3D annotations and File format Conversion

[DeveloperGuy@adobeforums.com]

I am writing a plug-in for Acrobat Extended Pro that will export embedded 3D files in other formats. I only have access to a U3D converter right now but Acrobat saves some files in their PRC format. Is there some way to have Acrobat convert PRC files into U3D?

Thank you in advance for your help.

[Leonard_Rosenthol@adobeforums.com]

No, we do not include a PRC->U3D converter in Acrobat since doing so wouldn't serve any useful purpose since PRC and U3D are quite different (and PRC is much better).

[DeveloperGuy@adobeforums.com]

Can any Converters be invoked by the SDK?

[Leonard_Rosenthol@adobeforums.com]

If you write your own converter - or find a 3rd party one - you can certainly call it all you wish.

[DeveloperGuy@adobeforums.com]

.... But now I am back to my original problem :(

I don't have a PRC converter and getting one is not an option. But I need to extract PRC files. I know that Acrobat can do this because I can import PRC files and Acrobat can store them as U3D files. Thus, there _must_ be a converter inside Acrobat I want to know if there is some way to get Acrobat to do this conversion for me.

[Leonard_Rosenthol@adobeforums.com]

Acrobat does NOT convert PRC->U3D. It stores PRC natively in the PDF.

On the other hand, we CAN convert U3D->PRC - but I don't believe that converter is exposed to the SDK.

[DeveloperGuy@adobeforums.com]

Are any of the other converters exposed, like PRC->VRML, STEP, Parasolid, IGES or STL?

[Leonard_Rosenthol@adobeforums.com]

We don't support PRC->XXX conversion - only XXX->PRC.

[DeveloperGuy@adobeforums.com]

I am trying to use the Acrobat 3D API. However, when I try to pass the PRC file I have extracted from the annotation to A3DAsmModelFileLoadFromFile() it tells me that the file is invalid. Is there some other correct way of saving the PRC file? Currently I am just fwrite()-ing the contents of the 3DD entry in the Annotation Dictionary.

[Leonard_Rosenthol@adobeforums.com]

I would recommend that you open up a formal "ticket" with developer support - they are better suited to help at that level...

[DeveloperGuy@adobeforums.com]

I've figured everything out. The problem I was having was because I was using fwrite() in text mode instead of binary mode. :p

For anyone reading this later, this is how you convert from PRC -> U3D and back:

1) load the Acrobat 3D Dll (A3DLIB.dll) and do all of the initializations.

2) Then, load the PRC file with the function A3DAsmModelFileLoadFromFile().

3) Then take the model structure you get back and pass it to A3DAsmModelFileWriteToFile(). The A3DAsmModelFileWriteParametersData * parameter will contain the format specifier.

You can save these files as either PRC, U3D version 1 or U3D version 3.

Look here for the full docs: <http://livedocs.adobe.com/acrobat_sdk/9/Acrobat9_HTMLHelp/API_References/PRCReference/3D_API_Reference/index.html>