CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
8 March 2005
Product News
Actify Announces Support for U3D File Format
Actify Inc . announced support of the 3D Industry Forum's (3DIF) Universal 3D format, called U3D. U3D was selected by Adobe as the native 3D format implemented within the Acrobat family of products, including Acrobat Reader, and output as PDF 1.6 files. As a charter member of the 3D Industry Forum, Actify has enabled its newly announced SpinFire for Microsoft Office product, announced March 7, 2005, will generate highly compressed interactive 3D files that can be used to create Adobe PDF 1.6 files, or U3D files.
"As chair of the 3D Industry Forum, Intel is very pleased to have Actify as a member of the organization," said Richard Benoit, business development manager for Intel Corporate Technology Group, and chair of the 3DIF. "Their support of U3D is further evidence of the value that 3D has and will have in downstream applications such as customer service, maintenance, training, simulation and other usage models. Actify's relationship with Microsoft is testimonial as to the importance 3D plays in the promotion and implementation of these product life cycle management (PLM) applications. This effort will prove to be a great catalyst for a successful transformation and redefinition of the PLM market place."
"This announcement supports Actify's goal to deliver enterprise wide Digital Design Communications solutions that enable the repurposing of 3D and 2D design data for use in sales and marketing documentation, technical publications, supplier collaboration materials, and service and customer support communications," said Randy Ochs, president and CEO of Actify Inc. "We continue to support all industry file formats that will facilitate this and meet the needs of our marketplace. Information workers can now, with SpinFire for Microsoft Office, embed 3D and 2D data in their Office and Outlook documents, and output to the U3D format in Acrobat 7.0/PDF 1.6 to deliver 2D & 3D design content in familiar formats to management, at customer presentations and for marketing, sales and customer support documentation."
SpinFire for Microsoft Office allows the creation of documents in the two most common document formats, Microsoft Office and PDF. This increases the ease in which designers, manufacturers and their supply chains can communicate their 2D and 3D design data. Three of Actify's key partnerships, Microsoft, 3DIF (Intel) and Adobe (PDF-E, Adobe Developer Network Partner), facilitate Actify continuing to meet the visualization needs of manufacturers worldwide.
The Actify Suite of Products includes SpinFire for Microsoft Office, which allows access to 2D and 3D design data from within Microsoft Office or PDF files; Actify Publisher 2005, the automated creator of the .3D files; Actify Server, the repository to manage and share the files; SpinFire Professional, the application to view, measure and markup CAD files and SpinFire Reader, the free viewer that allows users to share .3D files, created by Actify products, in a view-only format.
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