TIP: Open "Any" File with Acrobat Pro Ext 9

In working with the beta of Adobe's updated Acrobat 9 Pro Extended (nee Acobat 3D) I found that it can import many kinds of supported files -- even though it doesn't look like it can. Here's how:

1. From the File menu, choose Open.
2. In the "Files of Type" droplist, the only file types available are PDF and All Files.  Choose All Files.
3. Navigate to a folder that holds CAD files, such as STEP, PRT, or DWG. Select one and click Open.

Acrobat converts and opens the file. Using this method, I was able to view the Pro/E files provided by Via's Open Notebook initiative.

(Warning: IGES files take a long time to open, and can bog down the system.)

Comments

[Kevin Quigley]

Ralph, Acrobat 8 3D and Acrobat 9 Extended both offer the capability to open and convert pretty much any 2D or 3D CAD format to PDF - this is the key selling feature of the software. It makes it a very suitable viewing solution (as you can measure and markup from the data) and even a way to distribute the actual geometry as you can "allow" the 3D format to hold the topological data in the file and let any user who opens the file saves it to STEP, Parasolid or STL. In this respect it makes it a very low cost file translation solution as well (low cost compared to buying translation tools for the likes of CATIA v5)