Universal 3D (U3D) is a compressed file format standard for

3D computer graphics 3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for t ...

data. The format was defined by a special consortium called ''3D Industry Forum'' that brought together a diverse group of companies and organizations, including

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...

, HP, Adobe Systems, Bentley Systems,

Right Hemisphere The lateralization of brain function is the tendency for some neural functions or cognitive processes to be specialized to one side of the brain or the other. The median longitudinal fissure separates the human brain into two distinct cerebr ...

and others whose main focus had been the promotional development of 3D graphics for use in various industries, specifically at this time manufacturing as well as construction and industrial plant design. The format was later standardized by

Ecma International Ecma International () is a nonprofit standards organization for information and communication systems. It acquired its current name in 1994, when the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) changed its name to reflect the organization ...

in August 2005 as ECMA-363. The goal is a universal standard for three-dimensional data of all kinds, to facilitate data exchange. The consortium promoted also the development of an open source library for facilitating the adoption of the format. The format is natively supported by the PDF format and 3D objects in U3D format can be inserted into PDF documents and interactively visualized by

Acrobat Reader Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software and Web services developed by Adobe Inc. to view, create, manipulate, print and manage Portable Document Format (PDF) files. The family comprises Acrobat Reader (formerly Reader), Acrobat (former ...

(since version 7).

Editions

There are four editions to date. The first edition is supported by many/all of the various applications mentioned below. It is capable of storing vertex based geometry, color, textures, lighting, bones, and transform based animation. The second and third editions correct some errata in the first edition, and the third edition also adds the concept of vendor specified blocks. One such block widely deployed is the RHAdobeMesh block, which provides a more compressed alternative to the mesh blocks defined in the first edition. Deep Exploration, Tetra4D for Acrobat Pro and PDF3D-SDK can author this data, and Adobe Acrobat and Reader 8.1 can read this data. The fourth edition provides definitions for higher order primitives (curved surfaces).

Application support

Applications which support PDFs with embedded U3D objects include: * Adobe Acrobat Pro allows PDF creation and conversion of various file formats to U3D within the PDF. Acrobat Pro allows PDF creation and embedding of pre-created U3D files. * Adobe Photoshop CS3, CS4 and CS5 Extended are able to export a 3D Layer as a U3D file. * ArchiCAD allows export of U3D files. * Bluebeam Revu Allows PDF creation and embedding of U3D within the PDF. Comes packaged with plugins that can export 3D PDFs from Revit and Solidworks. *

Daz Studio Daz Studio is a free media design software developed by Daz 3D. Daz Studio is a 3D scene creation and rendering application used to produce images as well as video. Renders can be done by leveraging either the 3Delight render engine, or the Ira ...

Allows export to U3D. *

iText iText is a library for creating and manipulating PDF files in Java and.NET. iText was written by Bruno Lowagie. The source code was initially distributed as open source under the Mozilla Public License or the GNU Library General Public License ...

open source Java library allows creation of PDF containing U3D * Jreality, an open source mathematical visualization package with 3D-PDF and U3D export * MeVisLab supports export of U3D models for biomedical images. * MicroStation allows export of PDF containing U3D. * Poser 7 *

Autodesk Inventor Autodesk Inventor is a computer-aided design application for 3D mechanical design, simulation, visualization, and documentation developed by Autodesk. Features Inventor allows 2D and 3D data integration in a single environment, creating a virt ...

allows saving of files to 3D PDF containing U3D. Soon available since version 2017. *

KeyCreator KeyCreator is a commercial software application for 2D and 3D computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting available since 2004. History KeyCreator is a non-parametric, non-history based, "direct" 2D/3D solid modeling CAD program. Originally know ...

allows reading of U3D data from U3D and PDF files and exporting models to U3D and embedding in 3D PDF. *

SolidWorks SolidWorks is a solid modeling computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) application published by Dassault Systèmes. According to the publisher, over two million engineers and designers at more than 165,000 companies w ...

allows saving of files to 3D PDF containing U3D up to release 2014. *

ArtiosCAD ArtiosCAD is a software program dedicated to the design of folded packaging, mainly corrugated boxes and folding carton. It is used by box designers, box sample makers, die makers. ArtiosCAD is designed in Ludlow, Massachusetts in a subsidiary ...

allows saving of files to 3D PDF containing U3D. *

SpaceClaim SpaceClaim is a solid modeling CAD (computer-aided design) software that runs on Microsoft Windows and developed by SpaceClaim Corporation. The company is headquartered in Concord, Massachusetts. SpaceClaim Corporation was founded in 2005 to ...

allows the opening and saving of 3D PDF format comprising U3D.

References

External links

*
Universal 3D Sample Software
formerly at www.3dif.org * a
Institute of Science and Technology (ISTI CNR)

Tutorial on embedding a U3D file into a PDF with Meshlab and Miktex
{{Vector graphics markup languages, state=uncollapsed 3D graphics file formats Ecma standards

Editions

Application support

See also

References

External links