and picking the .U3D file to put in it.

    A PDF created in Latex:
    http://www.tug.org/texshowcase/Laurana.pdf
  • global_mapper
    global_mapper Administrator
    edited March 2010
    That is very cool. I hadn't seen the 3D support in a PDF yet, but it is very impressive.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Support
    support@globalmapper.com
  • Scotty
    Scotty Global Mapper User
    edited September 2011
    Just a thread bump and another vote to be able to embed 3D models into Adobe PDF documents. I hope it migrates up near the top portion of the to do list...