PDF3D Report Gen - Help

User Manual
User Manual

2.15.1

27 November 2017
Copyright © Visual Technology Services Ltd.
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User Manual
Table of Contents
Introduction 8
What is PDF3D ReportGen? 8
Related Products 8
The PDF3D ReportGen Interface Overview 9
Supported File Formats 10
Adobe Reader 3D menu 15
Installation 20
Download 20
Local Installation 20
Activating PDF3D ReportGen 21
Simple Windows Fixed Node-Locked Type 21
Checking for Updates 23
Network LMX Types 24
Setting PDF3D_LICENSE_PATH 26
Automatic Server Discovery 29
License Server and Utilities 29
LINUX Installation 29
Testing and Verification 31
Prerequisite 31
Batch Conversion QA Test 31
Expected Results 31
The Tab-based menu 32
Input/Output Settings 33
Input Settings 33
Output Settings 34
Template PDF Reference 34
Environment Variable Substitution 35
Part-Specific Options 35
Converting a File Methods and Options 36
Defining Output Settings 37
Defining Output Settings 37
Part-Specific Options 37
Selecting the file(s) to be converted 38
General Conversion Settings 39
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General Conversion Settings: 39
Output Coordinate System 40
Export Parameters 41
Further Reading 42
Merging PDFs 43
To Define Merge Settings: 43
3D View Parameters 45
To Set-up 3D View Parameters Options 45
Dynamic Controls 47
To Select 3D View Labels Dynamic Controls: 47
Flash Controls 48
Insert Additional Controls 49
To Insert Additional Controls: 49
PDF 3D View Settings 51
To Setup 3D View Settings: 51
Defining 2D Page Layout Settings 52
To Define Page Settings: 52
Legend Bar Placement 53
Geospatial Interface Settings 54
Geospatial Input Units: 54
Coordinate System 55
Geospatial Image 55
Gridding Settings 57
Gridding Parameters 57
Gridding Operation 57
Controls 58
Workflow Guidance 61
Visual Effects 63
Color Mapping 63
Binding to Attributes or Elevation 64
Channel Selection for Color, Attributes and Elevation Data 64
Material Surface Shading Effects 65
Scene Axes Settings 66
To enable Scene Axes settings 66
Annotations Settings 68
To Define Annotations 68
Adding Multimedia to Output Document 70
To Add Media Details: 70
Adding Title and Sub-title to Document 72
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To Add Title and Sub-title: 72
Animation and Layers 73
Enabling Animation 73
Operation 73
Controls 73
Security Settings 75
To Define Security Settings 75
Advanced Settings 77
Adjusting 3D Label Dynamic Controls 77
Adjusting 3D Processing Options 78
Simplification Processing of 3D Model Data 79
Simplification Process Description 80
Common Parameters 81
To set Common Parameters: 81
2D Drawing Options 82
VRML / IV Coin 3D Interface Options 83
To Use the Coin 3D Tessellation Engine for the Conversion: 83
ANSYS FEA and ArcGIS Layers 84
COMSOL Interface Settings 85
COMSOL Settings: 85
STL Interface Settings 86
STL Settings: 86
Teigha Interface Specific Options 87
To specify an assembly detail merging depth: 87
OC Interface 89
GSI3D Options 90
Saving a Session 91
To Save a Session: 91
Reloading a Saved Session 92
To Reload a Session: 92
Preferences 93
Batch Conversion 94
Operation 94
How to Convert DWG models with PMI Dimensional Annotations 95
Loading File with Input/Output Tab 95
Conversion Tab 95
PDF 3D View Tab 95
Interface Tab 95
Advanced Tab 95
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Save Session 95
Convert, Open in Adobe Reader 95
How to Animate FEA, CFD, Transient Analysis Results 96
Preparing VRML files 96
Loading File Collection, Input/Output Tab 96
Conversion Tab 96
Scene Axes Tab 96
Animation Tab 96
Save Session 96
Convert, Open in Adobe Reader 96
How to Convert Large Geospatial Grids 97
Loading Grid, Input/Output Tab 97
Subsampling 97
Conversion Tab 97
PDF 3D View Tab 97
Scene Axes 97
Geospatial Tab 97
Gridding Tab 97
Save Session 98
How To Convert Point-Clouds 99
Subsample 99
Input Coordinates 99
Interpolation 99
Colormap Assignment 99
Quadric Error Conditioned Advanced Simplification 99
How to Create Templates 100
Using Acrobat 100
Without Acrobat 100
PDF3D with WORD, PowerPoint, EXCEL plugins 101
How to write colormap files, file format definitions 102
XML 102
CLR (Surfer) 102
CLR (ArcGIS) 103
CT (VisIt) 103
CPAL (EnSight) 104
How to make Panoramic 360 3D PDF documents 105
Short guide to Panoramic 360 degree photography conversion to a 3D PDF Brochure or Report. 105
Panoramic Image File 105
ReportGen Processing Steps 105
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How to merge PDF files 106

XML 106
Command Line Parameters 106
How to convert an ASCII CSV table to PDF 107
Parameters 107
Notes 107
How to add an image to an existing PDF 108
Parameters 108
Notes 108
Examples 108
How to add a Flash SWF file to an existing PDF 109
Parameters 109
Notes 109
Examples 109
How to convert PLY to U3D 110
XML State File (.pdf3dsettings) 110
BAT File 110
PDF3DReportGen 110
How to Adjust Advanced Parameters 111
1. Adjusting Normalization 111
2. Animation initially paused, speed adjustment 111
3. Metadata Selection, Display, Descriptive Elements 111
4. Part Name Substitution 112
5. JavaScript 112
6. Draping Vector Features 112
7. Sphere Tessellation 113
8. Custom Camera Views 113
9. Mixed Static and Dynamic Sequence Animation 115
10. Position and Orientation of Multiple Parts 115
11. Camera Animation 116
12. Adding a Custom Caption Box 117
13. Poster Image - Click to Activate 117
14. Automatic Cycle through View List 118
How To Use the Left-Mouse 3D Probe PDF Menu 119
How to Create Side-by-Side Views 120
Basic Side-by-Side views on same page 120
Adding View Synchronization 121
Create Side-by-Side example using batch script 121
Glossary 122
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Patent & Copyright Notices 127

PDF3D Third Party Licenses 129
Index 132

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Introduction
What is PDF3D ReportGen?
As organizations rich in digital assets aspire to faster decision-making and improved team collaboration,
PDF3D® empowers organisations to transform digital data into interactive, real-time visualisation shareable
3D PDF1 technical documents.
With the PDF3D ReportGen, interfaces and plug-ins, enterprise applications with 3D data can be extended to
publish, share and distribute interactive models through email or the web.
With Adobe's ubiquitous support for 3D viewing, a ready-made platform is available on most desktops ready
to receive 3D PDF content. W hen models are embedded in a PDF file, recipients can rotate, zoom and pan
the 3D PDF model while reading the document, or while giving a PowerPoint® presentation. With PDF3D®
you can create interactive 3D PDF documents, integrate real time 3D contents, bring to life your PDF doc-
uments, improve your production pipeline work-flow and inject 3D view ports into existing PDF templates with
total independence.
Related Products
Other related software systems are also available, as part of the PDF3D family.
l PDF3D-SDK Developer's Tool-Kit with tools and library for integration into other applications
l PDF3D XML Server, Batch, Production, Automated File Conversion, Loosely-Integrated work-flows
l PV+, ParaView Plus with PDF3D Plugin, Technical and Scientific Data Visualization tool with PDF
publishing
l PDF3D PowerPoint Plugin, enabling PowerPoint slide presentations to show 3D PDFs in frames
inside the presentation without leaving the presentation flow.
1Portable Document Format file format defined in ISO 32000‐2, an international stand-
ard. This is fully independent from its origins at Adobe Systems.
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The PDF3D ReportGen Interface Overview

The PDF3DReportGen Interface is simple, uncluttered and easy to use. Refer to the screenshot below to
familiarize yourself with the various aspects of the interface. The menu provides a very simple work-flow,
select input file, output file, and convert! Various options are arranged along tabs, shown at the top of the
menu system.

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Supported File Formats

Type Format Extensions Applications

CAD

Models
3D Printing industry consortium format altern-
1 Additive Manufacturing Format amf
ative to STL
AutoCAD Inventor, AutoCAD Mechanical,
2 AutoCAD Export DWF Format dwf
Visual Representations
AutoCAD historic versions, Survey, Geo-
3 AutoCAD Generic DXF Format dxf
physics, Modelling
AutoCAD Mechanical, Civil, Inventor, Parts,
4 AutoCAD Native DWG Format dwg
Colours, Widely Used
Bentley-Intergraph Micro-
5 dgn Microstation related applications
station DGN Format
Industry Interoperability Model Exchange,
6 IGES 3D Model Interchange igs, iges
CAD Applications
Industry Foundation Classes BIM, AEC, Subset support, AutoCAD,
7 ifc
IFC Revit, Inventor, Civil 3D
8 Movie.BYU Geometry Format byu Historic FEA Mesh Geometry Interchange
Surface, Line & Point Open Academic and
9 Polygon File Format Stanford ply
Research Exchange
PRC Product Representation ISO 14739-1 3D Model used in 3D PDF con-
10 prc
Compact Format text as interactive view
STEP AP214 3D Model Inter- Industry Interoperability Model Exchange,
11 stp,step
change PLM, CAD Applications
Stereolithography ASCII Multi- CAD-CAM, 3D Printing, Triangle Mesh Sur-
12 stla
part File Format faces, Geometry Only
Stereolithography Binary File CAD-CAM, 3D Printing, Single Triangle
13 stlb
Format Mesh, Geometry Only
Stereolithography STL File 3D Printing, Triangle Geometry, Scanners,
14 stl
Format w/Color CAD, Materialise Magics
U3D Universal 3D Interchange ECMA 363 used in 3D PDF context as inter-
15 u3d
Format active view

Analysis

Data
Advanced Visual Systems Proprietary,
16 AVS/Express UCD Format inp
Unstructured Mesh & Attributes
COMSOL Simulation Results COMSOL Proprietary Mesh & Result Plot
17 dat,txt,mphtxt
Format Output Format
Protein Data Bank Molecular Chemistry, Research, Academic, well estab-
18 pdb
Format lished database
19 VTK PolyData Format vtp Visualization Toolkit polygon surface data,
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science, engineering
Visualization Toolkit mesh, element, multi-
20 VTK Model File Format vtk
attribute 2D & 3D data

Images &

Video
Flash Animations or Movie Video, Movie, Animation, Creative Suite,
21 swf
clips MacroMedia, Adobe
Universal standard image file formats, mono-
22 Raster Image Files png,jpg,tif,bmp
chrome, color, alpha

Geospatial
ArcGIS Proprietary ASCII Grid Raster Elev-
23 ArcGIS Geospatial Grid Format asc
ation Data
ESRI ArcGIS Geospatial ArcGIS Proprietary ShapeFile for Vector
24 shp
Vector Shapes Features, 2D or 3D
GeoTIFF Geospatial Image Well-known TIFF image with additional Geo-
25 tif, tiff
and Grid Data Format graphic coordinates included
VRML97 extended to include geographic
26 GeoVRML Geospatial Format wrl, vrml
coordinate systems, ArcScene
IMAGINE Multi-Channel Image Hexagon Geospatial raster format for image
27 img
or Elevation Grids and attribute data
KML Geospatial Vector XML based mark-up for geospatial features,
28 kml
Features ArcGIS, Google Earth
Oil industry well log, complex borehole data,
29 LAS Well Log (Subset) las
simple subset
Point Cloud Industry Interchange Format,
30 LiDAR LAS File Format v1,2,3 las
Space, Airborne & Terrestrial
LiDAR LAZ Compressed Very good compressed optimization option
31 laz
Format for LAS data
3D points, ASCII, from LiDAR, Laser, point
32 Point Cloud Formats csv,pts,xyz
sample systems
Point Cloud with Color or attrib- 3D points, ASCII with intensity or full RGB
33 xyzrgb, stzi
ute Color per point
ReCAP RCS point cloud 3D points, Binary with optional full RGB
34 rcs
format Color per point
3D points, Binary optional full RGB Color per
35 e57 Point Cloud format e57
point
PROJ Geographic Projection Geographic coordinate mapping data to place
36 proj
Format corresponding models
Surfer from Golden Software Proprietary ras-
37 Surfer Grid Format grd
ter elevation grid data
Surfer from Golden Software Proprietary
38 Surfer Colormap Format clr
color classification files
USGS DEM Geospatial Grid Elevation grid data for terrains, bathymetry,
39 dem
File Format raster data
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World Geographic Coordinate Geographic coordinate mapping data to place
40 jpw,pgw,tfw
File corresponding images
ZMapPlus Geospatial Grid Earth Science Subsurface Horizon Data,
41 dat
Field Format ZYCOR, Historic Data Exchange

3D Graph-

ics
Gamestudio Development & Authoring
42 3D GameStudio 3DGS Format mdl
Application for Games
3D GameStudio 3DGS Terrain Gamestudio Development Application Ter-
43 hmp
Format rain Landscape Data
Widely used 3D graphics exchange, 3D Stu-
44 30 Studio MAX Format 3ds
dio Max, AutoCAD, Textures
AutoDesk 3DS Max Proprietary 3D Model
45 3ds Max ASE Format ase
Format (subset)
AC3D Proprietary Model Creation and Edit-
46 AC3D Inivis Format ac
ing 3D Format
ANSYS Workbench Viewer CAE Visualization results format used by
47 avz
File ANSYS Viewer application
Blender CAD Application Design Native 3D
48 Blender 3D Format blend
Model Format
Interactive Game & Scene Environment Sys-
49 BlitzBasic 3D Format b3b
tem
Collada COLLAborative Industry interchange rich 3D graphics, 3DS
50 dae
Design Activity Format Max, Maya, Sketchup, Textures
AEC DesignWorkshop 3D modeling program
51 Design Workshop Database dw
for architectural design
Microsoft DirectX Graphics 3D Model Geo-
52 DirectX 3D Model Format x
metry
53 DirectX X Format x Microsoft DirectX Graphics Generic Data
54 Doom 3 Format md5 Interactive Game Proprietary Scenes
AutoDesk binary 3D Graphics Format with
55 FBX Graphics Format fbx
optional embedded textures
56 Irricht Mesh Format irrmesh Static Game Mesh similar to Collada
57 Irricht Scene Format irr Interactive Game Scene Export format
IVE OpenSceneGraph File OpenSceneGraph Framework Scene
58 ive
Format Format, version specific
Proprietary 3D modeling and 3D painting
59 Nendo Format ndo
package from IZWare
LightWave Proprietary 3D Models with Mater-
60 LightWave Object Format lwo
ials, Texture
61 LightWave Scene Format lws LightWave Proprietary Scenes
Shareware low-polygon 3D
62 Milkshape 3D Format ms3d
modeling Application by Mete Ciragan
Proprietary Luxology Game System Scene
63 Modo Format lxo
File
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64 Neutral File Format nnf RayTrace Program 3D Polygon Format
OpenSceneGraph Framework Scene
65 OSG Extendable ASCI Format osgt
Format, open serialization
OSG Extendable Binary OpenSceneGraph Framework Scene
66 osgb
Format Format, open serialization
67 OSG Extendable XML Format osgx
68 OSG Native Format osg
Format, with Textures
69 OSGTGZ Compressed Format osgtgz
Simple Surface Polygon Unstructured 3D
70 Object File Format off
ASCII format
Ogre Graphics Engine XML Open Source Game Rendering Engine 3D
71 xml
Format Model Format
Real-time Visual Simulation Scenes with
72 OpenFlight Format flt
Texture
OpenInventor 2.1 Compressed Industry neutral interchange 3D graphics,
73 iv.gz
Format similar to VRML, Textures
Industry neutral interchange 3D graphics,
74 OpenInventor 2.1 Format iv
similar to VRML, Textures
PDF Portable Document ISO-32000 PDF Standard, with 3D Annota-
75 pdf
Format Template or 3D tions, U3D or PRC
Triangular facet 3D geometry POV Ray
76 PovRAY Raw Format raw
Tracer
Interactive Game Proprietary Scenes, His-
77 Quake I Format mdl
toric
Interactive Game Proprietary Scenes, His-
78 Quake II Format md2
toric
Interactive Game Proprietary Scenes -
79 Quake III Map/BSP pk3
maps, textures
Interactive Game Proprietary Scenes, geo-
80 Quake III Mesh Format md3
metry, meshes
Proprietary Quick3D File Converter Applic-
81 Quick3D Format q3s
ation Native Format
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
82 mdc Interactive Game Proprietary 3D Format
Format
83 Sense8 WorldToolKit Format nff Historic ASCII 3D Format from 1990s
Proprietary Game Application 3D Actor
84 Starcraft II M3 Format m3
Models
3D Landscape Terrain Tile Format from Plan-
85 Terragen Terrain Format ter
etside Software
Proprietary 3D Graphics Application from Cal-
86 TrueSpace Format cob,scn
igary
87 Unreal Game Format 3d Proprietary Game Engine 3D Model Format
Very Widely used 3D graphics exchange
88 VRML Compressed Format wrz,vrml.gz
VRML97 Standard, v1.0 or 2.0
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Very Widely used 3D graphics exchange,
89 VRML Uncompressed Format wrl,vrml
ArcScene, Pro/E, Textures
StudioMDL Proprietary Game Development
90 Valve Model Format smd,vta
ASCII 3D Model Format
Voxler Application from Golden Software 3D
91 VOXLER 2-4, Scene format iv
Scene Export (SGI version)
Widely used 3D graphics exchange, 3DS
92 Wavefront Object Format obj
Max, AutoCAD, Maya, Textures
Aveva Plant 3D Scene Export, Inventor,
93 XGL, ZGL Graphics Format xgl,zgl
Graphics dump
eXtensible 3D Graphics Format (XML variant
94 X3D Graphics Format x3d
of VRML97)

See release notes for current status of supported files. The actual status of various formats will vary accord-
ing to platform and release version. Some formats may be available on a subset of platforms.
The available file formats during any live session is dependent on which of the file interfaces have been
dynamically loaded. If any are missing or did not load successfully, then the corresponding file formats will not
be available in the file selector menu. The current file types may be shown by selecting file-open, as:
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Adobe Reader 3D menu

Using the options available under the PDF 3D View Settings tab, you can enable and disable the 3D PDF tool-
bar in the output PDF file. Note: The 3D menu will be available only when you are viewing the 3D PDF with
Adobe Reader.
The 3D PDF Toolbar allows you to manipulate a model dynamically within a standard PDF. You can zoom in
or out on, rotate or translate 3D objects, and a model tree is provided allowing and a model tree is provided
allowing layers to be toggled on and off and parts of the graphic to be isolated, made transparent or even invis-
ible.

Some of the functions that are available through the 3D Menu include:
1. 3D Object Display Modes: using this option you can select the mode in which you want to see the 3D
object. Some of the options available are Solid, Solid Wireframe, Transparent, Shaded Illustration.
2. Adobe 3D Model Tree Side Menu: Using the options available in the tree side menu, you can nav-

igate and reveal model structure, see part names and hide-show-transparent at group Level. See image
below for a screenshot of the parts browser.

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3. Adobe Reader 3D Camera Views :Using the camera view menu, you can select various preset

views, created by PDF authoring tool, or created interactively in Acrobat.
4. Adobe Reader 3D Lights: Various Lighting Schemes, available to reveal different aspects of the 3D

model. Lighting schemes include CAD – 3x Axis Aligned Lights and Headlamp – light source at viewer
position.

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5. The options of the toolbar offer various functions to enhance your 3D PDF viewing experience. Refer to
the table below for a list of all the buttons and their descriptions.

Icon Description
Rotate
Turns the viewing angle around the object in the opposite direction to
which you click and drag the mouse, as if you were rotating the object
around in space.
Spin
Rotates the object about the y-axis in space.
Pan
Translates the model in directions parallel to the plane of viewing.
Zoom
By dragging up or down you can move the view towards or away from the
object. The same effect can be achieved with the Hand tool by holding
shift whilst dragging.
Walk / Fly
Dragging horizontally with the mouse turns the viewing angle and drag-
ging vertically moves the viewing position forwards or backwards. Move-
ment is constrained to the horizontal plane. The same tool is obtainable
by right-clicking or Control-clicking the image under inspection and select-
ing Tools > Walk.
Default view
Adopts a standard viewing position.
Views menu
A listing of custom made views for the 3D object.
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Toggle model tree
To open or close the model tree.
Play/pause animation

Controls JavaScript-enabled animation.
Projection
Choose either perspective and orthographic projection of the model.
Model render mode menu
Customize the appearance of the object.
Enable extra lighting menu
Choose between different lighting settings.
Background colour swatch
Choose the ambient colour of the 3D object's environment.

