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Displaying 3D models in PDFs

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  1. Acrobat User Guide
  2. Introduction to Acrobat
    1. Access Acrobat from desktop, mobile, web
    2. Introducing the new Acrobat experience
    3. What's new in Acrobat
    4. Keyboard shortcuts
    5. System Requirements
  3. Workspace
    1. Workspace basics
    2. Opening and viewing PDFs
      1. Opening PDFs
      2. Navigating PDF pages
      3. Viewing PDF preferences
      4. Adjusting PDF views
      5. Enable thumbnail preview of PDFs
      6. Display PDF in browser
    3. Working with online storage accounts
      1. Access files from Box
      2. Access files from Dropbox
      3. Access files from OneDrive
      4. Access files from SharePoint
      5. Access files from Google Drive
    4. Acrobat and macOS
    5. Acrobat notifications
    6. Grids, guides, and measurements in PDFs
    7. Asian, Cyrillic, and right-to-left text in PDFs
  4. Creating PDFs
    1. Overview of PDF creation
    2. Create PDFs with Acrobat
    3. Create PDFs with PDFMaker
    4. Using the Adobe PDF printer
    5. Converting web pages to PDF
    6. Creating PDFs with Acrobat Distiller
    7. Adobe PDF conversion settings
    8. PDF fonts
  5. Editing PDFs
    1. Edit text in PDFs
    2. Edit images or objects in a PDF
    3. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    4. Edit scanned PDFs
    5. Enhance document photos captured using a mobile camera
    6. Optimizing PDFs
    7. PDF properties and metadata
    8. Links and attachments in PDFs
    9. PDF layers
    10. Page thumbnails and bookmarks in PDFs
    11. PDFs converted to web pages
    12. Setting up PDFs for a presentation
    13. PDF articles
    14. Geospatial PDFs
    15. Applying actions and scripts to PDFs
    16. Change the default font for adding text
    17. Delete pages from a PDF
  6. Scan and OCR
    1. Scan documents to PDF
    2. Enhance document photos
    3. Troubleshoot scanner issues when scanning using Acrobat
  7. Forms
    1. PDF forms basics
    2. Create a form from scratch in Acrobat
    3. Create and distribute PDF forms
    4. Fill in PDF forms
    5. PDF form field properties
    6. Fill and sign PDF forms
    7. Setting action buttons in PDF forms
    8. Publishing interactive PDF web forms
    9. PDF form field basics
    10. PDF barcode form fields
    11. Collect and manage PDF form data
    12. About forms tracker
    13. PDF forms help
    14. Send PDF forms to recipients using email or an internal server
  8. Combining files
    1. Combine or merge files into single PDF
    2. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    3. Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs
    4. Crop PDF pages
    5. Add watermarks to PDFs
    6. Add backgrounds to PDFs
    7. Working with component files in a PDF Portfolio
    8. Publish and share PDF Portfolios
    9. Overview of PDF Portfolios
    10. Create and customize PDF Portfolios
  9. Sharing, reviews, and commenting
    1. Share and track PDFs online
    2. Mark up text with edits
    3. Preparing for a PDF review
    4. Starting a PDF review
    5. Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint or Office 365 sites
    6. Participating in a PDF review
    7. Add comments to PDFs
    8. Adding a stamp to a PDF
    9. Approval workflows
    10. Managing comments | view, reply, print
    11. Importing and exporting comments
    12. Tracking and managing PDF reviews
  10. Saving and exporting PDFs
    1. Saving PDFs
    2. Convert PDF to Word
    3. Convert PDF to PPTX
    4. Convert PDF to XLSX or XML
    5. Convert PDF to JPG
    6. Convert PDF to PNG
    7. Convert or export PDFs to other file formats
    8. File format options for PDF export
    9. Reusing PDF content
  11. Security
    1. Enhanced security setting for PDFs
    2. Securing PDFs with passwords
    3. Manage Digital IDs
    4. Securing PDFs with certificates
    5. Opening secured PDFs
    6. Removing sensitive content from PDFs
    7. Setting up security policies for PDFs
    8. Choosing a security method for PDFs
    9. Security warnings when a PDF opens
    10. Securing PDFs with Adobe Experience Manager
    11. Protected View feature for PDFs
    12. Overview of security in Acrobat and PDFs
    13. JavaScripts in PDFs as a security risk
    14. Attachments as security risks
    15. Allow or block links in PDFs
  12. Electronic signatures
    1. Sign PDF documents
    2. Capture your signature on mobile and use it everywhere
    3. Send documents for e-signatures
    4. Create a web form
    5. Request e-signatures in bulk
    6. Collect online payments
    7. Brand your account
    8. About certificate signatures
    9. Certificate-based signatures
    10. Validating digital signatures
    11. Adobe Approved Trust List
    12. Manage trusted identities
  13. Printing
    1. Basic PDF printing tasks
    2. Print Booklets and PDF Portfolios
    3. Advanced PDF print settings
    4. Print to PDF
    5. Printing color PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    6. Printing PDFs in custom sizes
  14. Accessibility, tags, and reflow
    1. Create and verify PDF accessibility
    2. Accessibility features in PDFs
    3. Reading Order tool for PDFs
    4. Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features
    5. Edit document structure with the Content and Tags panels
    6. Creating accessible PDFs
    7. Cloud-based auto-tagging
  15. Searching and indexing
    1. Creating PDF indexes
    2. Searching PDFs
  16. Multimedia and 3D models
    1. Add audio, video, and interactive objects to PDFs
    2. Adding 3D models to PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    3. Displaying 3D models in PDFs
    4. Interacting with 3D models
    5. Measuring 3D objects in PDFs
    6. Setting 3D views in PDFs
    7. Enable 3D content in PDF
    8. Adding multimedia to PDFs
    9. Commenting on 3D designs in PDFs
    10. Playing video, audio, and multimedia formats in PDFs
    11. Add comments to videos
  17. Print production tools (Acrobat Pro)
    1. Print production tools overview
    2. Printer marks and hairlines
    3. Previewing output
    4. Transparency flattening
    5. Color conversion and ink management
    6. Trapping color
  18. Preflight (Acrobat Pro)
    1. PDF/X-, PDF/A-, and PDF/E-compliant files
    2. Preflight profiles
    3. Advanced preflight inspections
    4. Preflight reports
    5. Viewing preflight results, objects, and resources
    6. Output intents in PDFs
    7. Correcting problem areas with the Preflight tool
    8. Automating document analysis with droplets or preflight actions
    9. Analyzing documents with the Preflight tool
    10. Additional checks in the Preflight tool
    11. Preflight libraries
    12. Preflight variables
  19. Color management
    1. Keeping colors consistent
    2. Color settings
    3. Color-managing documents
    4. Working with color profiles
    5. Understanding color management

