3D interactivity from imported 3D PDF

[ReneSteph]

Hi All,

I'm running FM 12.0.3.424 (TCS5) in Win7-SP1. We use SolidWorks for CAD drawings, and I have been inserting U3D drawings in my FM files to output in PDFs with 3D interactivity. However, SolidWorks 2015 no longer provides U3D output, and to my knowledge this is the only import that FM supports for interactivity. I can get a 3D PDF from SolidWorks, but how do I get the drawing OUT of the PDF as a U3D, so that I can import it to FM? Is it possible...?

Thanks,

Rene

[Arnis Gubins]

AFAIK, the Tetra4D 3D PDF COnverter Suite can convert from Solidworks to U3D. See: 3D PDF Converter Suite

You can also manually extract a U3D file from a PDF using the following steps.

1. Download and install the freebie PDFtk tool from: PDFtk - The PDF Toolkit

2. Use the command line server version to uncompress the PDF, e.g.

pdftk input.pdf output input_unc.pdf uncompress

3. Use a text editor on the uncompressed pdf (e.g. the input_unc.pdf) to find the beginning of the U3D annotation block. It should look something like this:

The /Subtype /U3D is what you're looking for.

4. A few lines down there is a control word "stream" that signifies the beginning of the U3D file.

5. Select the contents starting with the "U3D" immediately after the "stream".

6. End the selection just before the "endstream" keyword after all the binary stuff, e.g.

It may be a very big chunk.

7. Now copy & paste this to a new file and save with ".u3d" file extension. Note: some text editors may convert binary null characters (00) to space characters (20), which could cause problems with this step, so your mileage may vary depending upon your tools.

[Alternatively, you could delete all of the contents up to and including the "stream" and then everything after (& including) the "endstream" ]

You can test if the U3D has been successfully extracted by creating a new PDF from it in Acrobat.

[Arnis Gubins · Accepted solution]

Just found a utility that will extract streams from PDFs, so this is an easier way to get u3d content out. See: http://sandsprite.com/blogs/index.php?uid=7&pid=57 for the PDF Stream Dumper tool.