3DMojo

If you have ever wanted to publish Composer content to a PDF, and wanted to change the look of the resulting PDF file, this is the podcast episode you have been waiting for!

Again it was Jonathan who showed me a great idea: use a familiar tool like Word or PowerPoint to build the layout of your desired PDF template, then convert it to a PDF. Then it is a simple matter to use Adobe Acrobat to indicate where Composer should embed the 3D content.

Then Presto! Your Composer data can now be easily embedded into your customized PDF file.

 

 Podcast Video [2:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (536)

 

 Online Video [2:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (543)

Here at Seemage, we marvel at the amount of time and energy people spend thinking about file format conversions. In a nutshell, we believe this is a solved problem...that people who want or need to convert file formats can and do, easily and accurately.

We think the real issue isn't about conversion...it's about content creation. Customers tell us they need technology to allow departments outside engineering and design to create useful, accurate product deliverables. Our customers' real challenge is to make it possible for end-users to achieve this in a compatible, secure way. (Naturally, we think Seemage matches this customer need perfectly.)

So, it never ceases to amaze me when I read a review of a product whose entire purpose...its complete market aspiration...its raison d'être is simple file conversion and file transport. We shake our heads at the level of effort being applied to solve yesterday's problems and wonder why the CAD press continues to make solved problems seem more important than they really are.

Case in point is this review of Acrobat 3D. I'm not trying to pick on this reviewer, but you can read the entire review without learning how to do anything beyond file conversion. Sure, there's some general information about "collaboration," but that's just a part of the real objective and pretty soft as an application area.

It's as if we were building a bus transportation system, but all we think about is whether or not the tires are interchangeable on the different models of buses. Instead, we should think about whether or not all the routes serve the region well, or, better, how to maintain the buses.

At Seemage, we think it's time for the industry to start thinking more broadly about what technology today has to deliver to truly create a revolution in the way products are manufactured. Otherwise, we'll just continue to miss the bus.

Today, Seemage announced that it has integrated with SolidWorks and has become a SolidWorks Solution Partner.

Read the press release by clicking the links below.

 Seemage Integrates with SolidWorks: Download (799)

On July 19, we held a live webinar session that was very well-received. I sent a link to watch the Flash recording of the webinar to those who'd signed up for the live presentation but who weren't able to attend.

And an amazing thing happened: in addition to the people who got a chance to watch the webinar they'd missed, we noticed that people to whom we had not sent the invite were watching the replay -- and forwarding the link along to others to watch it .

So, we're going to do the obvious: put the link up here in our blog. Please consider this an invitation to register for the replay, even if you didn't previously sign up to watch the live presentation. On this page, we ask for your company and contact info so we can send you an email with a link to allow you to watch the webinar at your convenience. You can also watch it immediately after you register.

We hope you enjoy it, and if you have any comments, please let us know at webinar@3dmojo.com.

I'm not exactly sure why, but when I read this interview with the vp of marketing from Right Hemisphere, the title of the old Devo album, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We are Devo! popped into my head.

Devo used to describe its music as  the "sound of things falling apart". That's what I hear in my head when software vendors talk about collaboration in the product development space: the crash-and-burn sound IT infrastructure makes when it's deployed for a concept instead of a real workflow.

Let me say for the record that I truly do believe in collaboration. I think people across departments do need to work together better and that technology can assist them in doing so. But I don't believe those users care about collaboration as such...they care about getting work done. In this case, producing product deliverables directly from digital product definitions.

IOW, a technology solution that won't fall apart focuses on enabling users to get to the end product (illustrations, animations, service procedures, etc.), not an amorphous "collaboration" process or file translation.

Right Hemisphere says:

What’s becoming apparent is that every company has information that lives on different systems, in different formats. So there’s a great need to normalise that information so that every part of the business can work with it.

This is precisely the kind of IT-outward approach that so often fails. It sees the problem as a file-format or centralized-store/access issue. But, in truth, it's never been a file conversion problem or an access issue that has stymied collaboration in product development. And internal politics that inhibit effective sharing are beyond the reach of any technology.

What's needed isn't a collaboration infrastructure or a standard file-transmission format. People can -- and do -- solve those problems themselves. The problem is a content creation challenge. Users want to make deliverables themselves from the digital product definition. The problem is a desktop, not server problem. Plumbing is necessary of course, but not hard. The real challenge is to come up with a system that uses any plumbing -- transmission and/or file-format -- that also creates what users want.

We think that focusing desktop-in (as Seemage does) is the right way to stop the sound of well-intentioned collaboration technology falling apart.