6. Adobe Right-Mouse Popup Menu:

Command Action
Left mouse button Select Part of Interest
Popup Menu Right Mouse Button
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Show-All Resets visibility to show all parts
Fit Visible Re-centres View to show selected part
Hide Hides selected part
Isolate Hide everything EXCEPT selected part
Zoom to Part Zoom in to selected part region
Make Transparent Set only selected part to transparent
7. Adobe 3D Navigation Short-Cuts:
l Rotate - Left Mouse
l Zoom to Area - CTRL + Right Mouse
l Pan Left-Right-Up-Down - CTRL/ALT + Left Mouse, Left Mouse + Right Mouse
l Scale Larger/Smaller, Zoom - Right Mouse, SHIFT + Left Mouse, Middle Button
Mouse Wheel
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Installation
Installing PDF3D Report Gen is a simple and quick process.
Download
1. Follow the download link URL provided. Note that the download site may use SSL security, using
https://... style site location.
2. The file download box will be displayed. Click Save and save the file at a location on your computer.
Local Installation
3. Once the file downloads, the system prompts you for permission to install the application on your com-
puter. Make sure you have administrator rights to install the software.
4. Click Allow. Installer can be run immediately, or may be saved to a local file and then run. Follow the
instructions presented by the installer. When PDF3D Report Gen is installed on your computer, a con-
firmation is displayed.
5. Language selection - if your computer has default language settings matching one of those available,
the installation dialogue wizard will allow switching to that native language during installation.
6. Once installed, check the Start menu (on Windows) to find the entries to launch the application or the
license utility.
7. On Linux, unpack with tar -zxf <installer-name>.tar.gz
8. On MacOSX, double click on .dmg package and follow instructions
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Activating PDF3D ReportGen

The application comes in several configurations, and needs to be activated differently on different host com-
puter types. The basic idea is that you may need to set some environment variables, activate from simple key
pairs, install a local license file, or configure a network license server.
To get your new trial or full installation going, simply follow these steps:
Simple Windows Fixed Node-Locked Type
On Windows, the license utility can be started directly from the Start Menu on your desktop, or by clicking
License from the toolbar within PDF3DReportGen. This style of node-locked license is only available on Win-
dows. See the next section for Linux or Apple.
The license utility can also be started directly from the Start menu, as shown on a typical Win-
dows XP system:
The folder structure is similar for Windows 7 style start menu entries:
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1. The PDF3D License utility program window appears (in simple Windows fixed key-pair style). This will
show you the current license status, and allow you to activate a new license. This is known as the
"Full" node-locked PC license type. Once the following dialogue appears, you can make the following
steps:
2. Language Selection will default to your local system, and may also be selected manually.
3. There are two ways to request a license:
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4. Push the Request License button, which should populate a web browser page with the request. Fill out
the remaining fields and push submit.
5.
6. Or if for any reason the web option is not convenient, Push the “Show Codes” button. This will copy

the required codes to the clipboard.
7. Send in the codes to PDF3D via email, phone, etc.
8. Wait until you receive the two activation keys back from PDF3D.
9. Paste the two keys into the Key Entry fields.
10. Push the “Activate From Keys” button.
11. Check that you have a valid license in the output window.
The above fixed license is sometime referred to as "Full" or "Keylib" type license. The license is controlled by
a local file, normally with extension type *.lf located in the same folder as the program on Windows XP, or in
C:\ProgramData\PDF3D on Vista and Windows 7. This license file is managed by the software utilities, it is
not human readable and should not be touched.
Checking for Updates

At the lower left corner of the license utility menus there is a Check for Updates button. This will compare the
current installed version with the http://www.pdf3d.com/ to see is any more recent version is available. If yes,
then please send an upgrade request.
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Network LMX Types
If you are using a floating network license, a slightly different menu will be shown. See if the title bar contains
"LMX". The operation is similar to above, please push "show codes" and send in the results. This time it will a
block of information, rather than a pair of numbers. Additional information will be available in the LM-X sub-
folder. The LMX type is available on all main platforms, Windows, Linux and Apple.
On Windows, just as shown above, the license utility can be started from either the desktop start menu, or
from the toolbar within PDF3DReportGen. The following shows the LMX variation of the license utility:
The following illustrates a typical license setup session on Apple MacOSX.
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Open the Finder, select Applications, navigate to the PDF3DReportGen area. Activate the PDF3DLicense as
shown above.
On most systems, when it is started for the first time, there is no valid license. This is shown in red at the bot-
tom of the dialogue. Also you will see that the PDF3D_LICENSE_PATH is not yet set. Note, in this type of
license "Activate from Keys" is not used.
First, please push "Show Codes", as shown below:
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The "Show Codes" operation should produce messages in the scrolling window. Please copy these, and
email them to the vendor. A license file, normally with extension *.lic will be sent to you. This may be used as
either local fixed license file or to set up a network license server. This is a human readable XML type file, you
are expected to copy it, rename it, as appropriate to your system setup. Note if there are some problems in
identifying these codes, please open a terminal shell, and run "lmxendutil -hostid". The location is mentioned
below.
Setting PDF3D_LICENSE_PATH
On Windows, Linux and Apple, this environment variable must be set. You can use all the typical ways of set-
ting up environment variables on these systems, which is not covered in detail here. There is a special envir-
onment file which login window searches for each time a user logs in. The MacOSX environment file is:
~/.MacOSX/environment.plist (be careful it's case sensitive). Where '~' is the home directory of the
user we are interested in. You will have to create the .MacOSX directory yourself using terminal (by typing
mkdir .MacOSX). You will also have to create the environment file yourself. The environment file is actually in
XML/plist format (make sure to add the .plist extension to the end of the filename or this won't work).
The license may be either an IP address of a networked license server, or a simple local license file (*.lic). In
either case, you will need to create the environment file and specify one of the two types:
1. environment.plist example (connecting to a license server on the same or another machine)
{
"PDF3D_LICENSE_PATH" = "210.102.111.222%6200";
}
2. environment.plist example (using a local fixed license file, without a server).
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"PDF3D_LICENSE_PATH" = "~/PDF3DReportGen.lic";
}
Note the pairs of quotes and the semicolon at the end of the line. Then make sure to logout of your current ses-
sion, then login again for this to take effect. After setting up both the license file and the environment variable,
you can re-start the PDF3DLicense program as above. This time, note the new status:
Another way of setting license path is using License Path dialog shown when Set License Path button is
pushed.
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After dialog is shown, user should select path to license file or network address of license server, depending
on licensing type. Also, it's possible to select if we want to set license path for current user only or for all users
on current system. After user pushes OK, license path will be saved, license file (if specified) installed, and
user will be able to use the software. This process (of setting license path) replaces above steps (on some
platforms like Mac OSX a little bit technical) for manually setting value of PDF3D_LICENSE_PATH envir-
onment variable.
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Automatic Server Discovery

In some installations, it is possible to enable operation without setting up a license file or setting the above
environment variable. If all users on the same local LAN, and the license server system is set to allow auto-
matic server discovery, each user will make a brief start-up broadcast on port 255 to identify an appropriate
license server. Contact support for more details.
License Server and Utilities
To assist in setting up the license under various network conditions, options, and to assist debugging license
issues, several command-line programs are supplied:
l lmxendutil (diagnostic command-line utility)
l lmx-serv-vtsl (network license server program)
l lmxconfigtool (Windows only configuration utility)
These programs are found at the locations:
Windows: PDF3DReportGen\LM-X\
Linux: PDF3DReportGen/lm-x/
MacOSX: /Applications/PDF3DReportGen/PDF3DReportGen.app/Contents/Resources/lm-
x/
This folder may be copied to another machine to act as a network server, without the rest of the install pack-
age.
LINUX Installation
1. Download PDF3DReportGen.....tar.gz file to your local system,
2. Unpack it with "tar -zxvf PDF3DReportGen.....tar.gz"
3. After unpacking, please cd into PDF3DReportGen/lm-x, and run "./lmxendutil -hostid", and send these in.
We can then issue a license key for you. Let's say for illustration it is called "pdf3d.lic" (it most likely will have
a more complex name).
4. You will need to set up some environment variables, typically in your home directly ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_
profile
Open the most appropriate one, or which one already exists, and add extra lines:
export PDF3D_LICENSE_PATH=<your path>/PDF3DReportGen/pdf3d.lic

export PATH=<your path>/PDF3DReportGen/bin:$PATH
On SUSE, REDHAT, CENTOS linux types:
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export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<your path>/PDF3DReportGen/bin:$LD_LIBRARY_
PATH
On Ubuntu, an alternative to LD_LIBRARY_PATH is also available to set your local environment. If you have
root or sudo permission, you can edit:
sudo vi /etc/ld.so.conf
add a new line: <your path>/PDF3DReportGen/bin
then activate this new condition, by executing:
sudo ldconfig
If you are accessing a network license server, then rather than having a *.lic license file, you may specify a
network path using direct IP address:
PDF3D_LICENSE_PATH=100.200.99.88%6200
or if /etc/hosts and dns is working,
PDF3D_LICENSE_PATH=pdf3d_server.mysite.net%6200
5. Open a new terminal shell, to make sure new environment variables are set.
To run, cd to PDF3DReportGen/bin, type: ./PDF3DReportGen, then run the license utility from the toolbar to
verify correct setup.

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Testing and Verification

For post-install quality assurance (QA), a testing procedure is provided to verify expected operation of the pro-
gram. In case of any troubles or support issues, this testing procedure can be used to identify issues and addi-
tional information.
Prerequisite
The program must be fully installed with a valid license.
Python 2.7 scripting environment tools, available from Python Download URL - www.python.org
Note: Python versions 3.x are not supported by this test script.
Once installed, it is recommended that file-associations are established so "*.py" files are opened by the
python interpreter.
Batch Conversion QA Test
Open a file explorer and navigate to PDF3DReportGen/samples/states/
Run PDF3DReportGen_QA.py by double clicking, or by using a command-prompt window and running the
command-line: "python PDF3DReportGen_QA.py"
Expected Results
This script may take 15 or 20 minutes to run. It is expected to open 20 or more PDF files in Adobe Reader or
Acrobat. This may cause the PC to become slow and heavily loaded. If so, selected PDFs can be closed after
they are fully open. Review each file to see that there is an expected 3D View available.
At the final stage of the script, a text window should appear with the testing log result summary. This should
indicate if the expected resources files were found in the installation, and if all of the expected PDFs were pro-
duced. Note, the script does not check if each PDF contains good results, it only checks for existence. The
PDFs are generated in the system TEMP directory. If unsure, PDFs can be sent to support@pdf3d.com for
verification.
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The Tab-based menu

PDF3D ReportGen has a tab-based menu which makes it easier for you to switch between options and
quickly access the section you need with a single click. Each tab is controlled by the icon/name list on the left
side of the menu window:
The Tab-based menu consists of the following main option categories:
l Input/Output Settings
l Conversion Settings
l PDF 3D View Settings
l Page Layout Settings
l Security Settings

The Convert button and the Exit button are available at the bottom of each tab enabling you to convert the file
or Exit from PDF3D ReportGen whenever you are ready. Note: When you press the Exit button, you will be
exiting from PDF3D ReportGen without saving your settings. If you would like to save the settings for con-
version later, use the Save Session feature.
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Input/Output Settings
The Input/Output Settings section is where you can select the file to be converted and define the output set-
tings.

Input Settings
You can select the file to be converted to a 3D report in this section. To select a file:

1. Click on the Add File button on the toolbar, click the "+" symbol, or simply Drag and Drop files onto
the input area from an external file explorer.
2. Browse to the location on your computer where the file is located , select it. Multiple files may be selec-
ted, both in the file browser with multi-select, or one at a time using the Add File button. The file list
may be modified by selecting a file and clicking Remove File.
3. Move Up, Move Down buttons affect the currently selected (highlighted) input file. The order of the
input file directly affects the order shown in the Model Tree structure of the PDF. Further, if enabling
Sequence Animation, the file order controls the animation order.
4. Remove files by selecting them and clicking the red delete button.
The file list table has several columns:
1. Path and File Name - click to edit to change. Maybe relative or full path, or contain environment vari-
ables.
2. Options - enable if you wish to specify file specific settings, such as part colour or interface.
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3. Interface - default or preferred interface for particular file, used if option is enabled. Helpful when the
same file type can be converted by multiple interfaces.
4. File Size - shows size or red if file is not found at specified path.
Output Settings
In the Output Settings section, you can define where the output PDF file should be saved, merge settings and
document security.

1. Click on the Change button.
2. Browse to the location on your computer where you would like the output PDF file to be saved and click
on the Save button. To append the new PDF to an existing PDF, select the existing PDF and then
click on the Save button.
3. The file path will be inserted into the Input file pathname field. You can also enter the file path where
the file is located directly into the field.
4. In the Merge PDFs mode field: (Conversion Tab) select the merge settings from the options provided
in the drop-down list.
5. The button Browse To opens the directory where the file is located.
6. The button Open will open the specified PDF file in the field.
7. The template PDF file field let's you specify a template to be used with the output PDF file. The pre-
viously mentioned Open, Browse To and Change buttons behaviour is the same as the ones on the
output PDF file field. You can find sample templates on: PDF3DReportGen\Samples\templates
l Select Merge 0: new or replace to create a new PDF or replace the existing PDF.

Select this option only if you want a new PDF and are not merging the PDF with an exist-
ing one.
l Select Merge 1: prepend to merge the PDF being created at the beginning of the exist-
ing PDF.
l Select Merge 2: append to merge the PDF being created to the end of the existing
PDF.
l Select Merge 3: at page to merge the PDF being created at a particular page. Then spe-
cify the page number at which you want it to be merged in the Page number field.
l Select Merge 4: replace existing annotation to insert a new 3D annotation into the
existing document at the specified page by replacing the existing one with the specified
number.
l Select Merge 5: at placeholder to insert a new 3D annotation into the existing doc-
ument at the location specified by template place-holder layout parameters.
8. Select the Show PDF after close checkbox to view the PDF as soon as the file is converted. This

option is selected by default. If you would rather not see the PDF file immediately, click on the check-
box to deselect it.
Template PDF Reference

Using the optional PDF reference menu, an existing PDF document filename can be specified. During con-
version, the 3D content will be added and merged into this existing PDF to create a new derived PDF output.
There are several categories of template PDF:
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a. Typical 2D flat document PDF created from Word, OpenOffice, Print Driver or any other typical PDF
authoring tool.
b. An existing 3D PDF file where a dummy place-holder 3D view has already been placed in the desired
layout.
c. A Place-holder layout template where the target 3D views are specified by PDF keyword XML prop-
erties.
When using a), a normal PDF, the location of the 3D view is specified using the Page Layout menus, based
on distance from the edge of the page. When using b), and existing 3D PDF, the layout is taken from the exist-
ing document with the existing 3D view thrown away and replaced by the new conversion. Please refer to the
chapter on How To Create Templates. The template PDF should not have any security settings enabled.
By using the Open button, the template can be viewed and verified before the conversion takes place.
Environment Variable Substitution

Within any input, output or template filename, a relative path may be used - normally this is relative to the cur-
rent program location or the .pdf3dsettings file location. Within any file path existing environment variables
may be used, such as %TEMP%/out.pdf, where the environment is bounded by percent symbols.
Part-Specific Options
In default mode, all settings are applied as global default to all objects and models. When multiple objects and
models are present, specific settings can be made per object.
1. First use the drop-down list "Apply Settings To:" to identify a particular object.
2. Next, push the "Create Options" button. Now a new local set of parameters can be specified.
3. Alternatively, use the "Options" check boxes on the input file list.
With this current object selected, change the values as needed. To create some other distinct values for
another object, repeat the process by first selecting another object.
Example steps for creating local part-specific options:
1. Add at least two separate input files "A.stl" and "B.stl".
2. Go to Visual Effects tab, Materials panel.
3. Use drop-down to select first model.
4. Push "Create Options" button. Or alternatively enable the options check boxes on the input file list.
5. Set some Diffuse and Specular color using color selector menus.
6. Use drop down to select second model.
7. Push "Create Options" button.
8. Set some Diffuse and Specular color, different than first.
9. Export State settings, so you can re-load and adjust later.
10. Convert.
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Converting a File Methods and Options

Converting a file into a 3D PDF document is an easy and simple process using PDF3D Report Gen. You can
also load from a previously saved session. Click on the links below to lean more about each of these steps.

l Selecting the file(s) to be converted
l Defining Output Settings
l Selecting Merge Settings
l Defining Output Document Security Options
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Defining Output Settings

Once you select the file that needs to be converted, the next step is to define the output settings. The output
settings include setting up the location where the output file needs to be saved, defining the merge settings
and enabling/disabling document security settings.

Defining Output Settings

1. Click Set Output from the file toolbar or click on the Change button under the Input-Output Settings
tab.

2. Select the full path and file name for your desired output file. Using the file browser type selection, you
can select a PDF format (default), or optionally select a raw U3D or PRC file. If one of these, you must
also specify matching conversion type on the Conversion tab. The output PDF is normally a new file,
or is overwriting any previous file. However, the converted PDF can also be merged with an existing
PDF file. Note: If you select a merge operation, you can only output it to an existing PDF file. In this
case, you also need to select other than Merge 0: new or replace in the Merge PDFs mode field. The
default mode is to overwrite, replace any existing PDF by the same name. The output name is auto-
matically set to the name of the last selected input file, with extension changed to PDF. This can be
adjusted prior to pushing the Convert button.
3. The Show After Conversion checkbox is selected by default to view the PDF as soon as the file is
converted. The generated PDF will be shown when conversion is completed. This process will use
what ever application is associated by default with “.pdf” type files on your system. If you would rather
not see the PDF file immediately, click on the checkbox to deselect it. The PDF file will be opened with
what ever program is associated with PDF files on your particular system. The latest Adobe Reader, or
Acrobat is recommended. Note, Apple MAC systems come with a PDF viewer which does not support
3D display.
Part-Specific Options
In default mode, all settings are applied as global default to all objects and models. When mul-
tiple objects and models are present, specific settings can be made per object.
1. First use the drop-down list "Apply Settings To:" to identify a particular object.
2. Next, push the "Create Options" button. Now a new local set of parameters can be spe-
cified.
With this current object selected, change the values as needed. To create some other distinct
values for another object, repeat the process by first selecting another object.
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Selecting the file(s) to be converted

The first step to creating your 3D PDF is to select the file that needs to be converted. You can either reload a
saved session file or start with a new file. To do this:
1. Click File and select Input from the file menu or click on the Change button under the Input/Output
Settings tab.
2. The file selection window is displayed. Browse to the location on your computer where the file that
needs to be converted is located and double-click on it.
3. The file will be selected and the path will be inserted into the Input Files Pathnames field under the
Input/Output Settings tab.
4. You may select more than one file, either by successive load operations, or by multiple select in the file
browser. The result should show the sequence being prepared for loading, as below.
Each file type is converted by an interface. Some interfaces convert more than one file type. Some file types
are converted by more than one interface. To allow user selection to resolve these multiple interface cases,
the option box can be ticked for each file and the preferred interface specified in the drop down list (in above
case "Coin Interface").
If options are not enabled, and a multiple selection is available, a dialog box is presented for each file. Here the
list of available interfaces is presented and can be selected interactively. To avoid long and tedious selection
menus, the apply to all similar box can be ticked to avoid further requests.
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General Conversion Settings

You can define the general conversion settings like the quality settings, log options, merge PDFs mode, etc.,
using the options provided under the Conversion tab.
General Conversion Settings:
1. Click on the Conversion tab.
2. Go to the General Conversion Settings section which is the first section under this tab.

