3D PDF creators? What do you use?

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Laura Dinaro
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3D PDF creators? What do you use?

Post by Laura Dinaro »

Hi Everyone,

Just wondering what software you all use to produce 3D PDFs of modeled objects/scenes and items scanned using high res handheld scanners such as the Artec Eva and Spider?

We have been using 3DPDF ReportGen however since introducing the Artec Spider it has struggled with the high resolution of the models produced. We are having to resort to separating our scans into individual PDFs and drastically reducing the texture resolution of models in order to produce a 3D PDF, neither of which is ideal. The specific error we encounter is a “data parsing error”.
I have been investigating other options and have looked into Simlab Composer after seeing it demonstrated at the IAFSM Conference in 2017. I obtained a trial version which at first worked well but shortly after began experiencing issues and I believe it may be because it also cannot handle the high resolution data. I’ve been in touch with their customer support, who have been less than helpful, have not been able to answer my technical questions and are refusing to put me in touch with someone from their technical team. Does anyone use Simlab Composer to produce 3D PDF’s and if so, how do you find it performs with high res data?

Does anyone have any advice on either of these programs for producing 3D PDFs or can anyone suggest an alternative?

Thanks in advance!
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Re: 3D PDF creators? What do you use?

Post by Artec Group »

Hello Laura,

By 3D PDF are you actually referring to the U3D format? I am afraid that Artec Studio does not support this format at this time. However, we generally recommend using something like MeshLab (open source), which can export polygonal meshes in U3D format. Please check if an STL/PLY/OBJ/WRL mesh from Artec Studio, converted into U3D with MeshLab, works for your particular application.
If you require further technical assistance with this matter, please don't hesitate to e-mail our technical support, or contact your local distributor.

Thank you.
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Re: 3D PDF creators? What do you use?

Post by Laura Dinaro »

Hi Ivan,

Thanks for your reply.

I perhaps should have clarified, we export our Artec meshes as .obj files and insert these into 3D PDFs, currently using PDF3D ReportGen. We use PDFs as a viewing platform for investigators, as they can be easily viewed on low spec standard police computers without the need for specialised viewing software and the ability to have set viewpoints, labels etc. We have been having issues producing 3D PDFs with very high resolution meshes with PDF3D ReportGen, so was curious to see if there are other options out there, however I do understand this is probably not a particularly common deliverable.

I have since been informed that Adobe seem to be abandoning development for 3D in PDF documents and therefore this may be why 3rd party software development in this area has stalled or ceased. So if I may, I'll ask a different question? Can anyone recommend a similar platform for the viewing of very high resolution .obj's etc on a standard low spec computer, without the need for specialised software installation, that is self contained and secure? We have high spec specialised PCs to produce the deliverable but viewing needs to be on low spec machines.

Thanks for your help!
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Re: 3D PDF creators? What do you use?

Post by smacl »

Laura Dinaro wrote: Tue Feb 19, 2019 8:45 pmCan anyone recommend a similar platform for the viewing of very high resolution .obj's etc on a standard low spec computer, without the need for specialised software installation, that is self contained and secure? We have high spec specialised PCs to produce the deliverable but viewing needs to be on low spec machines. Two that
Two that come to mind are potree and sktechfab which both let you view models using a web interface. Potree is great as it handles large point clouds directly so no need to mesh, though you can include mesh data. I haven't used sketchfab much myself but seen some great results which obviously depend on the quality of meshes you can produce. Potree works well with limited resources, and even lets me view some resonably big scans on my aging Samsung phone (example).

The issue with either of these is the 'self contained and secure'. With potree the data can live on your own servers but will be visible to anyone you allow to link to. It is all open source and you could probably add a passworded front end to track who can use the data and who has seen it. For other more self contained options, Windows 10 has a decent 3d viewer built in that can handle OBJ files but I've no idea how well it performs on large OBJ files with limited resources.
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Re: 3D PDF creators? What do you use?

Post by Artec Group »

Hi Laura,

Do I understand you correctly that you do NOT need to add annotations, viewpoints, labels, etc. to the models? If so, I still think that MeshLab can be a potential alternative to PDF3D ReportGen. How large are your Spider meshes? I've successfully converted a 2 million poly mesh from STL to U3D using MeshLab, and then opened it in Adobe Acrobat Reader to make sure that you can view the file without issues.

Another alternative could be the use of a web service, as suggested by Shane. Although, it is not clear how "secure" your files will really be.
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Re: 3D PDF creators? What do you use?

Post by smacl »

Just took a 1.2million texture triangle mesh off sketchfab and it works fine in the Windows 10 3d viewer that comes as part of the O/S.
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Re: 3D PDF creators? What do you use?

Post by Laura Dinaro »

Hi Ivan and Shane,

Thank you both for your suggestions, I will look into those options, although I am unsure if the web based options will be secure enough for us.

Ivan, unfortunately we do need to be able to set specific viewpoints, add labels etc, as we set these all up for the investigators for their ease of viewing and to highlight important features. This is where the 3D PDFs were so useful and were working fine until we introduced the Spider. I will give your other suggestions a go though and research other possibilities along that route.

Thanks so much for your help!

Laura
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Re: 3D PDF creators? What do you use?

Post by jamesworrell »

Hi Laura,

What hardware do you need to view on? PDF is a little underdone when you start throwing hundreds of thousands of polygons at it.

If ipad etc - would have to have a think about it. You might be able to head into the Autodesk world for example with some of their viewers.

If Windows based (eg Panasonic FZ-G1) - you potentially have more options with respect to viewers - even something custom like a Unity application.

PS: nice work with Lindt. Good to see scanning getting a solid run!
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Re: 3D PDF creators? What do you use?

Post by Laura Dinaro »

Hi James,

Viewing mostly on Windows PCs, just fairly low spec standard machines. Preferably needs to be something fairly standard that doesn't require licensing or installation, as that can be a bit of a nightmare with our IT dept if needing to be deployed statewide, that's why the PDFs were perfect!

Thanks! Although I can't take any of the credit for Lindt, that was all Domenic! :P
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Re: 3D PDF creators? What do you use?

Post by jamesworrell »

Would involve some development - but if you went from OBJ -> Cesium 3D Tiles (open format) .. you could potentially host the models within your case management system and everything would be web based.

FME will convert OBJ to 3D Tiles.

Given 3D Tile support an LOD structure - you could zoom from nearmap scale OBJ right down inside a room ..

No doubt a longer term project.

I have a mate who is wrapping a 3D Tiles graphics engine into telecom tower analysis system with machine learning etc. Check out SiteSee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EwfA3Jk658
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