PDF3D, 3D PDF Toolbar Help

A 3D PDF Toolbar allows you to manipulate a model dynamically within a standard PDF. You can zoom in or out on, rotate or translate 3D objects, and a model tree is provided allowing layers to be toggled on and off and parts of the graphic to be isolated, made transparent or even made invisible.

Adobe provide a free Acrobat Reader® software (version 7.0.9. or newer - v8.1, v9 preferable) in which you can interact with complex models as 3D PDFs. To operate the 3D PDF toolbar, click on a model with the Hand tool and the toolbar will appear above the top-left hand corner of the image (it cannot be moved from there). You can make the toolbar disappear, or reappear at any stage by clicking the blue triangle just below it.

You can use the 3D toolbar to zoom in and out, rotate, and pan across the object. Use the model tree to hide or isolate parts, or make parts transparent.

Below are descriptions of each of the toolbar options:

STL Hose Torsion 721kb

Weather Vis5D 4.5Mb

Navigation

Rotate
Turns the viewing angle around the object in the opposite direction to which you click and drag the mouse, as if you were rotating the object around in space.

Spin
Rotates the object about the y-axis in space.

Pan
Translates the model in directions parallel to the plane of viewing.

Zoom
By dragging up or down you can move the view towards or away from the object. The same effect can be achieved with the Hand tool by holding shift whilst dragging.

Walk
Dragging horizontally with the mouse turns the viewing angle and dragging vertically moves the viewing position forwards or backwards. Movement is constrained to the horizontal plane. The same tool is obtainable by right-clicking or Control-clicking the image under inspection and selecting Tools > Walk.