3. Output Format specifies if the generation process will create a 2D PDF (with optional content layers)
or a 3D PDF, or a raw 3D file in U3D1 or PRC2 format. In 2D PDF mode, further settings can be adjus-
ted using the 2D Drawing menu. When saving a U3D or PRC file, the output file extension, the Output
Format and the Compression mode must all match.
4. Points Substitution Mode specifies if points should be points (i.e. 4 pixel squares) or short disjoint
line segments to simulate points using line drawing primitives.
5. In the Mesh Quality factor field, use the arrow buttons to scroll up and down till you find the desired
quality setting for the converted file. During conversion of shaded meshes, a mesh reduction, reduced
detail representation may take place. If the quality factor is set to 1.0 (default), no reduction takes
place. If less than 1.0, some degree of reduction in detail occurs and the output file size may also be
reduced.
6. In the Texture Quality factor field, use the arrow buttons to scroll up and down till you find the desired
quality factor for the converted file. During the conversion of meshes containing textures, the texture
image will be compressed by this quality factor, decreasing PDF file size. If the quality factor is 1.0, no
compression takes place. At the default 0.85 value, modest compression occurs, which is acceptable
in most cases. Compression increases and image quality decreases at lower values near zero. NOTE:
1Universial 3D Format, one of the data structures used to store 3D models as binary
data streams within a PDF document.
2Product Representation Compact, the latest and preferred method to encode 3D model
data within a binary stream in a 3D PDF file. PRC is described by ISO 14739-1:2014.
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Some platforms, such as Adobe Reader on Linux, may show poor shading when compression is used.
If this is the case, then setting texture quality to 1.0 provides a work-around.
7. PRC Tolerance value is a spatial dimension tolerance, applied in high compression modes. Coordin-
ates below this size may be rounded or adjusted to achieve high compression.
8. Relative PRC Tolerance, if it is checked, then (relative) tolerance is some automatically calculated
percentage of each sub-mesh bounding box. Otherwise, is a global value, where (absolute) tolerance is
set to a known distance value. For many applications, relative should provide good compression per-
formance and good visual model results, unless zooming in to examine very fine detail.
9. Compression (Internal Format) sets the current 3D compression encoding format. It can be chosen to
be one of U3D, U3D-RHC, PRC or PRC-HCT. U3D is used for Adobe version 8 compatibility. RHC is
the improved Right Hemisphere Compression extension, sensitive to the Quality factor. PRC-HCT is
generally the highest level of file compression, sensitive to the spatial Tolerance factor. Pure PRC may
be used for interchange with other 3D software. The Internal Format sets the 3D encoding data struc-
ture used within the PDF file, as follows.
1. U3D1 original, backward compatible mode, ECMA-363.
2. U3D RHC yields improved compression of U3D, using Right Hemisphere compression tech-
niques.
3. PRC2 Alternative encoding method, for Adobe 9.x or later.
4. PRC HCT yields PRC with highly compressed tessellation techniques.
10. Select the Extended Log checkbox to see a larger progress dialog with various progress and internal
messages during conversion. If you would rather not see these messages, leave this checkbox blank.
When you select this option, the Also Save Log In File also becomes enabled.
11. Select the Also Save Log In File checkbox to save the progress and internal messages displayed dur-
ing conversion to an external log file. The filename for the log file is automatically generated, by taking
the base name and adding “.log.txt”. This is very helpful to debug or report some conversion problem to
PDF3D support.
Output Coordinate System

Where possible the output coordinate system will match the input coordinate system, either automatically or
by manual specification on the Geospatial tab. However, if multiple distinct input coordinate systems are
present, or an explicit conversion is required, then all input systems will go through coordinate system con-
version to match the specified output coordinate system.
1Universial 3D Format, one of the data structures used to store 3D models as binary
data streams within a PDF document.
2Product Representation Compact, the latest and preferred method to encode 3D model
data within a binary stream in a 3D PDF file. PRC is described by ISO 14739-1:2014.
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1. Output Coordinate System group of parameters defines how the resulting PDF will encode 2D and

3D coordinates.
2. Model Units Type may be one of a list according to types available within the PDF specification.
3. Coordinate System may be selected according the application and context. Cartesian means non-
geographic X,Y,Z, whereas Geodetic means latitude, longitude angles in degrees with elevation.
UTM/UPS1 means easting, northing and elevation relative to the zone.
4. Geo-Registration Method (for 2D only) allows selection for one of two available methods for PDF
2D Maps, either OGC Best Practice type, or cross-industry standard ISO 32000 type for using the
standard Adobe Reader2 geolocation probe facilities.
Export Parameters
5. Select PDF/E3 Compliance if you wish to have additional restrictions, and medata data added to the

PDF output. The PDF will be marked as being PDF/E (Engineering) compliant. The file properties will
show additional information, keywords. Note, file may be larger, due to the requirement to embed fonts.
6. Export Parameters are described in the Merge Mode chapter.
1Projected geospatial coordinate system based on either UTM or UPS projection meth-
odologies. UTM defines the earth surface in rectangular zones. This has the advantage
that coordinate definitions can be more accurately defined, relative to the origin of the
zone, rather than the whole earth.
2The freely available PDF viewing application, including the facility to view 3D on
desktop platforms.
3ISO 24517 specifies a restricted subset of conditions on the PDF file format standard
ISO 32000 for the exchange and archiving of engineering documentation.
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Further Reading
7. Go to the Advanced tab for additional options. Select other conversion settings as required. Once you
are ready to convert your file, you can click on the Convert button available at the bottom of the screen
under each tab to convert the file, or save the session for conversion later.
8. If you would like to close PDF3D ReportGen without saving the settings that you have defined, just
click on the Exit button available at the bottom of the screen under each tab.
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Merging PDFs
3D content pages can be appended and inserted into existing PDF documents. The merge settings can be
defined under the Conversion tab. There are two main ways of using this:
a. Specify a Template PDF on the Input / Output tab, or
b. Specify an exiting document as OUTPUT PDF, or in-place update.
To Define Merge Settings:
1. Click Set Output from the toolbar menu or click on the Change button under the Input/Output Settings
tab.
2. Select the file to which you would like to save the converted PDF to.The converted PDF can be
merged with an existing PDF file. Then on the Conversion tab:
l Select Merge 0: new or replace to create a new PDF or replace the existing PDF. Select this

option only if you want a new PDF or overwrite an existing one.
l Select Merge 1: prepend to merge the PDF being created at the beginning of the existing PDF.
l Select Merge 2: append to merge the PDF being created to the end of the existing PDF.
l Select Merge 3: at page to merge the PDF being created at a particular page. Then specify the
page number at which you want it to be merged in the Page Number field.
l Select Merge 4: replace existing annotation to insert a new 3D annotation into the existing
document at the specified page by replacing the existing one with the specified number.
l Select Merge 5: at placeholder to insert a new 3D annotation into the existing document at the
location specified by template place-holder layout parameters.
3. Select other Conversion Settings, PDF 3D View Settings, Page Layout Settings, Security Settings
and click on the Convert button to begin the conversion process.
When specifying a template, normally a dialogue appears confirming a change the most appropriate merge
mode. This can be modified as desired. The template 2D or 3D type is automatically scanned and determined.
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This allows the dialogue to either suggest setting Merge 3: at page, or Merge 4: replace existing annotation
mode.
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3D View Parameters
The first section under this tab is the 3D View Parameters setting. Using the options provided in this section
you can, Enable Default View, Lighting Scheme and Render Mode. You can also set a background color for
3D views and show the Model Tree Menu.

To Set-up 3D View Parameters Options
1. Click on the PDF 3D View tab.
2. View Scheme allows preset groups of default views to automatically be added into the PDF 3D view

menu. Currently there are define the following schemes:
1. CAD (Front, Back, Side, Bottom, etc)
2. Geospatial (Plan, South Elevation, NW Elevation ISO, etc)
3. Anatomical (Anterior, Coronal, etc)
3. Set Initial View Number allows selection of which view from the list should be shown when the PDF

view is first open. The View menu normally contains some automatic default menus for basic ori-
entation (Front, Back, Side...). When "Use Custom View" is disabled, this view number is from the
view list order starting at zero. When "Use Custom View is selected, then these are skipped over, and
the numbering starts over again at zero from any new views added by the input format (VRML,
DWG...), or those created by automatic PMI, or views created by any other custom view creation
method.
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4. In the Lighting Scheme field, select the appropriate lighting scheme from the options provided. The
default lighting scheme is set to CAD, but you can select any other scheme based on your require-
ments. Note: "Artwork" mode picks up the lighting scheme from the input file.
5. In the Render Mode field, select the appropriate render mode from the options provided. The default

render mode is set to Solid, but you can select any other mode depending on your requirement.
6. Activation, Deactivation Modes set when the 3D view is active during the viewing session. This can be
set to immediately when the PDF is open, or when the page becomes visible, or set to "Manual" which
displays a "Click to Activate" message to the user.
7. Lock render mode creates a restriction so that anyone viewing the PDF cannot change the rendering
mode from the one selected here.
8. Outline angle sets the feature angle between adjacent faces for the outline and illustration mode fea-
ture lines. Higher angles means fewer, shorter lines, lower angles, especially near 1.0 degree means
many lines. This is similar the Crease Angle found in the Interface settings Common menu.
9. Enable Automatic PMI creates additional views, where views show isolated parts with dimensional
size labels for the bounding box of each part.
10. Select the Set Background Color For 3D Views checkbox to set a certain color as a background for
the 3D Design, then select the color by clicking on the Select Color button and picking a color from the
color palette that appears.
11. Select other conversion settings as required. Once you are ready to convert your file, you can click on
the Convert button available at the bottom of the screen under each tab to convert the file, or save the
session for conversion later.
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Dynamic Controls
Using the options provided in the Labels Dynamic Controls section, you can enable/disable dynamic labels,
dynamically updated labels, and create label scale with depth.
To Select 3D View Labels Dynamic Controls:
1. Click on the Advanced tab.
2. Go to the Labels Dynamic Controls section which is the first section under this tab.
3. Select the Enable Dynamic labels checkbox. If the conversion scene contains 3D text labels, these

will be represented by small rectangular text strings anchored to fixed 3D locations. When this check-
box is selected, the orientation will by dynamically adjusted inside the PDF viewer such that the labels
remain aligned to the viewer. Dynamic labels are enabled by default. De-select the checkbox to disable
dynamic labels.
4. Select the Label Scale With Depth checkbox to represent 3D Text labels as small rectangular text
strings anchored to fixed 3D locations. When this checkbox is selected along with the Enable
Dynamic labels checkbox, the orientation will be dynamically adjusted inside the PDF viewer such
that the labels remain approximately a fixed size invariant to distance from the viewer.
5. Select the Continuous Update checkbox to enable continuous update. There are two ways in which
this happens. First, (the default), the labels are refreshed with dynamic orientation control as the user
drags the mouse and rotates or zooms the 3D scene. If this checkbox is not selected, the update is
deferred until the user lifts up the mouse at the end of a drag gesture. This is useful if the scene is large
and update speed is slow.
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Flash Controls
When controls are added, they can be in two distinct styles. Traditional Adobe form type controls are very
common, and are supported by historical Adobe Readers, back to version 7. The new Flash controls are
based on rich media annotations embedded in the PDF page, using the Flash style interaction available at ver-
sion 9 or later.
When controls are added, a menu selector is available to specify the style.
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Insert Additional Controls

You can add additional controls to the PDF 3D View using the options available under the PDF 3D View tab.

To Insert Additional Controls:
1. Click on the PDF 3D View Settings tab.
2. Go to the Insert Additional Controls section which is the last section under this tab.
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3. Select the Insert Controls For Mouse 3D Probe checkbox to enable mouse 3D probe. This enables

2 options: Use Compact Mouse 3D Probe and Default Mode which specify the default Mouse3D
probe mode to be used.
4. Select the Insert Controls For Z-Scaling checkbox to insert Z-Scale controls which are predefined
controls, which allow scaling of the entire scene along Z-axis. Then select the default Z-Scale factor
using the arrow buttons to scroll through the values until you find a desired value.
5. Select the Insert Metadata Controls checkbox to enable metadata controls by default when the PDF
page is open. Otherwise, the metadata controls are disabled. Note model must contain metadata.
There is also a possibility to add it manually, see How To Adjust Advanced Parameters.
6. Select the Insert Layer Separation Controls to specify that an interactive layer control menu should
be inserted into the PDF page.
7. If Insert Layer controls is enabled, the Default Separation Factor can be set as a percent of the model
bounding box size.
8. The Embed Runtime Libraries option specifies (for flash controls) if the runtime libraries will be
included in the PDF file.
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PDF 3D View Settings

The PDF 3D View tab enables you select what you would like to see in your output file and how you would like
to see it. Using the options provided in this tab, you can select the 3D View settings for the converted file.
To Setup 3D View Settings:
1. Click on the PDF 3D View tab.
2. The first section under this tab is the 3D View Modes setting. Using the options provided in this sec-

tion you can, enable default view, select zoom factor, Lighting Scheme and Render Mode. You can
also set a background color for 3D views and show the Model Tree Menu. Click here to learn more
about setting up 3D View settings.
3. Activation, Deactivation Modes set when the 3D view is active during the viewing session. This can be
set to immediately when the PDF is open, or when the page becomes visible, or set to "Manual" which
displays a "Click to Activate" message to the user.
4. The last section under this tab is the Insert Additional Controls section. Using the options available
in this section you can insert additional controls into the 3D View. Click here to learn how.
5. You can find more options (like Labels Dynamic Controls) related to the 3D View Settings on the
Advanced tab.
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Defining 2D Page Layout Settings

The page and format settings can be set up in the Format Parameters section under the Page Layout tab.
Using the options available in this section, you can select page format, page width, page height and margins.

NOTE: All layout parameters are specified in units of typesetting "point", or "pt". A pt unit is 1/72 inches, or
0.35277mm. Accordingly, A4 page size is 595 x 842 pts, while Letter format is 612 x 792 pts. The menu is
provided to show page size in any of these units.
To Define Page Settings:
1. Click on the Page Layout settings tab.
2. Go to the Format Parameters section which is the first section under the Page Layout tab.

3. In the Format field, select the paper format from the drop-down list of available paper formats. Select
the Landscape checkbox if the format should be in landscape mode.
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4. In the Page Width field,the values are displayed based on the page format selected. You can only
adjust the page width when the Custom option is selected in the Format field. Use the arrow buttons
to scroll up or down till you reach the desired page width.
5. In the Page Height field,the values are displayed based on the page format selected. You can only
adjust the page height when the Custom option is selected in the Format field. Use the arrow buttons
to scroll up or down till you reach the desired page height.
Note: According to the ISO 32000 (PDF) specification, page size shall not be less than 3 or
greater than 14400 units (pts) in either direction.
6. In the Left Margin, Right Margin, Top Margin and Bottom Margin fields, use the arrow buttons to
scroll up or down till you reach the desired margins. These define the position of the 3D view, relative to
the page border.
7. Once you select the Format Parameters, the next step is to define the Image Parameters.
Note page layout can also be pre-specified in a template PDF, where by using Merge Modes an existing
dummy 3D view can be replaced, or the target view layout can be specified using a place-holder layout.
Legend Bar Placement

In some operation which include the generation of a legend bar, such as appying a colormap to elevation ter-
rain models, the legend is automatically placed on the page in a default layout. To allow more precise pos-
itioning, explicit layout parameters can be enabled.
In the Position LeftPosition Right, Width and Height fields, the legend bar with text labels and title can be

placed, relative to the page border.
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Geospatial Interface Settings

The Geospatial tab allows for conversion of models in a geospatial coordinate system. Here various attribute
information about the model data can be specified. This is somewhat related to operations on the Grid tab, and
the Interface Settings Color Mapping and Elevation tab.
The Geospatial Geospatial tab user interface is shown below.
Geospatial Input Units:

l The XY Unit parameter sets in which unit are XY coordinates. By default X and Y values are in meters,
but they can also be in degrees, miles, km, etc. Currently PDF3DReportGen and GRD_Inteface marks
data that they are in the specified units, instead of performing actual unit conversion. The unit con-
version is performed in the following cases:
1. If XY Unit is not equal Z Unit and Z Unit can be assigned to Model Units Type parameter. In
such a case XY coordinates are being converted to Z Unit. Also Model Units Type parameter is
forced to Z Unit parameter value and becomes gray-out
2. If XY Unit is not equal Z Unit and Z Unit can not be assigned to Model Units Type but XY Unit
can be assigned to Model Units Type. In such a case Z coordinates are being converted to XY
Unit. The Model Units Type parameter is forces to XY Unit parameter value and becomes gray-
out
3. If both XY Unit and Z Unit can not be assigned to Model Units Type then all coordinates are
being converted to meters. Model Units Type is forced to meters also and becomes gray-out
l The Z Unit parameter sets in which unit is Z coordinate. By default Z values are in meters, but they can
also be in feet, fathoms, etc. Also see notes for XY Unit parameter.
l When unset the default is standard input units - or specified by the input file format.
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Coordinate System
The Original Orientation ["Right Hand (Z+Up)", "Right Hand (Y+Up)] selector applies a transformation on
the 3D coordinates to a new orientation. The 3D PDF view coordinate system is "Right Hand", so incoming
data is normally assumed to also conform to "Right Hand" coordinate assumptions.
This option selects one of two possible coordinate space orientations for the 3D view. The default is Z+Up,
which is the normal Adobe Reader default view setting. In this orientation, X coordinates in a default home
view will be along the horizontal left-right direction on screen, while the Z coordinates will be vertical top-bot-
tom of screen view. The Y axes will be shown as depth into the screen, along viewing direction.
If the Y+Up option is selected, then the PDF is generated with an additional 90 degree scene rotation, by
means of a root node level transformation matrix. In this modified orientation, X coordinates in a default home
view are still along the horizontal left-right direction on screen, while the Y coordinates will be vertical top-bot-
tom of screen view. The Z axes will be shown as depth into the screen, along viewing direction. You may
observe this additional node in the 3D PDF viewer model tree.
The original orientation option setting does not change to Left hand coordinates or change the sign (directional
meaning) of any axis. The selection of Z+Up or Y+Up affects all the scene's 3D contents, including axes,
labels, animations, layers, etc, from any of the available interfaces and file types. It is not restricted to use
with Geospatial data, however the menu is placed on the Geospatial tab because that is the most frequent
use. The Mouse3D probe menu option reports the original coordinates, before rotation.
Prescale Factor, X Axis, Y Axis, Z Axis allow for special case where the input data is already pre-multiplied
by some artificial scale factor. If this is known, then value can be entered here. This will allow Probe, Z Scal-
ing, and other operations to correctly interpret the input data.

System - Coordinate System selected from Input, Cartesian, Geographic, Projected, Custom WKT con-
ditions the input data according to the coordinate system used. If one of Geographic or Projected is selected,
then a further menu appears for GCS (Geographic) or PCS (Projected) coordinate system specifications. If
Input, then this setting will attempt to obtain the coordinate system from the input data where available. For
non-geospatial applications, such as CAD or Engineering, the automatic input mode will not assume any
coordinates, or the Cartesian (x,y,z) mode can be specified.
In Geographic or Project, a selection list of standard EPSG and WKT entries are provided for selection. If the
designed coordinate system is not available in this list, a Custom WKT can be specified.
The coordinate system list can be very long to navigate. The blue/green icon at the right can be used to
expose a search string box. Any text or numerical value can be entered which will subset the long list to only
those entries containing the typed string.
Geospatial Image
Alternatively an image file can be selecting using Use Image File as Texture. Texture images are mapped
fully onto the grid surface, so aspect ratio and alignment boundary must be arranged before use.
A Georeference World-File, .jpw, tfw, or PROJ file, etc., if placed next the imported image, with exactly the
same base filename, should be recognized and loaded. This extra world file specifies the geographic coordin-
ate system for the image, and allows draping over georegisted grids, without requiring exact extent fitting.
If specifying a GeoTIFF image, the coordinate system in the header of the file will be used.
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Enable High Resolution Textures option can be checked in order to increase the resolution and fidelity of the
image, at the expense of larger file size and potentially less interactive performance. The Adobe Reader 3D
display sub-system, for instance imposes a cap on possible texture image sizes. With this option in the
default disabled state, texture images above this threshold are resampled to lower resolution, smaller images
to retain good interactive performance and smaller file size. If this option is checked, then high resolution
images above the threshold do not get re-sampled, and go through to the 3D scene. Note that texture splitting
may be another option to achieve high quality images, by a method which splits up meshes and images so
that each individual texture image is smaller, to avoid display-time re-sampling. Further note that where
images are directly referenced from an external file, such as OBJ+JPEG this resolution re-sampling is
avoided, and the original image encoding is used directly.