Learn how to effortlessly view and interact with 3D models in Acrobat.

Before you begin

We're rolling out a new, more intuitive product experience. If the screen shown here doesn’t match your product interface, select help for your current experience.

In the new experience, the tools appear on the left side of the screen.

With Acrobat, you can view and interact with top-notch 3D designs made in professional CAD or modeling programs and embedded in PDFs. You can hide and show parts of a 3D model, remove a cover to look inside, and rotate parts as if holding them in your hands.

Enable playing of 3D content in PDF

When you open a PDF with 3D content, a yellow bar appears at the top with the message, Multimedia and 3D content has been disabled. Enable this feature if you trust this document.

You can enable the 3D content in the document to start playing the 3D content.

To enable content, select Options on the upper right. A drop-down menu appears.

Select either Trust this document one time only or Trust this document always as per your preference.

Enable 3D content permanently

  1. Press Ctrl + K (Windows) or Command + K (macOS) to open Preferences.

  2. Select Multimedia & 3D > Enable playing of Multimedia and 3D content checkbox.

  3. Select OK.

You can learn about enabling 3D content in PDF.

Activate a 3D content in PDF

A 3D model initially appears as a two-dimensional preview image.

  1. Open the PDF file containing the 3D model.

  2. Select the 3D model using either the Hand or Select tool.

    The 3D model is activated. A 3D toolbar appears above the model.

You can now interact or play animations in your 3D model.

3D toolbar overview

When you activate a 3D model, the 3D toolbar will appear above it. You can use this toolbar to zoom in and out, rotate, and move around the model. 

To play with the 3D model, you can select and drag the different navigation tools. As you navigate the model, imagine viewing the 3D model from a camera's point of view.

To view other tools, select the drop-down option on the right of the 3D toolbar.

3D navigation tools

rotate

Rotate

Turns 3D objects around relative to the screen. You can also use the Hand or Select tool to rotate an object. Ensure that Rotate tool is selected in the 3D toolbar.
rotate

Spin

Turns a 3D model in parallel to two fixed axes (x-axis and z-axis) in the 3D model.
rotate

Pan

Moves the model vertically and horizontally only. You can also pan with the Hand or Select tool. Press ctrl and drag.
rotate

Zoom

Moves you toward, or away from the objects on the screen when you drag vertically. You can also zoom with the Hand or Select tool by holding down shift key as you drag.
rotate

Walk

Pivots horizontally or vertically around the canvas when you drag horizontally or vertically maintaining a constant elevation level, regardless of how you drag. This tool is useful for architectural 3D models.

To change the walking speed, change the default display units in Preferences > Measuring (3D) > Use Scale and Units from Model (when present).
rotate

Fly

Navigates through a model while maintaining the surface orientation. Selecting the model and moving the cursor moves the model closer to you. Drag the cursor right or left to turn.

To rotate the camera view, click the left mouse button inside the 3D window and drag to turn the camera view. To return to the starting camera direction, move the mouse back to the initial click point.

