3D PDF files?

[DAP]

Currently when one exports an object to PDF, what you get is a rather low resolution 2D image of the object.

The PDF format supports 3D objects that can be rotated, though this is pretty much only supported by Adobe Acrobat reader right now.
Some examples are here: https://tetra4d.com/pdf-samples/

What is the likelihood that FreeCAD will be able to export to this format in the near future?

[sgrogan]

What is the likelihood that FreeCAD will be able to export to this format in the near future?

See here: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=20224

I can't find a feature request on mantis. Indeed it would be a nice feature.

An alternative would be to export as brep and use CAD Assistant

[DAP]

Thanks for the link.
It does not look like FreeCAD supports either of the two formats required by PDF, so the object would need to go through several formats before it could become a PDF file, add to that, there is currently no way to display 3D PDF files in Linux, and it makes it less interesting.

While I was looking, I noticed that there was an HTML format that FreeCAD can export to. I was successful in displaying that in Mozilla, but the rendering is pretty poor with no shading at all.

[mrdic]

I first saw this procedure on the david-laserscanner forum, defunct since HP swallowed David. http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/crea ... re-tip9972 There's not much control over configuration, so the result is nowhere near the standard that commercial apps produce nowadays, but it does work.

[chrisb]

I first saw this procedure on the david-laserscanner forum, defunct since HP swallowed David. http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/crea ... re-tip9972

It's the same way as described in the post linked by sgrogan above. I would like to see at least a direct export from FreeCAD to the U3D format. Even better would be a pdf which could be distributed to almost everybody running acrobat on windows or Mac.

Does someone run the new Ubuntu 18.04? Is there a pdf reader capable of handling 3D pdf?