Default view generation is recommended to be set to "Geospatial" rather than "CAD", assuming the datum
and coordinate system is North-aligned.
North Compass -A North direction indicator is available on the Scene Axes tab.
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Gridding Settings
The Geospatial tab allows for conversion of gridded elevation or non-gridded XYZ point cloud data The GRID
interface is able to create an elevation mesh display from grid or scatter data, with annotations such as
legend, compass, and 3D axes display.
The Grid settings are related and used in conjunction with the Geospatial tab and Interface Settings Color Map-
ping and Elevation tab.
Below is an overview of the Gridding tab user interface:
Gridding Parameters
Subsampling: Before a loaded grid is decimated or the loaded point cloud is processed, the mesh can be
reduced by a factor of Subsampling and the number of sampled points within a point cloud is reduced by the
same factor. As illustration, a 100x100 input grid, with Subsampling=2, will skip every 2nd row and column, to
create a 50x50 grid, containing 1/4 the original data. In the case of a point cloud, every Nth input point will be
used.
Skip Full Grid is important for large grids. When Subsampling is employed, normally the original high res-
olution grid data is directly converted to a large texture image, using the loaded colormap file. This may gen-
erate a very large image, draped onto a reduced resolution geometric grid. To further reduce memory
requirements, processing time and file size, enable Skip Full Grid so that the texture map is generated at the
reduced Subsampling grid size, rather than the original input file grid size.
Skip Full Grid controls the resolution of the texture generated for the overlay colormap. The default mode is
that the original high resolution input grid dimensions are preserved, and a full colour image texture is gen-
erated. However, of very large grids, say 2k x 2k or larger, this image may take a large amount of memory. In
this case, enable Skip Full Grid, so the image is at the subsampled resolution, rather than the full original res-
olution.
Gridding Operation
Just show the Points: To work with Point Cloud data and show the points directly without gridding, be sure to
select Interpolation = Point Cloud rather than the default IDW interpolation mode.
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Because this interface starts with numerical data rather than a 3D geometric structure, it operates with slightly
different assumptions to other interfaces. If you load a data file in one of the supported formats for the GRID
interface, then background is always white, and a legend is placed on the right side of the plot area if you
include a colormap for elevation. Animation over multiple files in sequence are available GRID style plots.
Controls
Hill Shade Parameters: Add light or shade to the scene as would occur if a light were shone from a pre-

scribed source with prescribed bearing, infinitely far away. All angles are in degrees. A flat earth is assumed,
with no curvature.
l The Hill Shade is a calculated value determining the magnitude of the shading for the scene, based
upon the values of the remaining parameters. Zero means no effect is visible, 1 means full effect.
l The Zenith angle is the angle between the upward vertical and the direction of the light source.
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l The Azimuth angle is the angle between the x-axis and the projection of a vector directed towards the
light source onto the x-y plane.
l The Z Factor governs a scaling of the z-axis units and is taken into account when shading.
For more information on HillShade, please see:
Arcgis desktop 9.2 How Hillshade Works
Tin Parameters: Set parameters for the simplification (or decimation) algorithm. The Error Measure defines
the stopping criteria for the process, and the process terminates when the first of the following occurs:
l The number of triangles is Triangles, or Triangles plus or minus 1,
l The number of triangles is reduced by the Reduction factor,
l The absolute error is below Absolute,
l The relative error is below Relative.
A Tin is an optimized triangle network, a class of a Vector GIS data structure, representing the original grid
only with fewer triangles. In areas where the surface is relatively flat, large triangles are used, and where there
are changing slope smaller more refined triangles are used.
If Tin is not enabled, the original full grid is used for display.
For more information on TIN, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulated_irregular_network
IDW Parameters: The Inverse Distance Weighting algorithm uses Shepard's method to produce an inter-
polated surface from a discrete set of points. Given a set of points { xk } with corresponding sample values { u (
xk ) }, the interpolated function is given by:
where
and p > 0 is a power. The larger the value of p, the sharper the peaks at the interpolated points become.
Point Cloud Parameters
l Interpolation: Perform IDW presents the choice between reconstructing the grid from a point cloud, or
simply exporting a mesh of individual points. If points are exported as lines, they will have lengths of
Relative Length multiplied by the length of the diagonal of the bounding box.
l Interpolation: the Point Cloud option displays the individual points (after subsampling) directly the in 3D
view, as a point cloud. When showing the direct point cloud, the points will normally be shown as 2x2
pixel points on screen, either black, or coloured by colormap file data, or by directly loaded RGB colors.
l The Generate Grid (former Clustered) box determines whether the IDW performed is clustered or is per-
formed non-clustered VTK based IDW, or grid is generated using Nearest Neighbor algorithm. Clus-
tering can be more efficient for large point clouds, and may result in noisier appearing surfaces. The
Nearest Neighbor algorithm is implemented as fast binning method, so it can be used for gridding of
very large point clouds (e.g. 100 milion points and larger).
l The Power sets the value of p as explained above, typically 2 for distance squared.
l Only points within a radius of Radius of a given point are taken into account in the above calculations.
l The Radius Type presents a choice between the absolute radius or a value relative to the length of the
diagonal of the bounding box.
l An interpolated point is exported only if the number of sample points within the chosen radius exceeds
Min Points.
l Max Points sets a limit on the number of sample values to be taken into account.
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Cell Size Parameters
l The Width and Height variables set the number of columns and rows of the output grid.
l The Geospatial Width and Geospatial Height variables set the geospatial width and height of cell of gen-
erated grid. Values can be relative or absolute, depending on Metric Type.
l The Metric Type sets wheather to use Width and Height or Geospatial variant for specifying cell's size
of output grid. Also selects wheather Geospatial values are relative or absolute.
l The Square Cells sets forcing generating of square cells in output grid. This option is necessary if out-
put grid is exported to ESRI format too.
l The Extend XY Extent is helpful when performing IDW interpolation, such that the resulting grid covers
the extend of the original points plus an extrapolated border based on the interpolation radius.
For more information on IDW please see:
Wikipedia on Inverse_distance_weighting

: North Compass -A North direction indicator is available on the Scene Axes tab.
Additional controls are on the GRD Interface tab:

l Export Image as Quad is used where a plane extent image should be placed as-is in the 3D scene,
without being interpreted as an elevation grid.
File Parameters:
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l A filename for the exported grid can be set with Save Grid to File Possible exported file types are ESRI
ArcGIS ASCII Grid (.asc) and Surfer Grid (.grd).
l A filename for the TIN Mesh may be set with Save Decimated TIN Mesh to File. Possible exported file
types are:
l xyz - Ascii 3-column CSV file of vertices from Tin
l stl - triangle mesh, without color
l ply - Stanford polygon format
l vtk - VTK/ParaView compatible triangle mesh file
l net - old ArcInfo TIN format (unsupported)
l tri - simple triangle file format
l obj - Wavefront OBJ graphics file, triangle mesh, material and texture exported for 3D Studio
Max, Maya, visual simulation software import.

Workflow Guidance
Note that in the case of XYZ point cloud data, or any form of GRID data as input, subsampling may be used to
eliminate a portion of the data from consideration, right at the start. This may be helpful if you have a large data
set and wish to start with a simple overview.
Any IDW data preparation is performed to produce a grid data structure with uniform size cells. Only after
such a grid is produced, can an image overlay be applied, or an optimized or decimated TIN be generated.
There is currently no direct path from point cloud to triangle surface, without first creating a grid.
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Default view generation is recommended to be set to "Geospatial" rather than "CAD". This will also allow the
inclusion of a geographic Compass rather than simple axes at the corner of the view.

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Visual Effects
Various 3D object visual effects can be specified in this panel, such as applying color mapping to elevation or
attribute data, selecting data to be mapped, and surface characteristics.
Color Mapping
Texturing - Colormap File

l The Texturing tick box determines whether to create the texture from a passed vertex color or to pass
colors as vertex colors. In general, Texturing enabled is recommended for most uses. If disabled, ver-
tex colors will be at the subsampled grid resolution, and lighting and shading will be disabled in the 3D
PDF view.
l The Legend Label sets text to be shown above the legend bar on the right side of the exported PDF
page.
l A colormap to be applied can be chosen with Use Colormap File as Texture. The texture file format
may be Surfer (.clr) or ParaView XML type. A texture image is generated internally based on Elev-
ation/Depth values of grid. See How-To section for description of colormap formats.
l Alternatively an image file can be selecting using Use Image File as Texture on the Geospatial tab.
Set Colormap Range
l Colormap Min and Max values set a user-specified elevation to be mapped onto the colormap range,
shown in the legend. If not specified, colormap is applied to the full extent of the input data range.
l The Map Colormap is helpful when some additional attribute or color source is available in the input
file.The representation "Along Z Values" is to apply a colormap file, with color legendbar annotation,
showing elevation of the grid or point input data. If the input data has some attribute, such as LiDAR
"intensity", then "With Attributes" applies the colormap file and legendbar to these attributes, rather
than Z. Note that "With Attributes" is the default, and not attributes are available, this mode should be
set to "Along Z Values". Further, if the input file contains RGB colour values, then "Show RGB Colors"
can be specified to ignore Z, intensity and directly use the input model colour, such as in xyzrgb input
files.
l Set Intensity Range may be selected to subset the range of interest from all the available input data,
where input data has secondary attribute information, such as in LiDAR xyz + intensity. If enabled,
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then only data falling within specified Min-Max range will be loaded from file and shown, all other input
data elements will be ignored.
l Intensity Min specifies minimum attribute to consider if Set Intensity Range is enabled.
l Intensity Max specifies maximum attribute to consider if Set Intensity Range is enabled.
Binding to Attributes or Elevation
Channel Selection for Color, Attributes and Elevation Data

Raster image formats such as GeoTIFF and IMG may contain RGB color images, or some multi-channel
attribute data, or even elevation terrain data. This tab enables selection to pick out the most appropriate chan-
nels for conversion.
Binding Mode
To use an elevation colormap file on typical elevation data, change Binding Mode to "Along Z" If displaying
RGB color directly from the file, normally the correct colormap channels will be selected. However, if needed
these can be specified manually as zero-based channel number in a multi-channel file (such as .IMG).
Elevation Mode
Normally images are used as 2D quads or as textures. In the case the image such as GeoTIFF or IMG contain
elevation data, this Elevation mode parameter should be set to enable Elevation mode. In this way the raster
data will be interpreted as a 3D elevation terrain grid. Where there is misssing data, the missing data flag
value can be specified.
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Material Surface Shading Effects
This section lets you to select a color for diffuse, specular, ambient and emission. As well as shininess and
crease angle. Note that enabling this options will override the original parameter (ambient color, shininess,
etc.) on the scene.
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Scene Axes Settings

The Scene Axes settings section allows you to enable showing axes information, unit's labels and compass
symbol on the PDF file.
To enable Scene Axes settings
Click on the Scene Axes tab.
1. The first section is the General parameters, here you can enable X/Y/Z axis annotation line, tics and
labels by clicking the corresponding checkboxes. It is possible to enable showing the unit's labels from
those axes as well. In Addition, the Scalebar option adds a chess-board black and white border design
to any enabled axis.
2. The Axes options control which axes are generated with a choice of any combination of X, Y, Z in your
full 3D scene. Axes are most often used in geospatial context, and less often for general 3D models.
To improve usability, when PDF3DReportGen first starts, the X, Y, Z and Scalebar options are turned
off. When you start to load data files in the Input file list, the first time any geospatial type is noticed,
the axes selection will be switched to X=true, Y=true, Z=false, Scalebar=true, as most common set-
tings for geospatial data. Thereafter, as soon as you touch any of these controls by hand, or reload a
state file, your choices will be respected and further file loading of any type will not change them. Units
may optionally be shown next to the numerical labels.
3. The Scalebar option controls the style of display. Normal is a simple line, with small tic lines and
labels. If scalebar is enabled, the display style is upgraded to a chess-board style black and white
scalebar set just inside from the boundary labels. The scalebar and tic label boundaries are set to
whole numbers where possible, such as 10,20,30, or 2,4,6, or 100,150,200,250 etc. The actual data
minimum and maximum are shown also for clarity at the extreme ends of the axes.
4. The Minimal Number of Labels per axes, allows adjustment for how many floating text labels are
shown along each of the major axes. This is helpful if labels overlap. The actual number of labels will
vary due to numerical rounding to whole number boundaries.
5. The Axes Elevation parameter determines the height at which the axes will be positioned relative to the
3D model, normally it is set near data minimum (0.0), with 1.0. near the top extent as a linear pro-
portion.
6. North Compass -The normal Adobe corner axes shows small arrow lines with "X", "Y", "Z" labels. Note
that if this Y+Up transformation is applied to the root scene node, these will not longer represent the
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correct labels. Enabling the "North Compass" corner annotation will avoid confusion if you have geo-
spatial data. The effect of this transformation is on actual 3D model coordinate space, it does not con-
trol camera views. Specifying Compass will replace the default axes with a north compass symbol in
the lower left corner of the view.
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Annotations Settings
The Annotations settings section allows you to define the movie clip, image parameters and text parameters
for annotating your PDF files.
To Define Annotations
1. The first section is the Multimedia Parameters section. Here you can add a new image to the output

PDF, define image position and also define the image width and height. Click here to learn more about
image settings.
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2. The last section is the Text Parameters section. Using the options available in this section, you can

add a title and a caption. Click here to learn more about text parameters.
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Adding Multimedia to Output Document

You can optionally include an image in the output PDF file using the Multimedia Parameters section under the
Annotation settings tab.
To Add Media Details:
1. Click on the Annotations tab.
2. Go to the Multimedia Parameters section which is the first section under the Annotations tab.

3. Select the Add The Following Media (Image or Flash File) checkbox. When selecting an image
file, images in TIFF, JPEG, PNG, BMP image formats may be selected.
4. Media can be either a simple image, described above, or a FLASH (.swf) animation clip. Both are
placed on the page in a similar way. PDF3DReportGen does not contain methods to generate the .swf
file, this must be authored externally then added here.
5. Click on the Change button and browse to the location on your computer where the media is located.
Once you locate the media, click on the Open button. The path to the media will be inserted into the
field.
6. In the Media position (X): field, use the arrow buttons to scroll up or down until you reach the desired
horizontal media position value.
7. In the Media position (Y): field, use the arrow buttons to scroll up or down until you reach the desired
vertical media position.
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8. Select the Scale media checkbox to resize the media to a particular size, and then enter the media
width and height in the New Media Width and New Media Height fields which become enabled once
you select the Scale Media checkbox.
9. The next step is to define the Text Parameters.
NOTE: All layout parameters are specified in units of typesetting "point", or "pt". A pt unit is 1/72 inches, or
0.35277mm. Accordingly, A4 page size is 595 x 842 pts, while Letter format is 612 x 792 pts. The Media Pos-
ition parameters specify the bottom left corner of the media location, and are relative to the bottom left corner
of the PDF page.

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Adding Title and Sub-title to Document

In addition to defining the page settings and the optional image settings, you can also add a title and a caption
to your output document using the options available.

To Add Title and Sub-title:
1. Click on the Annotations tab.
2. Go to the Text Parameters section which is the last section under the Annotations tab.

3. Select the Add Title checkbox and type in the title in the adjacent field which becomes enabled as
soon as you select the checkbox.
4. Optionally you can also select the Add Caption Text checkbox and add a subtitle in the adjacent field
which becomes enabled as soon as you select the Add Caption Text checkbox.
5. Set enabled as default, the AltText Under 3D adds a text message within the 3D view area which
would only be visible if the 3D view is not activated or if the PDF is viewed in an application which does
not support 3D.
6. Add Keywords: if keywords are added, these are embedded inside the PDF, which can be reviewed
using the Adobe Reader File-Properties menu. If PDF/E Compliance is enabled, the extra keywords
are part of the PDF/Engineering metadata.
7. Add Watermark: if added, this displays watermark text in the PDF's 3D view.
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Animation and Layers

Enabling Animation
By default all selected files are merged into the 3D scene. If more than one file is selected, Sequence Anim-
ation may be enabled to produce a playback sequence, akin to Flip-Book Animation. If more than one file is
selected and Layered is enabled, all files are shown at once, with a layer separation control added to the PDF
file.
If Spin is enabled, the entire scene is rotated around a central axis, at an approximate Revolutions Per Minute
(RPM) speed.
Animation and related settings may be defined using the simple menu, shown below.
Operation
If you load more than one input file, then Exploded, Layered, or Animation menus become available. These are
not available for single input files. The Spin menu is always available.
Controls
No options selected (default)
If none of the above options are selected, all input files are merged into the same scene, always visible, shar-
ing a coordinate system, without animation.
Exploded
The Exploded option shows the input files separated in space, in a general side-by-side layout. This can be
helpful to compare two different variations of a model. No animation is shown. The positions of exploded
objects can be specified by offset position, scale and rotation using the Interface Settings Common menu.
Layered
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When Layered is selected, and multiple input files are in the same coordinate system, they will be shown co-
existing in the same scene, with an offset applied defined by the three X,Y,Z offset vector values. In addition,
a layer menu is added to the PDF, allowing the user to control layer visibility and offset multiplier along the
defined axis. The layered mode must be enabled to add the Layer Control feature to the page using the con-
trols option settings.
Sequence Animation
If Sequence Animation is selected, then each of the input files will be loaded one at a time, and shown in
sequence making a small movie flip-book. A playback control for pause, play, stop, playback speed and
single step is added to the PDF under the 3D view.
Progressive Animation
If the Progressive option is also enabled, then as the animation sequence progresses, each new input is
added into the scene without hiding any previous input. In this way the scene slowly assembles until at the
last step all input models are visible.
X, Y, Z type-in fields
The three floating point number fields define the X, Y, Z offset vector used to displace models when the
Layered option is selected.
Spin Scene
If Spin Scene is selected, a very simple 360 degree continuous rotation is applied to the entire scene, where
all objects are rotated around the scene center. The speed and axis are defined by the X, Y, Z vector. A small
playback menu is added below the 3D view.
Rotations Per Minute (RPM)
The rotation rate, specified in rotations per minute may be set. Note, this is only approximate, the actual rate
will depend on the model size, rendering speed of the computer display, etc.
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Security Settings
The Security Settings section enables you to protect the output PDF file with a password so that you can limit
viewing, editing, printing, and other options to users. The Security Settings tab is only enabled when the
Security Parameters checkbox near the top of this tab is selected.
To Define Security Settings
1. Click on the Security Settings tab. This is the last tab to the right. The contents of the security set-
tings tab will be displayed.

2. Enter an owner's password in the Enter Document's Owner Password and Re-Enter Document's
Owner Password fields. When you set an owner's password, you must select the permissions that
you want to restrict. The users will not need a password to open the document. However, they must
provide the password to access restricted features.
3. You can also create a document user password . When you create this type of a password, users will
need to enter a password in order to view the PDF.
4. If the PDF is secured with both types of passwords, it can be opened with either password. However,
only the permissions password allows the user to change the restricted features. Because of the added
security, setting both types of passwords is often beneficial.
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5. Select Encryption method, one of:
1. RC4 v1 (40bit) weakest
2. RC4 v2 (128bit) moderate
3. AES v2 (128bit) moderate
4. AES v3 (256bit) highest available, latest standard
Note: We recommend the highest level where possible.
According to Adobe documents, all Adobe products enforce the restrictions set by the Owner or permissions
password. However, if third-party products do not support or respect these settings, document recipients are
able to bypass some or all of the restrictions you set.
Important: If you forget a password, there is no way to recover it from the PDF. Consider keeping a backup
copy of the PDF that is not password-protected. Currently the security method uses a low level 40-bit RC4
type of encryption which is known to be vulnerable to attacks, with evidence of third-party bypass tools being
available. If possible use AES v3 256-bit encryption.
Visual Technology Services is not liable for any loss of data or damages arising from any bypasses of PDF
security.
The passwords used in the top fields for Owner and User are exposed if the Settings are Exported, as they are
saved in clear text in XML tags. The default (hidden) value can be revealed using this technique, if you have
created a secure document with default settings and wish to edit it further in Acrobat.
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Advanced Settings
The advanced settings section allows you to define special values, normally OK to leave as default settings,
which may be adjusted for special considerations.
Adjusting 3D Label Dynamic Controls
1. Click on the Advanced tab.
2. The first section under this tab is the Labels Dynamic Controls section. Using the options available
in this section you can enable/disable the dynamic controls. Click here to learn how enable the
dynamic controls and disable them when required.
3. Go to the Labels Dynamic Controls section which is the first section under this tab.

4. Select the Enable Dynamic labels checkbox. If the conversion scene contains 3D text labels, these
will be represented by small rectangular text strings anchored to fixed 3D locations. When this check-
box is selected, the orientation will by dynamically adjusted inside the PDF viewer such that the labels
remain aligned to the viewer. Dynamic labels are enabled by default. De-select the checkbox to disable
dynamic labels.
5. Select the Label Scale With Depth checkbox to represent 3D Text labels as small rectangular text
strings anchored to fixed 3D locations. When this checkbox is selected along with the Enable
Dynamic Labels checkbox,the orientation will be dynamically adjusted inside the PDF viewer such
that the labels remain approximately a fixed size invariant to distance from the viewer.
6. Select the Continuous Update checkbox to enable continuous dynamic update on labels. There are
two ways in which this happens. First, (the default), the labels are refreshed with dynamic orientation
control as the user drags the mouse and rotates or zooms the 3D cene. If this checkbox is not selec-
ted, the update is deferred until the user lifts up the mouse at the end of a drag gesture. This is useful if
the scene is large and update speed is slow.
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Adjusting 3D Processing Options
Using the options available in this section you can enable/disable VCT mode, enable/disable image black
masking, set navigation tool and constraint default values, etc.