Use the mouse scroll wheel to move rapidly backward and forward along the camera view direction. This functionality is useful if you get lost within a model or fly into the surface.
rotate

Camera Properties

Defines the camera angle, alignment, and other properties that define the lens through which a 3D model is viewed. Camera properties are components of views but are set independently.
rotate

3D Measurement Tool

Measures part sizes and distances in the 3D model.

3D toolbar view controls

rotate

Default View

Returns to a preset zoom, pan, rotation, and projection mode of the 3D model. Use the Options menu in the View pane of the Model Tree to set a different view as the default. Or use the Manage Views command on the 3D toolbar Views menu to set a different view as the default.

If an object ever moves out of your view, you have, in essence, turned your camera away from the object. Select the Default View icon on the 3D toolbar to move the object back into view.

Views menu

Lists any views defined for the current 3D model.
rotate

Toggel Model Tree

Opens and hides the Model Tree. The Model Tree can be used to hide or show parts of the 3D model.
rotate

Play/Pause Animation

Plays or pauses any JavaScript-enabled animation. The Play/Pause Animation pop-up menu opens a slider that you can drag back and forth to move to different times in the animation sequence.
rotate

Use Orthographic/Perspective Projection

Toggles between displaying perspective and orthographic projection of the 3D object.
rotate

Model Render Mode

Determines how the 3D shape appears. For an illustrated guide, see Examples of model rendering modes.
rotate

Enable Extra Lighting

Lists the different lighting effects that are available to enhance the illumination of the 3D object. Experiment to get the visual effects you want.
rotate

Background Color

Opens the color picker, which you can use to select a different color for the space surrounding the 3D object.
rotate

Toggle Cross Section

Shows and hides cross-sections of the object. Select the pop-up menu to open the Cross Section Properties dialog box. For more information, see Create cross sections.

Add Multimedia/3D Comment

Enables you to add a sticky note to any part of the 3D model. The note stays with the view. See Commenting on 3D designs in PDFs.

3D Preferences

In the Preferences dialog box, the Multimedia & 3D panel allows you to manage the default display of the 3D toolbar and Model Tree. Additionally, you can specify the default renderer and decide whether animations are allowed.

Multimedia and 3D options

Enable Playing of Multimedia and 3D Content

By default, 3D content in PDFs is disabled due to potential security vulnerabilities. To enable the playing of 3D content, select the option “Enable Playing of 3D Content” in the Multimedia & 3D panel.

Renderer Options

Preferred Renderer

Specifies the appropriate rendering engine in the Multimedia & 3D preferences to affect performance and quality. You can select DirectX® or OpenGL option for faster rendering that uses the graphics chip on the video adapter.  If Software is selected, rendering takes more time, but the performance is often more consistent with the model rendering of the originating application.

Enable hardware rendering for legacy video cards

Forces the use of a hardware accelerator for even video adapters that do not support a pixel shader.

Enable Double-Sided Rendering

Select this option to render both sides of the model. Deselecting this option renders only the side facing the user to save time and space.

Preferred 3D PMI Rendering Mode

Specifies the PMI mode to use for rendering. You can select one of the following options:

  • Use content's setting: The rendering of the PMI uses the setting of each PMI to decide whether it uses the Z-buffer.
  • Always render 3D PMI in front of model: The rendering of the PMI ignores the Z-buffer regardless of the setting in the file.
  • Always render 3D PMI using Z-buffer: The rendering of the PMI always turns on Z-buffer regardless of the setting in the file.

3D Tool Options

Open Model Tree On 3D Activation

Determines whether the Model Tree is displayed when the 3D model is activated. Choose Use Annotation’s Setting to use whichever setting the author used when adding the 3D model to the PDF.

Default Toolbar State

Determines whether the 3D toolbar is shown or hidden when a 3D model is activated. Choose Use Annotation’s Setting to use whichever setting the author used when adding the 3D model to the PDF.

Enable selection for the Hand tool

Lets the user select and highlight parts of the 3D model using the Hand tool. If this option is not selected, use the Object Data tool (Tools > Interactive Objects > Select Object) to select the object.

Consolidate tools on the 3D Toolbar

Selecting this option places the manipulation and navigation tools under the Rotate tool, thereby shortening the 3D toolbar.

Enable view transitions

Some 3D models include animated transitions between views. Deselect this option if you want to prevent this 3D animation.

Show 3D orientation axis

Turns on or off an in-scene display of an axis that indicates the current orientation of the 3D scene.

Auto-Degrade Options

Optimization scheme for Low Framerate

Specifies what happens to animations of complex models when the framerate becomes low. None does not compromise the visuals and leaves the framerate low. Bounding Box shows the three-dimensional planes enclosing the parts instead of the parts themselves, which keeps the framerate high. Drop Objects does not show some parts of the model, which keeps the framerate high.

Framerate Threshold

Sets the minimum framerate, either by dragging the slider or entering a number in the value box. If the framerate drops below that number of frames per second, the Optimization Scheme For Low Framerate option goes into effect.

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