Licensing options for this format begin with FME Desktop Professional Edition.
The 3D PDF Writer enables FME to write Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF) files embedded with interactive 3D annotations.
The Adobe Reader software version 7.0 and above has included support for interactive 3D annotations in PDF files. These annotations allow users to visualize 3D models. For example, users can view the models from different angles and select sub-elements of the model by picking them with the mouse.
The writer represents the 3D models in the Adobe Product Representation Compact (PRC) file format, which become embedded in a PDF document. The 3D model can be viewed by PDF viewer applications that support PDF’s interactive 3D annotations. (See Compatibility, below.)
The 3D model has a hierarchical structure of Nodes, which are elements of the model:
- Feature types become Nodes with no geometry.
- Features become Nodes that may have geometries and attributes.
- Feature Nodes are children of their corresponding Feature Type Node.
Compatibility: U3D and PRC File Formats
How FME maintains backwards compatibility between the older U3D and the newer PRC file formats:
|
FME Version |
File Format |
|---|---|
| All FME versions before 2015 | U3D |
| Older workspaces generated before FME 2015, running 32-bit FME 2015 or 2016 | U3D |
| Workspaces generated in FME 2015+ | PRC |
| All other FME versions (2017+) | PRC |
Writer Overview
The writer outputs PDF version 1.7 files. The document will have one page that contains the 3D annotation.
The 3D model has a hierarchical structure of Nodes, which are elements of the model:
- Feature types become Nodes with no geometry.
- Features become Nodes that may have geometries and attributes.
- Feature Nodes are children of their corresponding Feature Type Node.