1. Select the Enable VCT checkbox to enable the VCT (Vertex Colored Texture) color processor. When
you select this checkbox, PDF3D will supply a default colored texture, you can change it to grayscale
or other color scheme in the dropdown list next to this checkbox.
2. Select the Use Original Normals checkbox to pass normals through and use them in the 3D PDF
model. If not selected, normals are ignored and normals are auto-generated within the PDF3D system.
This option should only be needed in rare conditions.
3. Select Image Black Masking mode, for special cases such as Coin3D VRML file processing, where
JPEG images are referenced with RGB values, and the special colour black should be replaced by
transparent, invisible pixels. Where such texture images are used on 3D geometry, black areas will be
hidden.
4. Selecting Navigation Constraint will generate a PDF where mouse interaction in the 3D viewport has
3D rotation turned off, or 2D pan-zoom, or all interaction, according to this control.
5. Z-Fighting Prevention adds a dynamic scene management component in the PDF, whereby models
with co-incident surfaces are moved slightly apart, and lines and surfaces at the same depth are
moved slightly apart so that the lines do not become buried and hidden by the surface. The separation
is dynamically calculated along the viewing direction. It may introduce small artefacts in perspective
views.
6. Perform Scene Normalization provides an overall scene numerical normalization such that large
dynamic range numerical transformations are improved to reduce jitter or mis-alignments.
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Simplification Processing of 3D Model Data
Simplification is the process of reducing total triangle count whenever possible preserving features of the
model. Simplified models may increase interactive performance speed, and reduce storage requirements for
output file. Each model node, mesh is simplified individually, the total number of nodes remains unchanged,
unless some very small node has all triangles removed. The simplification process preserves boundary edges
for overall shape, processes non-manifold mesh topology, and includes attribute preserving methods (color or
texture). Processing of TriangleSets, LineSegmentSets and PointSets is supported.
Threshold Triangles Count specifies approximate triangle count of the simplified model. For single-model
scenes, this is an exact threshold for output triangle count. For multi-model scenes, it is an approximate
threshold. Per-model Triangle Count Threshold is calculated based on this parameter, average triangles per
model diagonal, and total triangles count.
Threshold Lines Count specifies approximate line count of the simplified model. For single-model scenes,
this is an exact threshold for output line count. For multi-model scenes, it is an approximate threshold. Per-
model Line Count Threshold is calculated based on this parameter, average lines per model diagonal, and total
lines count.
Threshold Points Count specifies approximate point count of the simplified model. For single-model
scenes, this is an exact threshold for output point count. For multi-model scenes, it is an approximate
threshold. Per-model Point Count Threshold is calculated based on this parameter, average points per model
diagonal, and total point count.
Only Subset Placement enabled selects each simplified model vertex only from existing vertex positions.
Default method (when OFF) computes optimal new vertex position, with less distortion error.
Boundary Weight is a weight factor specifically for boundary faces (face with only one adjacent simplex) in
the simplification error measure. The high default value has the normally desireable effect of preserving details
at boundary faces where possible. When simplex is triangle - face is edge, when line segment - face is end-
point.
Point Weight is a specific weight factor for point positions in the simplification error measure. For well-con-
ditioned models simplification process is driven by model planes formed by it's triangles (or by model lines
formed by it's line segments), and such small default value for position weight does not affect overall process
much. However, for degenerate models, like ones with all points lie on same plane or line, even small con-
tribution from point positions improves overall robustness. This weight is not used during simplification of
PointSets.
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UV Weight is a specific weight factor of significance applied for Texture UV parameters in multi-dimensional
simplification space. Weight 1.0 means that UV error vector with magnitude 1.0 equivalent to XYZ error vector
with magnitude of scene diagonal. Note this is a measure based on the texture coordinate mapping, not the
actual texture image color. This measure is applied only when Texture UV coordinates are present on the
model.
RGB Weight is a specific weight factor of significance for Color RGB values in multi-dimensional sim-
plification space. Weight 1.0 means that RGB error vector with magnitude 1.0 equivalent to XYZ error vector
with magnitude of scene diagonal. This measure is used only where vertex RGB color values are present on
the model.

Simplification Process Description
Internally Simplification works by iteratively contracting two model points into one until stop criteria is not met.
Simplexes (triangles or line segments) which were adjacent to both points are removed from model, as they
become degenerate.
Each point has an implicit set of "affiliated" simplexes (triangles, line segments, points). Initially each point
has only adjacent simplexes in the affiliated set. When two points A and B are merged, their affiliated sets are
merged and are associated with new point C (which is result of the contraction). The computed Error of this
contraction is sum of squared distances between all simplexes in affiliated set and point C, i.e. Error = ∑(Xi-
C)2 where Xi is simplex in affiliated set.
Initially Error is zero, because point lies on each of hyperplanes formed by adjacent simplexes (point lies on
each plane of it's adjacent triangles, on each line of adjacent line segments). But during simplification process
error is increased, because affiliated set would contain simplexes which were not adjacent originally, and
which may do not share common intersection point with original simplexes.
Distances are measured in n-dimensional space, which respects model attributes. I.e. if both colors and tex-
ture coordinates are available then space components are (x,y,z,r,g,b,u,v).
On each iteration contraction pair with smallest result error is selected from candidate set.
In case of line segments and triangle sets - candidate contraction pairs are line segments of original model (tri-
angle edges in case of triangle sets and line segments itself in case of line segments set). Point Cloud Sim-
plification differs only in a way how candidate contraction pairs are selected - they are deduced from spatial
hierarchical tree which spans all points, allowing us to accurately approach target threshold value without user
parameter attention, while producing a faithful approximation of original model.
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Common Parameters
To set Common Parameters:
1. Click on the Interface Settings tab.
2. This section lets you to select a color for diffuse, specular, ambient and emission. As well as shininess
and crease angle. Note that enabling this options will override the original parameter (ambient color,
shininess, etc.) on the scene.
3. Object Position, Scale and Orientation can be specified per-object using the "Create Options" and
"Apply Settings To" menus. Please note that "Exploded" must also be enabled on the Animation tab.
4. Draping Mode specifies conforming and draping vector shapes onto terrains. It is possible to drape
images, lines, polygons onto CAD format terrain surfaces as well as the more traditional terrain grid
formats (.asc, .grd). This requires to specify a "TerrainMode" enabled for the target surface object.
Other files such as 2D shapefiles, kml or other objects are then marked as "LiesOn". This can also be
specified using XML tags, explained in the How-To Adjust Advanced settings chapter.
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2D Drawing Options
When creating a 2D PDF (rather than 3D) the conversion of geometric features on the 2D page, as vector or
raster layers can be specified with these options. To enable these options, the Conversion Output Format
should be set to 2D PDF.
By using the Create Options and Apply Settings To menus, the 2D drawing settings can be adjusted for indi-

vidual layers.
If the input model contains surface meshes, lines, points and raster data, the conversion onto the 2D page can
be adjusted to convert only a subset of these by the toggle options on the left. With the vector drawing modes,
users can zoom in to detail with viewing device independent resolution. The PDF size will scale up based on
the complexity of the geometry. When drawing meshes, a drop-down list is available, to:
l Draw only the outline edges and lines of the mesh, without area fill,
l Draw the mesh as filled triangles, with solid color within each triangle. (Note, gradient interpolation or
shading is not available in this mode)
l Draw both outline wire-frame lines and filled triangles for the same mesh
l Convert the model to RASTER, pixel image by using an off-screen rendering pass. In this mode only
the resulting image is stored in the PDF at a fixed resolution, where the resolution is specified relative
to the PDF drawing area size (viewport) adjusted by the multiplier option. The geometric scene com-
plexity scaling of file size is avoided in this mode.
In 2D drawing mode, a Layer menu is added to the PDF using "Optional Content (OC)" PDF techniques, so
each layer can be shown or hidden by the layer menu.
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VRML / IV Coin 3D Interface Options

PDF3D Report Gen allows you to use the engine of your choice for the conversion for VRML or IV file types.
The Coin3D tessellation engine is one such engine that is supported by PDF3D ReportGen. You can choose
whether to use the tessellation engine or not using the option available under the Interface Settings tab.
To Use the Coin 3D Tessellation Engine for the Conversion:
2. Go to the Coin Interface Specific Options section and select the checkbox for Use Coin3D's tes-
sellation engine. When you select this checkbox, Coin 3D's tessellation engine will be used for the
conversion. The checkbox is not selected by default, you will have to manually select it in order to use
it.
3. If you decide not to use Coin 3D's tessellation engine for your conversion, just leave the checkbox
blank. If not selected, the native PDF3D internal tessellation methods will be used, which is the pre-
ferred option in most cases.
4. If you are processing VRML files from ArcScene, then it is recommended to Enable Geospatial
Coordinates mode. This changes the transformation assumptions and menus, so that the default view
is top, looking down at a plan landscape. Also layers are automatically recognised. On the PDF 3D
View tab, the default views can also be selected to follow a geospatial oriented control system to be
added to the PDF page.
5. Define the other conversion settings and click on the Convert button to start the conversion or click on
the Exit button to close PDF3D ReportGen without saving your current session. You can also save the
6. In the Optional treatments of VRML VRML97 CCW ordering and Normals field, select an altern-
ative mode to improve conversion results. It is recommended that you use the first default setting. If
you encounter shading issues, experiment with other modes. The options available are:
l CCW 0: default mode, use file spec if possible - recommended option.
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l CCW 1: use file spec, but reverse the meaning
l CCW 2: ignore file spec, always swap
l CCW 3: ignore file spec, never swap
7. In the Optional treatments of VRML97 solid parameter field, select an alternative mode to improve

conversion results with respect to lighting and normal vector directions. The second option which is the
default setting is recommended. If you encounter shading issues, experiment with other modes. The
modes available are:
l SOLID 0: use file spec if possible
l SOLID 1: ignore file spec, never duplicate
8. The LOD Processing Mode specifies the LOD level which will be used in the conversion progress

where the originating model contains multiple resolution versions at various levels of detail. At highest
LOD level, the model will have the most detail, generating the largest output detail. At lower LOD level,
a simplified lower detail model will be used. Selecting Custom LOD Level enables the Specified
LOD Level option for you to specify direcly the LOD level.
ANSYS FEA and ArcGIS Layers

9. If you check the Scan Layer Nodes option, this enables scanning for internal layers (that may contain
some specifications, like VRML comments) to create layers that may be controller from the layer menu
system, with separate grouping nodes. This mode is especially helpfu if using VRML generated by
ArcGIS ArcScene, where layer identifiers are stored as VRML comments.
10. The Use ANSYS FEA Filter option invokes a special clean-up and reprocessing filter, designed for
ANSYS FEA, CFX and similar VRML output of analysis results. This mode can dramatically improve
efficiency of the conversion where contour bands are present, and for CFX the legend bar attributes are
automatically identified.
11. If using the ANSYS filter, the Ignore line sets option will only convert solid surface polygon portions of
the scene.
12. The Ignore last face set option is helpful where some ANSYS files add some extra axes or annotation
objects into the 3D scene.
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COMSOL Interface Settings

The COMSOL Interface Settings section under the Interface Settings tab enables you to specify settings spe-
cific to the COMSOL interface.
COMSOL Settings:
1. Select Use Results Parameters File to set the file from which will be read attribute arrays from which
will be generated textured color applied on mesh exported by COMSOL interface. Color Array Name
and Color Array Index parameters from Common Parameters group are used to define particular
attributes array, from Results Parameters file, from which colors will be generated.
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STL Interface Settings

The STL Interface Settings section under the Interface Settings tab enables you to specify settings the spe-
cific to the STL interface.
STL Settings:
1. Select STL Welding Proximity to set the proscribed relative geometric distance factor. STL files con-
tain triangles, where each triangle is specified by three XYZ vertex corners. There is no connectivity,
shared vertices or shared edges information available in this file type. Consequently, this converter nor-
mally runs a "weld" process, to identify shared corners and edges. It uses a numerical tolerance to
identify if corner locations are similar, shared, or distinct. The result eliminates duplicate corner ver-
tices, allows smooth shading, and results in improved file compression. The Weld proximity parameter
is located on the Interface Settings Common Parameters group.
2. Model Color choice. The STL file base diffuse surface color will be set according this selector.
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Teigha Interface Specific Options

Teigha is the interface responsible for converting DWG, DXF, DWF, DGN and similar file types.
To specify an assembly detail merging depth:
On the drop-down list, select Teigha:
2. Go to the Teigha Interface Specific Options and change the values which will affect the AutoCAD

DXF, DWG, DWF, DGN format conversions.
3. With theAssembly Depth option, preservation or merging of assemblies can be controlled. Teigha
input files may result in rather deep (complex) scene tree. Such deep hierarchies affect both rendering
performance and size of 3D PDF files. This parameters specifies maximum hierarchy depth in the res-
ulting 3D PDF file. Nodes at deeper levels, such as small leaf nodes, than this parameter will be
merged into appropriate scene tree group. With the default value of 1, the entire model is merged into a
single node.
4. Suppressing Lines. Models may contain either or both Lines and Surfaces. As a general guide, sur-
faces compress much better in PRC-HCT than lines. Also, sometimes the wireframe representation is
not needed for the final PDF. So the Suppress Lines option allows only surfaces to be converted. If
you still need lines but wish to control resolution, then enable Advanced Simplifcation and set a
budget for the number of lines to convert.
5. View selection. Some DWG files contain multiple views, for instance a 2D paper space view and a
3D view. By default with View Selection "*", all views are converted and merged into the same
3D scene. If the 3D model is contained in one specific view, this can be specified, ignoring other inap-
propriate views.
6. Export Layers - If input contains a logical layer structure and this option is enabled, the layers become
new parent nodes in the assembly hierarchy. This allows visibility or rendering settings to be applied to
the layer without selection of individual parts within the layer. The Model tree becomes deeper with
more entries. W here possible the layer names are preserved. If the input does not contain layers then
this option has no effect.
7. Export Materials - If input contains various distinct material properties on assembly parts and this
option is enabled, separate model tree nodes are exported for each of the materials. This allows the
exported model to reflect the variation of properties available, avoiding combining them into single
nodes. This option may significantly increase the size and depth of the model tree output.
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8. Between Knots - Specifies distance between knots. When the input contains smooth surfaces,
curves or NURBS, a tessellation may be applied. This parameter specifies the distance between
NURBS parametric UV surface definition knots, so that the tessellation resolution may be controlled to
give either a smooth or stepped, facet appearance.
9. Normal Tolerance - Specifies normal tolerance for parallel faces. When the input contains smooth sur-
faces, curves or NURBS, a tessellation may be applied. To assist user control for the degree and res-
olution of tessellation, this parameter provides a tolerance for when adjacent faces should be created
to approximate surface curvature. Normals are the vector pointing perpendicular to the surface. This
parameter relates to the variation in direction angle between normals.
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OC Interface
CAD, PLM Models in STEP, IGES may be imported and converted using the OC interface, based on the
OpenCASCADE core library. Various settings to adjust the conversion process are available on this interface
sub-panel.
When BREP model tessellation is performed, curved surfaces are converted to facets (triangles). The amount
of deviation between adjacent surfaces may be controlled by the linear deflection distance. For curved lines,
each segment may be subdivided to create finer appearing curves made of up straight line segments.
Finally, there is an option to enable or disable the conversion of lines and points if required.
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GSI3D Options
The GSI3D interface is currently unavailable.
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Saving a Session
PDF3D ReportGen allows you to save a session state for conversion later if you are not ready to convert it
right away. By saving a session, you do not need to specify the settings again when you are ready to convert
the file. The session can be saved at any point before you do the final conversion. All settings defined until
that point will be save in that session. The session will be saved as a .pdf3dsettings XML file.
To Save a Session:
1. Click Export State from the Toolbar menu.
2. A Save As window appears prompting you to select the location on your computer where you would

like to save the session file. Browse to the location on your computer where you would like the session
file to be saved, provide a filename and click on the Save button.
3. The file will be saved at the specified location on your computer. When you are ready to convert the
file, you can reload it from that location.
State files are recommended to be saved near the location of your project and data files. The state file con-
tains links and paths to the input, output and other related files. Where possible, i.e. on same drive, relative
paths are stored in the state file relative to where it is saved. This way the state file and other project files are
relocatable. Once a state file is loaded, any input files no longer available on that path are shown in red.
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Reloading a Saved Session

A saved session can be reloaded at any time and you can start from where you left off using the Load State
option.
To Reload a Session:
1. Click Load State from the toolbar menu.
2. The open file window appears. Browse to the location on your computer where the saved session file is
located , select it, and click on the Open button.
3. The saved session will be loaded and the settings that you defined earlier will be displayed in PDF3D
ReportGen.
4. You can make any changes to the settings as required and click on the Convert button to convert the
file.
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Preferences
All the various settings, parameters and configurations available in the menus can be set and saved so they
always appear again during each session when the program is started up.
Settings can be saved generically, without specific filenames, or could be saved with exactly the files you are
working on. The "Reset" button will restore the previously saved preferences. If at any point going back to fact-
ory settings is preferred, selecting reset to factory can be pushed which will remove any user settings. The set-
tings are saved on a user-by-user basis for each individual login.
Explicit Import and Export State files can also be used to manage settings on project basis.
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Batch Conversion
The application may be used without visual interaction, for scripted or batch operation. This allows for setup
using the menus, achieving settings you desire, then repeating the process without further interaction. The
session file is a standard, simple .pdf3dsettings XML format, which allows it to be edited or even created by
external software, which can then invoke the application within a script. For more sophisticated server gen-
erated work-flows, we recommend PDF3DXmlServer, which goes well beyond features of PDF3DRe-
portGen.

Operation
The expected calling sequence is:
PDF3DReportGen -state filename.pdf3dsettings -silent inter-

face_description
where filename.xml is ReportGen's state file with defined exporting scene and parameters and interface_
description is a string which defines which interface will be used for exporting to PDF3D.
Usage examples:
1. export scene using parameters defined in test1.xml by using GRD Interface:
$PDF3DReportGen -state test1.pdf3dsettings -silent "GRD

Interface"
2. export scene using parameters defined in test2.xml by using STL Interface:
$PDF3DReportGen -state test2.pdf3dsettings -silent "STL

Interface"
3. show dialog with description about ReportGen's expected calling sequence:
$PDF3DReportGen -help

Data paths inside the XML state files can be absolute, or relative to the statefile location. Also, output paths
can be prefixed with %TEMP%, which will map to typical temporary file locations on all platforms, known to
have write permissions.
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How to Convert DWG models with PMI Dimensional

Annotations
Files of type DXF, DWG, DWF, DGN containing 3D models can be converted to 3D PDF and also include
dimensional annotations part names and part isolation specific views. The level of assembly detail for such
annotations can also be controlled during the conversion process. This is a quick guide showing how to pro-
cess this type of DWG or similar model.
Loading File with Input/Output Tab
1. User File-Open menu, or select Add File, select or drag and drop DWG file.
2. Set your suitable output directory, where you have write-access, and name your desired output PDF
file.
3. Optionally select a template PDF style
Conversion Tab
4. Best results may be obtained with PRC-HCT compression type
5. Set PRC tolerance 0.00001, to reduce depth numerical truncation which may become visible as sur-
face uneveness.
PDF 3D View Tab
6. Enable Automatic PMI option, to generate annotations and views
Interface Tab
7. Set Crease Angle to 10 degrees, so that angular features are better represented, without attempt to
smooth.
8. Set Teigha Interface Assembly Depth to 2 (later try 3, etc). If left at 1, all model will be merged into a
single node, so parts cannot be selected.
Advanced Tab
9. Set Z Fighting Prevention and set Z Shift Scale to 0.1, if you see any problems with co-incident sur-
faces.
Save Session
10. Save your session file frequently, so if conversion fails, takes too long, or runs out of memory, all your
previous settings may be recovered and adjusted.
Convert, Open in Adobe Reader
11. Convert to start convert file and generate PMI within the PDF output.
12. Look at PDF View drop-down to see all the generated views for each part.
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How to Animate FEA, CFD, Transient Analysis Results

Numerical simulations of engineering and physical effects such as FEA post-processors, can be represented
as static or animated 3D PDF document pages. This is a quick guide showing how to process this type of
FEA model.
Preparing VRML files
1. Pre-filter your VRML file sequence using one of the python filters provided in samples/filters. These
remove extra scene content and make syntax corrections enabling correct PDF conversion.
Loading File Collection, Input/Output Tab
2. User File-Open menu, or select Add File, multi-select or drag and drop file sequence of *.wrl files.
file.
4. Optionally select a template PDF style
Conversion Tab
5. Best results may be obtained with PRC-HCT compression type
face uneveness.
Scene Axes Tab
7. Optionally Enable X, Y, Z, Scalebar options for scene ruler.
Animation Tab
8. Enable Sequence Animation so that result will immediately start playing with controls visible on page.
Save Session
Convert, Open in Adobe Reader
10. Convert to start loading each file in the sequence and assembling the animated PDF.
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How to Convert Large Geospatial Grids

