I’m not sure who the biggest winner is likely to be: UGS or Adobe. PDF is already the leading format for sharing documents and JT is currently the most widely used format for sharing lightweight 3D product data. Adobe would like to dominate the 3D document exchange arena as well, but needs to garner support for U3D, the 3D format it chose to provide 3D capabilities inside PDF. And UGS wants to bolster JT as it begins to face competition from other formats, most notably Dassault Systèmes’ 3D XML.
The battle lines are still being drawn among these and other lightweight 3D formats, such as Autodesk’s DWF, SolidWorks’ eDrawings, Lattice3D’s version of XVL, and Actify’s .3D, just to name a few. There will continue to be lots of cross pollination and additional competition.
How did we get here and where will this all lead? Read “New Developments in Lightweight 3D Formats” in the October 27, 2005 issue of CADCAMNet.
Related Links:
New Developments in Lightweight 3D Formats
[http://go.cadwire.net/?9276,3,1]
Adobe Joins JT Open Program
[http://go.cadwire.net/?43448,1,1]
