| Adobe announced Acrobat 3D, finally. This is their first | | | | 4. UGS (recently LBO'd by SIlverlake and Bain) |
| foray into 3D. I wrote earlier that they are missing the | | | | 5. think3 with ThinkDesign, ThinkID, ThinkTeam - all |
| boat on 3D. | | | | mid-range products. |
| The premise of Acrobat 3D is to enable smooth | | | | Given that any 3D Viewer product such as Acrobat |
| collaboration amongst various non CAD users within | | | | 3D will need to pass through a CAD-engineer's hands, |
| the organization's workflow i.e. sales, marketing, visual | | | | to be written into an Acrobar readable format, it is |
| merchandising, channel management, etc. who | | | | safe to assume that having deep-pocket CAD |
| traditionally could not view designs in 3D. With 2D | | | | relationships would be immensely valuable. |
| pictures of 3D products, much data is lost, making the | | | | So, let us see who has what in terms of viwers: |
| process inefficient and unproductive. | | | | Autodesk has DWF. No one else has anything else. |
| For a while now, CRM and PLM vendors have been | | | | However, there are some independent viewers out |
| looking for a good bridge. The only one that existed so | | | | there, Right Hemisphere and TornadoVIZ. In fact, it is |
| far was Autodesk's DWF, which works with | | | | Right Hemisphere's technology that enables Acrobat |
| AutoCAD / Inventor design files. | | | | 3D, Adobe Ventures has an investment in the |
| However, in the Mechanical Design marketplace, the | | | | company along with Sequoia Capital, and it would be |
| major houses are: | | | | safe to assume that Adobe will buy this company |
| 1. Dassault, which owns CATIA (high-end 3D CAD), | | | | eventually. |
| Solidworks (mid-market 3D CAD), a PDM called | | | | I have heard, however, that Acrobat 3D is a very |
| SmarTeam, and a PLM product called Enovia, which | | | | heavy product. In comparison, TornadoVIZ has a very |
| IBM Global Services sells and integrated. | | | | light-weight technology, which would, by and large, |
| 2. Parametric, which owns ProE (high-end 3D CAD) | | | | need to be an essential characteristic of any 3D |
| and Windchill (PLM) | | | | viewer such as the ones under discussion. |
| 3. Autodesk | | | | |