Various Geospatial elevation grids can be loaded, such as ArcGIS ASCII grids, Surfer grids, ZmapPlus,
GeoTIFF, IMG, etc. These can often be larger than 1K x 1K resolution, in a uniform grid pattern. The following
steps are recommended to achieve an effective conversion to a reasonably sized interactive 3D PDF terrain
surface representation.
When processing typical ArcGIS ASCII Grid Files (.asc), it is very common the horizontal, vertical grid cell
size is specified in decimal degrees, latitude-longitude. The actual elevation or depth values, Z, are normally in
some other units, such as meters. In addition, such grid tiles may be large, 1800 x 1800 (25 Mb) or greater.
The following notes indicate a typical strategy to generate 3D PDF interactive summary view results from
such data sources. As a typical example tile, assume tile cell size is 0.00027778 degrees.
Loading Grid, Input/Output Tab
1. User File-Open menu, or select Add File, and load your single grid file with .asc extension. The file
should not be open in any other software, should be ASCII, with typical ArcGIS grid header lines.
file.
Subsampling
1. On the Gridding Tab, Set Sub-sampling to 4 (to load every 4th row and column only, for 1/16 grid data
size in memory). Start with large subsample value to make test conversions. This is highly recom-
mended as a starting conversion, then adjust as needed later.
2. Select Skip Full Grid (to reduce texture memory overheads, colour overlay will be at 1/16 size).
Conversion Tab
3. Best results may be obtained with PRC-HCT compression type, which includes terrain grid optim-
isation.
face uneveness.
PDF 3D View Tab
5. Set View Scheme to Geospatial, to get North Compass and typical architectural and GIS default
views.
6. Set Insert Controls for Z Scaling, leave default value at 1.0 Users can change it in PDF later.
7. Set Lock Render Mode, if you prefer users not to see underlying grid cell structures.
Scene Axes
8. Enable X, Y, Scalebar options for scene ruler.
9. Enable Compass symbol to have normal corner axes replaced with a North geospatial indicator.
Geospatial Tab
10. Set degree to meter conversion factor to 0.0002 (to make visual exaggeration of depth variations). This
factor is internal, for cosmetic purposes. Axes labels and probe values show original data units. This is
if data is relatively flat. If you have significant topography, this can be lowered.
11. Select Degrees as XY Axes Unit (as ArcGIS XY units are most typically in Lat-Lon decimal degrees).
12. Load a colormap file, in .clr or .xml format (optional, to show visual depth variations and enable
legend). You can also set exact min-max range on colormap if you prefer some presets to match your
normal color contour bands.
Gridding Tab
13. Enable TIN representation, set Reduction to 0.95. This will create optimized triangle mesh for efficient
PDF generation. (Note for GDAL Interface TIN may not be available for some versions of the software,
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so Advanced Simplification is advised).
Save Session
15. Start with large sub-sampling values to create small test PDFs, then as you make parameter adjust-
ments, decrease sub-sampling to gain higher fidelity, and larger file sizes.
Given these type of parameters, a 25mb ASCII grid tile can be represented with 320K triangles in a 2 Mb PDF
file.

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How To Convert Point-Clouds

This is a short outline on how to convert point cloud data into 3D PDF, where the 3D point cloud is shown dir-
ectly in a viewport. Point clouds may be imported from PTS, CSV, XYZ, LAS and several other types. Any
point cloud input should have a minimum of 3 channels (columns) for X, Y, Z coordinates per point. Additional
channels (columns) may be optionally used for attributes such as intensity (i) or color (RGB).
Subsample
Initially, to get a good result in a short time for review, it is recommended to set the subsample rate to achieve
1M or 500K point count after decimation. The Subsample parameter selects every Nth value in the point list
for processing, ignoring the points between those selected. Once a good result is achieved, then the Sub-
sample value can be lowered, to create higher fidelity outputs. In broad terms, for 1M points, a file size of 12 -
15MiB should be expected. The Subsample parameter is on the Gridding tab.
Input Coordinates
The initial assumption is that all X,Y,Z values are in meters. If XY are in Km or degrees, and Z is in meters, or
some other set of units, this can be specified on the Geospatial tab by selecting the "Input Units" section.
Interpolation
On the Gridding tab, the default value for Interpolation is "IDW". This should be removed and switched to
"Point Cloud". If left in IDW mode, a low-resolution terrain surface reconstruction step will be generated. In
"Point Cloud" mode, this is skipped so the points are shown directly without any surface reconstruction.
Colormap Assignment
Use the Interface Settings Color Mapping and Elevation tab to browse to and specify a colormap file. Then
adjust the "Binding Mode" to "Along Z", "With Attribute". If the point cloud already contains full color, then
don't select any colormap file and set "Color RGB".
Quadric Error Conditioned Advanced Simplification
By using just "Subsample", the size of the point cloud can be quickly reduced, however this ignores shapes
and attributes. A more accurate method is to enable Advanced tab Simplification, and set a value for the
number of points desired in the output. This uses a careful mathematical statistical method to select the most
important subset of points to represent the shape and features within the point cloud. This can be used in com-
bination, for instance to use Subsample to reduce the considered points in half (value=2), then reduce further
by enabling simplification.
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How to Create Templates

Templates are optional PDF files used to define the starting point before 3D conversion. Various prepared tem-
plates are available in the Samples/templates folder. These are easily created, and this collection can be
extended. When a template is specified during the conversion process, the PDF template is used as the start-
ing point, containing any normal PDF document information when the new PDF output file is created. In fact, it
can be a simple 1-page PDF, or a 100 page complex document.
There are several types of template: generic standard PDF files without any 3D, or "3D templates", where the
page is prepared ahead of time with a dummy throw-away 3D model, such as a simple cube, or a placeholder
layout PDF. If you use a 3D Template PDF file, then this file fully specifies the page layout and presets where
the 3D view will be placed on the page.
If you use a generic 2D normal PDF as a template, then placement of the 3D view must be done externally, at
3D conversion time. The margin controls are used where measurements of the 3D view port margins from the
edge of the page must be specified.
If a Placeholder layout template PDF is available a list of possible layout locations are specified by the input
template document keyword properties, encoded in an XML string. The placeholders can be created using
MS-Word, PowerPoint or EXCEL layout design plugins, or by hand-editing XML for the brave.
Using Acrobat
The following steps show how to create 3D Template PDFs:
1. Start with a standard Report, where pages may already exist with simple illustrations with existing
static images pasted into document. Page should already have good layout, annotations, header,
footer, caption, etc.
2. Open report Word/Excel/PowerPoint 2010, temporarily "cut" image from slide, leaving blank space for
3D, leaving all surrounding annotations in place.
3. Save current slide/page as PDF. In Office 2010 there is built-in save-as PDF, if not available, then use
any PDF print driver, or if available, use Adobe Acrobat Standard or Pro. Virtually any software that can
produce a PDF can be used!
4. Open single-page PDF in Acrobat Pro X.
5. Navigate to Tools, Content, Multimedia, 3D, select 3D Annotations. Using mouse rectangle box selec-
tion, inserted "dummy.u3d" (found in Samples/u3d/ folder). Place Multimedia 3D file in centre of page
blank area, save (edited) PDF.
6. Start PDF3DReportGen, Select your input 3D file.
7. Select Merge mode: "Replace Annotation". Enable template mode, browse to your previously saved
template PDF with the dummy 3D inserted.
8. Set various conversion parameters according to best practice recipe.
9. Push "Convert" button, generating new 3D PDF output.
Without Acrobat
If you don't have Adobe Acrobat, then for steps above, then don't panic, you can use PDF3DReportGen itself
to prepare your template, just takes a few more steps.
10. Get a ruler, measure the location of your desired 3D view port as offsets from all 4 edges of the page (in
Inches, mm or points).
11. In PDF3DReportGen set these values on the PDF Layout margin fields. Select a simple input file,
such as PDF3D samples/wrl/tetrahedron.wrl Make sure Security is disabled, no passwords or restric-
tions please. Select Merge mode: "At Page", enable "On Existing Page". Set output file name to be the
same as your existing 2D template PDF. It will be edited with the new 3D view inserted. Push Convert,
review your new template.
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PDF3D with WORD, PowerPoint, EXCEL plugins
If the MS-Officep lugin utilities are installed, then using the ribbon toolbar buttons a placeholder image can be
added into the existing document at any location on any page. Multiple placeholders can be included in the doc-
ument in a complex layout for report, brochure or technical document. Then using the export to PDF template
button included in the plugins, a special PDF is created containing the layout information. By specifying this
PDF as a template input, and using the "MERGE 5: At Placeholder" mode, the new 3D view layout is gen-
erated using the template location.
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How to write colormap files, file format definitions

Colormap files are specified in XML, CLR, CT and CPAL formats. The XML format is the compatible format of
ParaView, the CT format is the compatible format of VisIt, the CPAL format is the compatible format of
EnSight and while the CLR is the compatible one of the Surfer software product from Golden Software and the
ArcGIS software product from ESRI. Both formats require a minimum set of parameters: X and RGB, where X
specifies elevation (or other attribute range space) and RGB specifies a color to be used at a certain elevation
or attribute value indicated by the corresponding X.
XML
Below is a sample XML colormap file (gmtglobe.xml on Samples/colormaps). This is formed by the following:
l X: specifies elevation (range: 0 to 1).
l O: opacity/transparency (range: 0 to 1).
l R: red color (range: 0 to 1).
l G: green color (range: 0 to 1).
l B: blue color (range: 0 to 1).
l A (optional): alpha value (range: 0 to 1).
Note that the values of X and RGB can contain decimals. Also, alpha component is optional, i.e. it can be
defined, but its not necessary.
CLR (Surfer)
Below is a sample CLR colormap file (LandSea.clr in Samples/colormaps). This is formed by the following:
l ID: case-sensitive string "ColorMap" (without the quotes).
l Version: format version number (should be set to 1).
l Interpolation Method: interpolation method between anchors (should be set to 1).
It is not indicated on the sample illustration file, but note that the values of X and RGB can contain decimals.
When the colormap is applied, values falling between the specified X range are derived using linear inter-
polation from nearest values. The value of X specified in the colormap file is a nominal generic range, i.e. 0-1,
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and is mapped to actual data range during software operations. Actual data range is not specified within the
colormap file.
Sharp boundaries in the colormap can be created by specifying regions as pairs with the same color value,
and joining them up with very close X values. For example in Samples/colormaps/BandedRelief.xml,
x="0.300" r="0.792" g="0.557" b="0" (first solid color band)
x="0.399" r="0.792" g="0.557" b="0"
x="0.400" r="0.62" g="0.486" b="0.024" (second solid color band)
x="0.499" r="0.62" g="0.486" b="0.024"
CLR (ArcGIS)
Example of ArcGIS variant of CLR colormap file format is arcgis_LandSea.clr in Samples/colormaps). This
file format is formed by the following:
While in Surfer variant its not necessary to define all 256 values, in case of ArcGIS CLR colormap files user
has to define all 256 values. Otherwise, for values where color is not defined, black is used. Alpha component
is optional, i.e. it can be defined, but its not necessary.
CT (VisIt)
Example of VisIt colormap file format is Pastel1.ct in Samples/colormaps). This file format is XML document
with key tags:
l colors: array of 3 or 4 values (depending on length attribute) from 0 to 256 (depending on type attrib-
ute).
l position: relative value with which above color is bound (range: 0 to 1).
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Alpha component(4th part of the color) is optional, i.e. it can be defined, but its not necessary.
CPAL (EnSight)
Example of EnSight colormap file format is ensight1.cpal in Samples/colormaps). This file format is formed by
the following:
l number_of_levels: constant string.
l N: number of points which define the colormap (range: positive integer numbers).
l colors: constant string.
Colors defined in this colormap file format are defined on set of N equidistant points. Alpha component is
optional, i.e. it can be defined, but its not necessary.
Full Look-up-table (LUT) type formats can be emulated using the XML format, by using 255 entries where X
ranges from 0.0 to 1.0 in steps of 1/255 . This will have the effect of eliminating most linear interpolation arte-
facts, if any would otherwise be present.
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How to make Panoramic 360 3D PDF documents

Short guide to Panoramic 360 degree photography conversion to a 3D PDF Brochure or Report.
The steps in this work-flow are an outline of how to create a highly compelling 3D panoramic scene embedded
inside a PDF brochure or report. The steps start with digital photography and end with the production of a
secure, stand-alone PDF file.
Panoramic Image File
To prepare for 3D PDF Brochure production, the resolution should be resampled down to a modest 10,000 by
5,000 pixels size. An additional constraint is that the Aspect Ratio should be as close to 2:1 as practical, in
landscape layout covering 360 x 180 degrees. The image resample can also be done on the fly using the
advanced settings during conversion. The recommended File Format for this method is JPEG in full 24-bit col-
our depth. If the image covers less than full 180 degrees vertical, fill the top and bottom with a solid color to
expand the image to 2:1.
ReportGen Processing Steps
1. Drag & Drop samples/states/Panoramic_Demo.pdf3dsettings, or use Import State button and
browse.
2. Change template filename to your own brochure design template PDF
3. Change output filename to your own project (so avoid overwriting demo file)
4. Go to Geospatial Tab
5. Use drop-down menu to select "Embedded X3D Content"
6. On Geospatial Image, click "Change" button, browse to select your own image file
7. Click Convert
The Panoramic_Demo.pdf3dsettings file has adjustable parameters, open and edit to change these. Also
an extended how-to tutorial guide is available on request.
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How to merge PDF files

The main menus of PDF3D ReportGen can merge 3D content with template PDFs. However, sometimes it is
helpful to directly merge PDFs.
By using the PDF3D Merge Utility you can merge multiple PDF files into a single one. This can be done with
the PDF3DMerge (or PDF3DMerge.exe in Windows) command by either direct command line parameters or a
single XML file as a wrapper for this parameters.
XML
To merge multiple PDF files using a definition XML file: PDF3DMerge your_file.xml. The following lines
describe the tags for a sample XML file that can be used for merging multiple PDF files.
Example XML file:
<PDF3DMerge>
<globalFlag name="createBookmarks" value="true" />
<inputFile path="first.pdf" />
<inputFile path="second.pdf" />
<outputFile path="PDF3DMerged_output.pdf" />
<keyWords>Add;Some;Of;These</keyWords>
<text>A Foother Is Created</text>
</PDF3DMerge>
Description of tags:
l globalFlag: specify whether bookmarks should be added. Set a name and don't forget to set the value
to "true" to enable them.
l inputFile: specify at least 2 input files to merge into 1 (outputFile). Each input file may contain multiple
pages.
l outputFile: specify the name of the output file.
l keyWords: add keywords for the document, separated by a semicolon (;).
l text: specify a text footer.
Both the input and output files can use absolute or relative paths. Note that if the output file already exists, it
will be overwritten.
Command Line Parameters
To merge multiple PDF files via command line parameters in an equivalent way as the XML specified above:
PDF3DMerge first.pdf second.pdf -b -k "Add;Some;Of;These" -o PDF3DMerged_output.pdf.
Usage: PDF3DMerge <inputfile1.pdf> <inputfile2.pdf> [inputfile3.pdf..n] [options] -o <outputfile.pdf>
Options:
l Input files: specify at least 2 input files to merge into 1 (-o outputfile) Each input file may contain mul-
tiple pages.
l -b: enables bookmarks per page.
l -k: add keywords for the document. In case you want to add 2 or more, you need to surround them with
double quotes (not necessary if adding 1 keyword only).
l -o: specify the name of the output file.
In the same way as the XML file, both the input and output files can use absolute or relative paths. Note that if
the output file already exists, it will be overwritten.
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How to convert an ASCII CSV table to PDF

By using the Table to PDF utility you can add an ASCII table to an existing PDF. This can be done with the
TableToPdf (or TableToPdf.exe in Windows) command.
Parameters
Usage: TableToPdf </i input_csv> [/o output_pdf] [/h]
Description of parameters:
l /i input_csv: Specify an ASCII CSV input file.
l /o output_pdf: Specify an output PDF file. If not present, the output PDF file name will be the same as
the input file.
l /h: Specify to uses horizontal page orientation in the output PDF file. If not present, a vertical ori-
entation will be used.
Notes
The conversion also supports URLs within the input file in the following form:
Table Title||URL:http://www.pdf3d.com
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How to add an image to an existing PDF

By using the PDF3D Image Injector utility you can add an image to an existing PDF. This can be done with
the PDF3DImageInjector (or PDF3DImageInjector.exe in Windows) command.
Parameters
Usage: PDF3DImageInjector <pdf_filename> <image_name> [caption_text] [page_number] [left_margin]
[bottom_margin] [width] [height]
l pdf_filename: Specify the PDF file to which you want to add an image. If the specified file doesn't
exists, it will be created.
l image_name: Specify the image to be added. Supported formats are JPEG, PNG, TIFF and BMP.
l caption_text: Specify a caption text for the image you want to add to the PDF.
l page_number: Specify the page number where the image will be added. By default PDF3D Image
Injector will add the image to the first page if a page number is not specified. If the PDF file specified
previously doesn't exists, the page number cannot be different from 1.
l left_margin: Left margin for the image.
l bottom_margin: Bottom margin for the image.
l width: Width of the image.
l height: Height of the image.
If width and height are floating point and less or equal to 1.0, the parameters are interpreted as image corner
ratios of existing page size.
If that's the case, then:
l left_margin becomes x0
l bottom_margin becomes x1
l width becomes y0
l height becomes y1
Which would change the usage to: PDF3DImageInjector <pdf_filename> <image_name> [caption_text]
[page_number] [x0] [x1] [y0] [y1]
Notes
Image aspect ratio may not be preserved unless parameters match image.
You can add images to a PDF that already has some of them. If the injected image and/or caption text are
added in the same area of an existing one, it will result in overlapping images and/or caption text.
When using floating point values (x0, x1, y0 and y1):
l Lower-left corner is (0.0, 0.0)
l Upper-right corner is (1.0, 1.0)
Examples
Image without caption text on the lower-left corner:
l PDF3DImageInjector file.pdf image.jpg "" 1 0 0 50 20
l PDF3DImageInjector file.pdf image.jpg "" 1 0 0.1 0 0.05
Image without caption text to match the whole page size:
PDF3DImageInjector file.pdf image.jpg "" 1 0 1 0 1
Image with caption text on the lower-right corner:
PDF3DImageInjector file.pdf image.jpg "Caption Text" 1 0.9 1 0 0.05
Image with caption text on the upper-right corner:
PDF3DImageInjector file.pdf image.jpg "Caption Text" 1 0.9 1 0.95 1
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How to add a Flash SWF file to an existing PDF

By using the PDF3D SWF Injector utility you can add a Flash SWF file to an existing PDF. This can be done
with the PDF3DSwfInjector (or PDF3DSwfInjector.exe in Windows) command. The usage of this tool is sim-
ilar to the PDF3D Image Injector with the exception that PDF3D SWF Injector requires all 8 parameters.
Parameters
Usage: PDF3DSwfInjector <pdf_filename> <swf_name> <caption_text> <page_number> <left_margin>
<bottom_margin> <width> <height>
l pdf_filename: Specify the PDF file to which you want to add an image. If the specified file doesn't
exists, it will be created.
l swf_name: Specify the Flash SWF file to be added.
l caption_text: Specify a caption text for the Flash SWF you want to add to the PDF.
l page_number: Specify the page number where the Flash SWF will be added. By default PDF3D SWF
Injector will add the Flash SWF to the first page if a page number is not specified. If the PDF file spe-
cified previously doesn't exists, the page number cannot be different from 1.
l left_margin: Left margin for the Flash SWF.
l bottom_margin: Bottom margin for the Flash SWF.
l width: Width of the Flash SWF.
l height: Height of the Flash SWF.
If width and height are floating point and less or equal to 1.0, the parameters are interpreted as SWF corner
ratios of existing page size.
If that's the case, then:
l left_margin becomes x0
l bottom_margin becomes x1
l width becomes y0
l height becomes y1
Which would change the usage to: PDF3DSwfInjector <pdf_filename> <swf_name> <caption_text> <page_
number> <x0> <x1> <y0> <y1>
Notes
Flash SWF aspect ratio may not be preserved unless parameters match input.
You can add Flash SWFs to a PDF that already has some of them. If the injected Flash SWF and/or caption
text are added in the same area of an existing one, it will result in overlapping Flash SWFs and/or caption text.
When using floating point values (x0, x1, y0 and y1):
l Lower-left corner is (0.0, 0.0)
l Upper-right corner is (1.0, 1.0)
Examples
Image without caption text on the lower-left corner:
l PDF3DSwfInjector file.pdf clip.swf "" 1 0 0 50 20
l PDF3DSwfInjector file.pdf clip.swf "" 1 0 0.1 0 0.05
Image without caption text to match the whole page size:
PDF3DSwfInjector file.pdf clip.swf "" 1 0 1 0 1
Image with caption text on the lower-right corner:
PDF3DSwfInjector file.pdf clip.swf "Caption Text" 1 0.9 1 0 0.05
Image with caption text on the upper-right corner:
PDF3DSwfInjector file.pdf clip.swf "Caption Text" 1 0.9 1 0.95 1
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How to convert PLY to U3D

We provide a .pdf3dsettings XML state file to convert PLY to U3D that can be executed from a bat file or from
PDF3DReportGen. This XML state file is located in the "samples/states" directory.
XML State File (.pdf3dsettings)
By default the pdf3dsettings state file converts "helen2_tin.ply" to "helens_tin_u3d.u3d". You can modify this
parameters as required in line 5 (output file) and line 52 (input file). Be sure the output file will be located in a
path where you have write access.
Note: conversion encoding mode must be U3D or U3D-RHC as prerequisite to saving a U3D file.
BAT File
Double click on the file "PLY_TO_U3D.bat" to start the conversion (a U3D output file should be generated).
This bat file will execute the following command:
PDF3DReportGen.exe -state ply_to_u3d.pdf3dsettings -silent "VTK Interface"
PDF3DReportGen
You can load the state file directly in PDF3DReportGen as well.
l Click on "Load State" in the toolbar at the top
l Navigate to "samples/states" from your PDF3D installation directory
l Select the file "ply_to_u3d_state.pdf3dsettings"
l Click Open
l Change the output path if necessary
l Click "Convert"!
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How to Adjust Advanced Parameters

This section covers Advanced techniques to adjust parameters for your ideal scene generation. In all of these
techniques, set up a basic conversion operation with your specified input and output files, adjust settings,
then Export State and save to an external .pdf3dsettings state file, a type of XML format.
Then open this state file with a text editor (NotePad, etc.) and make adjustments and save edited file. Then
use the Import State button to reload the modified state and make the conversion. These type of adjustments
allow for more advanced and custom changes than are currently available in the main user-interface.

1. Adjusting Normalization
.
When using the exploded parts option, all assemblies are automatically normalized by default. In case this is
not appropriate, this can be disabled to avoid unwanted normalization. To adjust this, save your session into a
state file. Then manually edit .pdf3dsettings state file, adding <Scale autoScale="false" gen-
eralScale="1.0" /> as a new sub-tag into <DefaultAssemblyProperties>
Note for sequence animated mode such normalization is automatically disabled by default to this technique is
not needed.
2. Animation initially paused, speed adjustment
Save conversion parameters in .pdf3dsettings (XML) state file (by using PDF3DReportGen "Export to .XML
state file" from the tool bar ). Open saved .pdf3dsettings file at any text editor and add the following:
<InsertAnimationControls
animationName="Sequence_Animation_From_Assemblies"
delayMultiplierByDefault="20"
initiallyPlaying="1"/>
This special addition sets several properties. The initiallyPlaying parameter means that the animation will play
initially. If changed to 0, the animation will be paused initially, users will first need to push the play button.
Animation speed may be controlled by using delayMultiplierByDefault parameter, where higher values mean a
slower speed. Please do not modify the animationName attribute. After saving these edits, load the modified
.XML state file (Import .XML state command) into PDF3DReportGen and run conversion process again
3. Metadata Selection, Display, Descriptive Elements
.
By saving state file, editing and reloading, additional metadata tags may be inserted which will be reported
when each of the identified model nodes are selected, and the Metadata Control is enabled. An example of
such a tag is shown below.
<Metadata nodeName="some_node_name">
<MetadataItem key="Part" value="This Part Description Here"/>
<MetadataItem key="ID" value="P-001234"/>
</Metadata>
The nodeName must exactly match an existing node. Any number of items may be added with arbitrary key/-
value pairs.
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For users to access and display metadata, left-mouse selection on parts in the 3D view can be used, where
parts are highlighted. By enabling the Add Metadata Control option, and extra display box is added to the
2D PDF page below the 3D view, where key/value pairs are displayed for the selected part. As an alternative,
this extra box can remain disabled, and the model-tree panel exposed to the left of the PDF page view. If the
conversion encoding mode is set to U3D or U3D-RHC, then the key/value pairs will be displayed in the attrib-
ute list in the bottom left corner of the model tree panel.
4. Part Name Substitution
When files are added into the input file list, normally the 3D PDF model tree part names are derived directly
from the input file-name stems. Within the assembly tag specifying each input file, normally there is simply an
input filename specified. By inserting a new NodeName tag inside the assembly, it may be re-named from the
default to any user-defined part name. An example of part name substitution is shown below. In this example
"P23472972-B" is changed to "NewPartName".
<Assembly>
<InputFileName value="C:\Data\ZZZ\P23472972-B.stl"/>
<NodeName value="NewPartName"/>
</Assembly>
5. JavaScript
User-written custom javascript can be attached to 3D views by adding code as-is inside of a JavaScript tag
block in the XML state file. This should be outside of assembly, as a sub-tag to input parameters. An example
of a simple script which changes the background view color and enables a grid is shown below:
<JavaScript>
myRenderHandler = new RenderEventHandler();
myRenderHandler.onEvent = function(event)
{
scene.gridMode = "wire";
scene.showGrid = true;
var topColor = new Color(1, 0.6, 0.6);
var bottomColor = new Color(0.6, 0.6, 1);
event.canvas.background.setColor(topColor, bottomColor);
runtime.removeEventHandler(myRenderHandler);
}
runtime.addEventHandler(myRenderHandler);
</JavaScript>
6. Draping Vector Features

Conforming and draping vector shapes onto terrains. It is possible to drape images, lines, polygons onto CAD
format terrain surfaces as well as the more traditional terrain grid formats (.asc, .grd). This requires adding
additional elements into the XML Settings file to specify a "TerrainMode" tag. A simple example is shown
below, where a 3D DXF file defining an elevation mesh is marked as the "Terrain", and other files such as 2D
shape, kml or other objects are then marked as "LiesOn".
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<Assembly>
<InputFileName value="Surface.dxf"/>
<AssemblyProperties colorArrayIndex="0" colorArrayName="">
<TerrainMode mode="Terrain"/>
</Assembly>
...
<Assembly>
...
<TerrainMode mode="LiesOn"/>
</Assembly>
This technique can be done by editing XML, or by using the menus in the Interface Settings
Common tab.

7. Sphere Tessellation
A special Pentaki Dodecahedron sphere representation is available using 60 equal area equilateral triangles,
rather than the default polar latitude-longitude spherical subdivision. To enable this special representation, add
the following XML tag:
<PentakiMode enabled="true" splitMin="1" splitMax="1"/>

8. Custom Camera Views

Custom views can be introduced into PDF3DReportGen output by first establishing your session and export-
ing the .pdf3dsettings statefile. This is an XML formatted file. Manually edit the content of this file according to
notes below and save. Then reload this by "import state file" back into PDF3DReportGen, and push convert.
Each custom view can have a new unique name, with a camera look vector, up vector and switch for per-
spective or orthographic projection. For renaming views you should first change:
<DefaultViewScheme value="None"/>
which turns off current default views and then add the following:
<DefaultView>
<CameraName value="Modified Front(+Z)"/>

<Camera x="0" y="0" z="-1"/>
<CameraUp x="0" y="1" z="0"/>
<IsPerspective value="true"/>
</DefaultView>
<DefaultView>
<CameraName value="Modified Back(-Z)"/>

<Camera x="0" y="0" z="1"/>
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<CameraUp x="0" y="1" z="0"/>
</DefaultView>
<DefaultView>
<CameraName value="Modified Top(+Y)"/>

<Camera x="0" y="-1" z="0"/>
<CameraUp x="0" y="0" z="-1"/>
</DefaultView>
<DefaultView>
<CameraName value="Front View (renamed Bottom(-Y))"/>

<Camera x="0" y="1" z="0"/>
<CameraUp x="0" y="0" z="1"/>
</DefaultView>
<DefaultView>
<CameraName value="Modified Left(+X)"/>

<Camera x="-1" y="0" z="0"/>
<CameraUp x="0" y="1" z="0"/>
</DefaultView>
<DefaultView>
<CameraName value="Modified Right(-X)"/>

<Camera x="1" y="0" z="0"/>
<CameraUp x="0" y="1" z="0"/>
</DefaultView>
<DefaultView>
<CameraName value="Modified IsoCorner"/>

<Camera x="-1" y="-1" z="-1"/>
<CameraUp x="-1" y="1" z="-1"/>
<IsPerspective value="false"/>
</DefaultView>
<InitialView index="3"/>
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9. Mixed Static and Dynamic Sequence Animation
Sequence Animation with some parts changing while other parts remain static. It is possible by using
<SequenceAnimation> tag.
You need to manually edit XML .pdf3dsettings state files for such a case.
Explanation of steps:
1. Manually created three sample files: tetrahedron1.wrl, tetrahedron2.wrl, tet-
rahedron3.wrl. These files contain the basic tetrahedron shape in different 3D positions and trans-
formed shapes.
2. Add all these files into PDF3D ReportGen and enable the [x] Sequence Animation check box. Result
3D PDF shows animation of all assemblies (tetrahedrons).
3. Save parameters to XML .pdf3dsettings state file and manually edited this to change some tags. Load
it again.
The result of this new conversion shows 2x animated tetrahedrons and one static (not moving) tetrahedron.
The modifications used in this example are:
<SequenceAnimation animateAssemblies="false" exposeScripts="false" supressAn-
imation="false">
<Node value="node1"/>
<Node value="node2"/>
</SequenceAnimation>
The "animateAssemblies" attribute means to animate ALL assemblies. In our case we want to animation only
some subset, this is because we changed this parameter to false. The <Node> tags inside the animation
block defines the list of nodes which should be animated. Also, note tags are edited:
<Assembly>
<InputFileName value="W:\ctest\tetrahedron1.wrl"/>
<NodeName value="node1"/>
</Assembly>
<Assembly>
<NodeName value="node2"/>
</Assembly>
<Assembly>
</Assembly>
In the above example, there is an added <NodeName> tag which defines new node name which will be used
in 3D scene.

10. Position and Orientation of Multiple Parts
It is possible to set up any arbitrary 3D position, size and orientation of parts in an exploded view. The fol-
lowing shows how to use the manual position, scale and rotate controls on the Interface Settings Common
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parameters tab:
1. Add 2 teapot.stl files (from samples/stl, same model file loaded twice). Each one is only 1/2 model.
2. Go to Interface Settings and turn ON Object Scale and Object Position. (as default selection mode)
3. For both teapot.stl files "create options"
4. For first teapot.stl set Scale Z to -1
5. Set diffuse color selection, different for each model.
6. Turn ON "Exploded" Mode on Animation tab and push Convert.
After these 5 steps, a whole teapot model is produced. This technique does not require any hand-editing of
XML.

11. Camera Animation
It is possible to create camera animation using XML tags and scripting. This is really the domain of PDF3D
XML Server, however for casual interest we describe a small example here for illustration. First, add the anim-
ation control on the PDF page. Then specify a Rigid Body Keyframe Animation mode, and specify camera pos-
itions and timing. For each camera keyframe, insert a timing delay, and geometric camera parameters. There
is limited support in PDF3DReportGen for camera animation, and this is the only documentation available at
this time.
<InsertAnimationControls fastButtonVisible="true" repeatCheckBoxVisible="true"
repeatModeByDefault="Normal" smoothRepeatCheckBoxVisible="true" pre-
vButtonVisible="false" nextButtonVisible="false" repeatByDefault="true" cur-
rTextFieldVisible="false" timeTagTextFieldVisible="false"
normalRepeatCheckBoxVisible="true" delayMultiplierByDefault="1" for-
wardDirectionByDefault="true" playButtonVisible="true" ping-
pongRepeatCheckBoxVisible="true" slowButtonVisible="true"
animationName="Solar" stopButtonVisible="true" directionCheckBoxVisible="true"
pauseButtonVisible="true" initiallyPlaying="false"/>
<RigidAnimation fps="20" forwardDirectionByDefault="true" ini-
tiallyPlaying="false" useInterpolation="true" delayMultiplierByDefault="1"
repeatByDefault="true" hardTiming="false" repeatModeByDefault="Normal" anim-
ationName="Solar">
<CameraMovement localRepeatMode="Normal">
<TargetedCameraFrame>
<Delay value="9"/>
<CameraUp x="0" y="1" z="0"/>
<Near autoRecalculate="false" value="0.1"/>
<Far autoRecalculate="false" value="600"/>
<CoordinateSpace value="EarthMoonSystem"/>
<Rotation x="-1" y="0" z="0" angle="0"/>
<CameraDistance value="30"/>
</TargetedCameraFrame>
<Delay value="1"/>
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<CameraUp x="0" y="1" z="0"/>
<CoordinateSpace value="EarthMoonSystem"/>
<Rotation x="-1" y="0" z="0.6" angle="0"/>
<Delay value="4"/>
<CameraUp x="0" y="1" z="0"/>
<CoordinateSpace value="Earth"/>
<Rotation x="-1" y="0" z="0.6" angle="0"/>
...
12. Adding a Custom Caption Box

Using the standard caption option on the Annotation tab provides a simple way to specify a short paragraph of
text to describe the scene above. However, it is always at a fixed location, size, font and color. Using the tech-
nique of saving the .pdf3dsettings file, editing and reloading, additional custom unique text boxes can be
added. These provide complete freedom of placement at visual style. As an example, add the following block
of XML into the saved .pdf3dsettings file:
<DrawTextRect value="This is a Test of a Custom Caption Box"

left="20" bottom="20" width="600" height="80"
alignment="HVCenter" drawBox="true" wordWrap="true">
<Font family="Times New Roman"

size="16" bold="false" italic="false" underline="false"/>
<Color red="0" green="0" blue="255"/>
</DrawTextRect>
13. Poster Image - Click to Activate

The default mode is for 3D views to become active as soon as they are visible, so mouse interaction can com-
mence immediately for users. However, by adding the following two tags, this can be disabled so a preview
poster image is presented first, then on mouse hover a "Click to Activate" message is displayed to allow
users to launch the 3D content. This also means that users see something helpful in the case the PDF viewer
does not support 3D. For instance, in .pdf3dsettings you can write:
<Annotation3DActivation activationMode="Manual" deactivationMode="Manual" />
<PosterImage value="my_poster_image.png"/>
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14. Automatic Cycle through View List
Using the custom javascript method, a method can be added to cycle through all available 3D views with
short delay at each view. This example also allows for a patience period on interactive moves, suspending
animation until quiet again for 10 seconds. As an example, add the following block of XML+JS into the saved
.pdf3dsettings file:
<JavaScript>
var interval = 2.5;
var patience = 10;
var local_clock = 0;
var current_view=0;
var cycle_view_timer = new TimeEventHandler();
var mouseHandler = new MouseEventHandler();
mouseHandler.onEvent = function(event) { local_clock = 0; }
cycle_view_timer.onEvent = function(event)
{
local_clock += event.deltaTime;
if (local_clock > interval + patience )
{
runtime.setView(current_view,true);
if (runtime.viewCount > current_view +1)
current_view +=1;
else
current_view=0;
local_clock = patience;
}
runtime.addEventHandler(cycle_view_timer);
runtime.addEventHandler(mouseHandler);
</JavaScript>
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How To Use the Left-Mouse 3D Probe PDF Menu

A custom 3D probe can be added into the current PDF document as an option in the PDF 3D View Add Addi-
tional Controls area. The probe menu normally is positioned just below the 3D view area. The 3D probe is
embedded on the PDF page, and goes along with the PDF document itself. It does not require any special plu-
gins or viewing software, it operates directly within the Adobe Reader or Acrobat.
When the 3D probe is added, users will notice new content in two areas:
a) Left mouse clicks in the 3D view scene cause a yellow 3D arrow pointer to appear, marking the last mouse
click location.
b) A small rectangular area on the PDF page provides some menus for controlling the probe operation and a
text box where probe results appear as text, dynamically updated when 3D positions are selected.
The probe menu operates in two slightly different modes, depending on the presence of geospatial coordinate
information in the 3D model conversion. With ordinary CAD models in a simple X,Y,Z coordinate system, the
3D mouse click coordinate location is shown, by simply reporting the X,Y,Z location at the object surface
where clicked. Note that any place on the surface may be selected, it does not snap to the nearest vertex. If
geospatial coordinate information is present, then several types of coordinate display are possible, selected
by a small drop-down selector.
An option for either Full or Compact Mode at the time the probe menu is generated and placed in the PDF, can
provide either be a multi-line rectangular box, or all placed on a single horizontal line for compact space mode.
On the left side a drop-down selector allows users to change the way the probe operates and what information
is presented.
l Disable - disables all mouse probe operations so normal left-mouse object selection is available
l Probe - normally default mode, reports single location on left mouse click on object surfaces
l Distance - two successive mouse clicks draws two arrows and a bar line, with distance reported in true
3D along the line and projected map 2D distance.
l Angle - three successive mouse clicks draws three arrows and two connecting lines. The angle
between the two lines is reported in degrees.
l Azimuth - two successive mouse clickes similar distance, however the vertical slope in degrees, azi-
muth angle from North in degrees and the distance are reported.
l Grade - two successive mouse clicks similar to distance, where the vertical grade along the line is
reported in percent, angle and ratio.
The Full Tree check box controls what named objects are reported in the second line of the probe. When the
left mouse makes a surface selection, the object surface measured can be presented out of the model tree
hierarchy as its own local object name, or if Full Tree is enabled, all of the parents above this part in the hier-
archy are also shown. This option is removed in the compact mode.
The coordinate system selector will contain a basic X,Y,Z location option if no geospatial data is present, or a
longer list of options if available:
l Geodetic coodinates - whole earth latitude and longitude degrees
l UTM/UPS zone, band, coordinates - UTM zone name, with eastings and northings offset from zone
datum
l MGRS and in-cell coordinates - MGRS cell ID, with eastings and northings offset from cell datum
l Geocentric ECEF coordinates - whole earth X,Y,Z as measured from the center of the earth
Flash versus AcroForm mode: The custom 3D probe display on the PDF page may be configured to use Flash
or ordinary PDF form type display. These make no functional difference to the way measurements are made
or reported, only in the way they look on the page. The Flash version has a little more polished visual style.
However, Flash player and associated technologies are required to view it, so it adds an extra dependency.
The Flash technique is not formally part of the ISO-32000 PDF document standard.
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How to Create Side-by-Side Views

Each time PDF3D ReportGen runs a conversion, it adds a single view to a PDF. To create multiple views, the
conversion menu can be run multiple times within one session, or multiple sessions can be used. The main
menus of PDF3D ReportGen can merge new 3Dviews with existing PDFs already containing views.
The following steps show how to create a PDF with two side-by-side views on the same page.
Basic Side-by-Side views on same page

1. Start ReportGen
2. Load 3D File "A"
3. On Page Layout tab, adjust Right margin to about half page size
4. On security table remove check for security options.
5. Set output filename to "A-Temporary.pdf"
6. Convert, check layout of PDF view.
7. Delete file "A" from input list.
8. Load 3D File "B"
9. On Page Layout tab, adjust Right margin back to 50, set Left to half page size
10. Set output filename to "side-by-side.pdf"
11. Set Template PDF to "A-Temporary.pdf" using file browser.
12. On 3D Template Update mode dialog, do not accept "Replace" mode,
13. Push Adjust Merge Mode button to bring up additional menu
14. Set Merge mode to "MERGE 3: At Page",
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15. Click check-box for write onto existing page, click OK
16. Re-enable security selection.
17. Click Convert Button
18. Check new PDF, see that both 3D views are working.
Adding View Synchronization

19. At step 6 above, export state file to part1.pdf3dsettings.
20. Edit file with XML friendly editor, copy and paste <JavaScript> section from states/side_by_side_part1.p-
df3dsettings
21. Save edits, import back into ReportGen and convert.
22. Continue and repeat steps 7-18.
Create Side-by-Side example using batch script

23. Locate states/ where there are side_by_side_part1.pdf3dsettings, side_by_side_part1.pdf3dsettings and
SIDE-BY-SIDE.bat
24. Double click on SIDE-BY-SIDE.bat, which loads each in turn creating 2-view PDF

Note, at Adobe Acrobat or Reader XI version, views are synchronized only on mouse-up or other window
refresh event, they do not track dynamically during movement.
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Glossary
3D
Three-dimensional. Descriptive of a region of space that has width, height and
depth, normally described in terms of X, Y, Z axes.
3D Rendering
3D rendering is the 3D computer graphics process of automatically converting
3D wire frame models into 2D images with 3D photorealistic effects on a com-
puter.
Acrobat
The Acrobat application by Adobe Systems, with rich features for viewing, pro-
cessing, editing and validating PDF documents. Acrobat is commercial software
for a price, unlike the free Adobe Reader.
Adobe Reader
The freely available PDF viewing application, including the facility to view 3D on
desktop platforms.
Cartesian
Caretesian coordinate system is normally defined by X,Y,Z orthogonal coordin-
ate system axes defining any point in 3D space.
GCS
Geographic Coordinate System, non-projected 3D coordinate on the earth.
Geodetic
A geodetic coordinate systems defines locations by latitude, longitude and elev-
ation .
GeoTIFF
An extended variant of typical TIFF raster image format, including a geospatial
coordinate header.
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GeoVRML
A variation on the VRML file format containing 3D geometric model information,
with the added features of specifying geospatial location and projection inform-
ation.
JavaScript
Also known as ECMAscript or JS, an open text interpreted programming lan-
guage for scripting. The PDF environment includes both a document/page
JavaScript engine, and a 3D JavaScript engine.
Light
A point or volume that emits light onto a 3D object. Types of light supported
within 3D packages include Point lights, which emit light in all directions from a
single point; Spot lights, which emit light in a cone; Distant or Directional lights,
which emit light rays in parallel, illuminating all surfaces within a scene; and Area
lights, which emit light from two-dimensional surfaces
Lighting
Lighting serves a basic function of bringing out, or pushing back the shapes of
objects visible from the camera's view. It gives a two-dimensional image on the
monitor an illusion of the third dimension-depth.
Mesh
The surface geometry of a 3D model, made up of a series of linked geometry ele-
ments such as polygons, patches or NURBS surfaces.
Model
Used as a verb, to model means to build a 3D object. Used as a noun, it means
the 3D object created as the end product of the modelling process. A variety of dif-
ferent methods are used in 3D modelling, including polygonal, NURBS, Sub-D
and metaball techniques.
Multi-pass rendering
To render out the lighting or surface attributes of a scene as separate images,
with a view to compositing them together later. Multi-pass rendering can be used
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User Manual
simply to speed up the rendering process, or in order to develop the look of a
scene by compositing the different passes together in various permutations.
Normals
Imaginary lines drawn from the centre of a polygon (or other geometry object) at
right angles to the surface.
Object
A generic term describing any item that can be inserted into and Glossary:
Resources >> #217 Without lights, the objects in a 3D scene will not display on
rendering. The terminology of CG lighting, and the techniques it employs, are sim-
ilar to that of real-world cinematography manipulated within a 3D scene. Models,
lights, particle emitters and cameras are all objects.
PCS
Projected Coordinate System, normally a mapping between actual 3D earth loc-
ations and 2D map projection. UTM zone, EPSG codes are typical ways to spe-
cify a projection.
PDF
Portable Document Format file format defined in ISO 32000‐2, an international
standard. This is fully independent from its origins at Adobe Systems.
PDF/E
ISO 24517 specifies a restricted subset of conditions on the PDF file format stand-
ard ISO 32000 for the exchange and archiving of engineering documentation.
Polygon
A geometry element formed by connecting three or more points. A triangle, or
three-point polygon, is the simplest form of polygonal geometry. Polygonal mod-
elling is a fast, intuitive method of creating 3D objects, but does not easily gen-
erate smooth curved surfaces.
PRC
Product Representation Compact, the latest and preferred method to encode 3D
model data within a binary stream in a 3D PDF file. PRC is described by ISO
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14739-1:2014.
Projection
The process by which a two-dimensional texture map is applied over the surface
of a three-dimensional object, as if it were an overlooks, such as shadows, reflec-
tions and post-process effects.
Rendering
The process or method of producing a virtual computer graphics usually for ima-
ging for exclusively referring to industries in gaming, entertainment, multimedia
arts and some Applied Fields of Studies such as CAD.
Shading
The mathematical process of calculating how a model’s surfaces react to light. A
variety of alternative algorithms can be used for the task, including Phong, Lam-
bert, and Blinn shading models. Shaders are often built up as node-based shad-
ing trees, with each node controlling a specific aspect of the process.
Tessellation
Tessellation techniques are often used to manage datasets of polygons and
divide them into suitable structures for rendering.
Texture
A bitmap image that is applied to the surface of 3D object to give it detail. Texture
maps may be either photographic images or procedural textures, and may be
applied in each of the material channels of an object using a variety of mapping
or projection methods.
Triangulation
For real-time rendering, the data is tessellated into triangles, which is referred to
as triangulation.
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U3D
Universial 3D Format, one of the data structures used to store 3D models as bin-
ary data streams within a PDF document.
UTM/UPS
Projected geospatial coordinate system based on either UTM or UPS projection
methodologies. UTM defines the earth surface in rectangular zones. This has the
advantage that coordinate definitions can be more accurately defined, relative to
the origin of the zone, rather than the whole earth.
VCT Mode
Vertex Colored Texture is a common usage scenario that combines lighting, ver-
tex color, and texture colors to create a final color output for each pixel via inter-
polation.
VRML
Virtual Reality Modeling Language is a standard file format for representing 3-
dimensional (3D) interactive vector graphics, designed particularly with the World
Wide Web in mind.
Wireframe
A shading method in which a simple grid of lines is used to represent the basic
contours of the underlying model. For many 3D artists, this is a favoured mode to
work in, since it permits them to see faces and surfaces that would otherwise be
hidden by overlying geometry.
XML
Extensible Markup Language, defining file format syntax, used for export and
import parameter settings. File extension is often .xml
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Patent & Copyright Notices

PDF3D and the PDF3D logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Visual Technology Services Ltd. In
particular PDF3D is a registered trademark, we request that it includes the ® symbol when referenced. The fol-
lowing may be licensed, used, referenced or mentioned in PDF3D products.
Visual Technology Services Ltd. products are protected by patents in the U.S., U.K. and elsewhere. Refer-
ence http://www.pdf3d.com/virtual-patent-marking/ is provided to satisfy the virtual patent marking provisions
of various jurisdictions including the virtual patent marking provisions of the America Invents Act (AIA). Addi-
tional patent applications are pending in these and other territories.
SpaceXform is a trademark of Visual Technology Services Ltd.
Acrobat, Acrobat3D, Adobe Reader, are copyright and registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
PDFlib and the PDFlib logo are registered trademarks of PDFlib GmbH.
Microsoft, Windows and Visual Studio, MS-Office, MS-WORD, MS-EXCEL are registered trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation.
Autodesk Architectural Desktop, 3ds Max and Maya are registered trademarks of Autodesk Inc.
AVS/Express is a trademark of Advanced Visual Systems Inc.
COIN3D, Simage, DIME are copyright and trademarks of Kongsberg, Systems In Motion AS.
OpenGL is a registered trademark and copyright Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Open Inventor is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc.
GLU is copyright Silicon Graphics Inc. and is used under license terms "SGI Free Software License B".
GLUT is copyright Mark Kilgard
VTK, ParaView and CMAKE are copyright and trademarks of Kitware, Inc.
VRaniML is copyright and a trademark of Great Hill Corporation
LiveWeb is a copyright of Shyam Pillai
Open Inventor is a product and proprietary technology of FEI Visualization Sciences Group
VTK Designer 2 is copyright VCreate Logic Private Ltd.
ArcGIS, ArcINFO, ArcView, ArcMap are products, copyright and trademarks of ESRI Inc.
Redhat, RHEL, are trademarks and copyright Red Hat Inc.
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linux Torvalds.
PoDoFo is a copyright and trademark of Dominik Seichter
U3D library contains material copyright of Intel Corporation
TTF-Mona is copyright Yasuyuki Furukawa, see http://monafont.sourceforge.net/
LM-X is a trademark and copyright of X-Formation
Keylib is copyright SoftwareKey
Freetype2 - Portions of this software are copyright of The FreeType Project (www.freetype.org)
Open Scene Graph is copyright Robert Osfield, OSG Community
Xerces-C is copyright Apache Foundation, with portions copyright IBM Corporation
JPEG and IJG are copyright Thomas G. Lane.
PNG is copyright Glenn Randers-Pehrson, Guy Eric Schalnat, and Group 42, Inc.
TIFF is copyright Sam Leffler, Silicon Graphics Inc.
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Teigha is copyright Open Design Alliance
DXF, DWG, DWF are trademarks and copyright Autodesk Inc.
OSOpenData datasets: Contains Ordnance Survey data Crown copyright and database right 2011
Open Cascade Technology, OCAF, OCCT, OpenCASCADE, are copyright Capgemini and group companies
FinalMesh, FinalMesh.WEB and portions of related software components are copyright Pelikan Software Kft.
SHA256 is copyright Allan Saddi
CURL is copyright Daniel Stenberg
Expat is copyright Thai Open Source Software Center Ltd
Paquet Builder is copyright G.D.G Software
Portions of JavaScript software components are copyright Gilles Tarnus
---
All other trademarks are property of their respective owners and have not been deliberately excluded from the
above list. All materials in the PDF3D distribution, documentation, website and this manual are copyright
materials of Visual Technology Services Ltd. and may not be used without permission.
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PDF3D Third Party Licenses

The Following table shows URLs for license terms and sources for various components referenced in this
package. Please request actual text of licenses or source codes if the following URLs are insufficient, or if
you have any questions regarding the list. Visual Technology Services is grateful to the groups and individuals
below for their contributions.
PDF3D 3rd Party License Summary
Item System Function Version License type Terms Available From
1 Coin3D 3D Graphics 3.1.3 BSD Clause 3 BSD-3-Clause coin3d on Bitbucket/
2 VTK Visualization 6.3.0 BSD type VTK License vtk.org
Apache
3 Xerces-C XML 3.1.1 Apache V2 xerces-c source
LICENSE-2.0
4 GLUT 3D Graphics 3.7 Free dist. GLUT lib GLUT lib
5 GLU Tessellation 1.3 BSD type sgi.com glx
6 Mesa3D 3D Graphics 8.0.5 MIT type Mesa license Mesa download
7 OpenGL 3D Graphics 2.x Referenced only oss.sgi.com opengl.org
lgpl & private
8 PoDoFo PDF 0.9.5 LGPL podofo source
terms
9 CMake Configuration 2.9.1 BSD type CMake license cmake.org
Private Agree- LiveWeb term-
10 LiveWeb Powerpoint 14/12/2007 liveweb site
ment s.htm
Developer
11 Keylib Activiation 4.6.0.4 Commercial softwarekey.com
License
Developer
12 LM-X Activation 4.8.1 Commercial x-formation.com
License
FreeType 2
13 Freetype2 Fonts 2.3.5 BSD type freetype.org
License
Free Com-
14 JPEG Image I/O 6b JPEG Terms ijg.org
merical
15 PNG Image I/O 1.0.12 BSD type libpng License libpng.org
16 TIFF Image I/O 4.0.3 BSD type libtiff License libtiff.org
17 VRaniML VRML 0.9.04 Commercial Restricted greathill.com
18 Zlib Compression 1.2.3 BSD type zlib License zlib.net
Developer
19 AVS/Express Visualization 8.2 Commercial avs.com
License
Apache
20 U3D 3D Graphics 1.2.639.0 Apache V2 u3d sources
LICENSE-2.0
21 msinttypes C++ r26 BSD 3-Clause BSD Clause 3 code.google.com
NullSoft
22 Installer 2.99 zlib/libpng type nsis License nsis.sourceforge.net
NSIS
Sun Binary
23 Java-SDK Java SDK 1.7 Java license java.sun.com
License
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User Inter- 4.8.7,
24 Qt LGPL Qt License qt.nokia.com
face 5.5.1
25 OSG 3D Graphics 3.4 LGPL like OSG License openscenegraph.org
26 7-Zip Compression 9.20 LGPL 7-zip terms 7-zip.org
OptiPNG
27 OptiPNG Compression 0.6.5 Zlib/libPNG optipng.sourceforge.net
License
Copyright Allan
28 SHA256 Encryption 348 BSD type saddi.com
Saddi
29 Boost C++ 1.60.0 BSD/MIT Boost License boost.org
Linear
30 Eigen 3.2.4 MPL2.0 MPL 2.0 eigen.tuxfamily.org
Algebra
31 LibCurl Http/Ftp 7.23.1 MIT/X type Curl License curl.haxx.se
32 libHaru PDF 2.2.1 ZLIB/LIBPNG libharu License libharu.org
ParaView
33 ParaView Visualization 4.3.1 BSD Type paraview.org
license
paraviewgeo
34 ParaViewGeo Visualization 3.10/3.12 BSD Type paraviewgeo site
License
CAD
35 Teigha 4.1 Commercial opendesign.com Members Only
Formats
36 assimp DCC Files 3.2+ BSD type assimp License assimp.sourceforge.net
37 poly2tri Geometry June 2011 BSD type poly2tri License poly2tri sources
38 iText PDF 5.1.3 AGPL itextpdf AGPL iText site
libgeotiff
39 GeoTIFF Geospatial 1.4.0 BSD type geotiff site
License
GPL,Permissive
40 SWIG Development 3.0.8 SWIG License swig.org
R/T
41 LibLAS Point Clouds 1.7.0 BSD type liblas License liblas.org
42 LASzip Point Clouds 2.2.0 LGPL laszip License laszip.org
MIT/X style
43 GDAL/OGR Geospatial 1.9.2 GDAL License gdal.org
license
Autodesk
44 FBX-SDK FBX Files 2014.2 fbx License fbx site
license
Open Cas- CAD Inter- opencascade
45 6.9.1 LGPL opencascade.com
cade faces License
46 FinalMesh 3D Graphics 1.0 Commercial finalmesh.com finalmesh.com
47 PROJ4 Geospatial 480 MIT libproj License libproj site
Predicates
48 Predicates 3D Graphics 1996 Public Predicates site
License
FNV Hash
49 FNV Hash Encryption 1.5 Public FNV Hash site
License
50 Expat XML 2.0 MIT Expat License Expat source
Paquet Paquet Builder
51 Installer 3.5.0 Commercial PB Site
Builder License
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OpenSSL toolkit OpenSSL Software
52 OpenSSL Security 1.1.0 Apache
License Foundation Inc.
Internationalized
53 LibIDN Security 1.33 LGPL LibIDN License
Domain Name Library
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Index

2D PDF 82
3D View 45, 51
3D View Parameters 45
3D View Settings 45, 51
Activate 21
activation keys 23
add caption 72
Add Media 70
add subtitle 72
add title 72
Additional Controls 49, 51, 77
Adobe Reader 15
Animation 73
append 43
ArcScene 83
background color for 3D view 46
Batch 94
Batch Conversion 31
CCW 83
Cell Size Parameters 60
CFD 96
Check for Updates 23
Coin 3D 83
Colormap files 102
Common Parameters 81
compression 39
Compression 40
COMSOL 85
Conversion Settings 39
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convert file 36, 83
Copyright Notices 127
CSV 107
disable document security 37
document security settings 37
Draping Mode 81
DWG 95
Dynamic Controls 47, 51, 77
dynamic update 47
enable document security 37
EPSG 55
FEA 96
Flash 48
Flash SWF 109
format 52
Format Parameters 52
Formats 10
GCS 55
Geo-Registration 41
Geospatial 83
Geospatial General Parameters 54
GeoTIFF 64
GSI3D 90
Hill Shade 58
IDW 59
Image formats 70
IMG 64
Insert controls 49-50
insert metadata controls 50
install PDF3D ReportGen 20
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installation 20
Interface 9
Labels Dynamic Controls 47
Large Geospatial Grids 97
Layer 82
Layers 73
license 21, 23
lighting scheme 46
load saved session 92
log 40
log file 40
margin 53
media position 70
Media Settings 70
merge PDF 37
merge PDFs 37, 43
merge settings 43
Merge Utility 106
mesh quality factor 39
meshes 39
messages 40
metadata controls 50
Model Units 41
mouse 3D Probe 50
Multimedia 68
Multiple files 33
Navigation Constraint 78
North Compass 56, 60, 66
Optional Content (OC) 82
Options 35, 37
output location 37
output settings 37
Page 134 of 136

User Manual
page height 53
Page Settings 52
page width 52-53
PCS 55
PDF2D 52, 70
PDF3D ReportGen 8
PDF3DImageInjector 108
pdf3dsettings 111
PLY 110
PMI 95
Point-Clouds 99
Point Cloud Parameters 59
PowerPoint 8
prepend 43
Prescale Factor 55
Python 31
render mode 46
replace PDF 43
resize media 71
Save session 91
Scalebar 66
scripted 94
Security 75
select background color 46
select file to be converted 38
Sequence Animation 73
shaded meshes 39
shading issues 84
show 3D Toolbar 46
show codes 23
Show PDF 34, 37
Simplification 79
solid parameter 84
STL 86
Surfer 63
Page 135 of 136

User Manual
tab-based menu 32
Teigha 87
Templates 100
tesselation engine 83
tessellation engine 83
text parameters 72
texture quality 39
Third Party Licenses 129
Tin 59
Transient Analysis 96
transparent background 46
U3D 110
VCT 78
view progress 40
Visual Technology Services Ltd 1
VRML 97 84
WKT 55
z-scaling 50
zoom factor 51
Page 136 of 136

PDF3D Report Gen - Help

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PDF3D Report Gen - Help

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User Manual

How to merge PDF files 106

Patent & Copyright Notices 127

The PDF3D ReportGen Interface Overview

Supported File Formats

Type Format Extensions Applications

Adobe Reader 3D menu

2. Adobe 3D Model Tree Side Menu: Using the options available in the tree side menu, you can nav-

3. Adobe Reader 3D Camera Views :Using the camera view menu, you can select various preset

4. Adobe Reader 3D Lights: Various Lighting Schemes, available to reveal different aspects of the 3D

6. Adobe Right-Mouse Popup Menu:

7. Adobe 3D Navigation Short-Cuts:

Activating PDF3D ReportGen

6. Or if for any reason the web option is not convenient, Push the “Show Codes” button. This will copy

Checking for Updates

2. environment.plist example (using a local fixed license file, without a server).

Automatic Server Discovery

export PDF3D_LICENSE_PATH=<your path>/PDF3DReportGen/pdf3d.lic

Testing and Verification

The Tab-based menu

l Select Merge 0: new or replace to create a new PDF or replace the existing PDF.

8. Select the Show PDF after close checkbox to view the PDF as soon as the file is converted. This

Template PDF Reference

Environment Variable Substitution

Converting a File Methods and Options

Defining Output Settings

Selecting the file(s) to be converted

General Conversion Settings

2. Go to the General Conversion Settings section which is the first section under this tab.

Output Coordinate System

1. Output Coordinate System group of parameters defines how the resulting PDF will encode 2D and

5. Select PDF/E3 Compliance if you wish to have additional restrictions, and medata data added to the

l Select Merge 0: new or replace to create a new PDF or replace the existing PDF. Select this

2. View Scheme allows preset groups of default views to automatically be added into the PDF 3D view

3. Set Initial View Number allows selection of which view from the list should be shown when the PDF

5. In the Render Mode field, select the appropriate render mode from the options provided. The default

2. Go to the Labels Dynamic Controls section which is the first section under this tab.

3. Select the Enable Dynamic labels checkbox. If the conversion scene contains 3D text labels, these

Insert Additional Controls

2. Go to the Insert Additional Controls section which is the last section under this tab.

3. Select the Insert Controls For Mouse 3D Probe checkbox to enable mouse 3D probe. This enables

PDF 3D View Settings

2. The first section under this tab is the 3D View Modes setting. Using the options provided in this sec-

Defining 2D Page Layout Settings

2. Go to the Format Parameters section which is the first section under the Page Layout tab.

Legend Bar Placement

In the Position LeftPosition Right, Width and Height fields, the legend bar with text labels and title can be

Geospatial Interface Settings

Geospatial Input Units:

Hill Shade Parameters: Add light or shade to the scene as would occur if a light were shone from a pre-

Texturing - Colormap File

Channel Selection for Color, Attributes and Elevation Data

Scene Axes Settings

1. The first section is the Multimedia Parameters section. Here you can add a new image to the output

2. The last section is the Text Parameters section. Using the options available in this section, you can

Adding Multimedia to Output Document

2. Go to the Multimedia Parameters section which is the first section under the Annotations tab.

Adding Title and Sub-title to Document

2. Go to the Text Parameters section which is the last section under the Annotations tab.

Animation and Layers

By using the Create Options and Apply Settings To menus, the 2D drawing settings can be adjusted for indi-

VRML / IV Coin 3D Interface Options

7. In the Optional treatments of VRML97 solid parameter field, select an alternative mode to improve