Dear development team

You may be interested in the following press article about developments to include 3D models in .pdf documents. I have just started developing an application with yourFlowhart.net product and exporting diagrams to .pdf files...which is fantastic.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23650869-12332,00.html
Uni puts 3D models into PDF docs
Jennifer Foreshew | May 06, 2008
A NEW software technique will allow researchers to present interactive 3D models of their work that give readers the ability to scrutinise the findings and even make new discoveries.

Christopher Fluke said there was a trend away from physical, paper-based journals
Developed by researchers at Melbourne's Swinburne University of Technology, the technique involves interactive 3D visualisations being embedded into Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) files.
Co-developer Christopher Fluke, an astronomer based at Swinburne's Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, said there was a trend away from physical, paper-based journals to fully online digital publications.
"In the past, the way you would have shared a 3D model is that you would either have to make a movie of it - so you might rotate that with one particular set of views, or you would have to present it as a series of individual images," Dr Fluke said.
"The problem there is that as the person creating those movies, or those images, you are making decisions about what you want the reader to see."
Dr Fluke, together with astronomer Dr David Barnes, developed a programming library, called S2PLOT, with the goal of making it easier for researchers to get their data in a 3D form.
It has since been extended to make it possible to export 3D models into an intermediate format that then can be fed directly into the PDF document.
Dr Fluke said the interactive method meant readers could scrutinise the data in a way that had not been previously available to them.
"So rather than seeing a static, single image of a 3D object, readers can click on the image, rotate it around, and view it from different angles, as well as zoom in and out," he said.
"We have also looked at adding simple functions so that you can turn on and off labels or select different types of presentation formats for that data."
The software will initially be aimed at other astronomers, but has applications over a wide range of sciences. The researchers expect to commercialise the software in the future.
"The great thing about the PDF format is that you don't have to worry as a creator about the type of software or the computer that your ultimate reader is using," Dr Fluke said.
"So putting it into a self-contained format, which has become a standard, makes it very easy for us to share these results."
Further work on the software will involve making complex figures quicker to load and interact with, as well as considering whether there are ways to reduce file size.
Dr Fluke said there was also a specific application for education that involved creating an interactive textbook.
"So students can get a PDF document and have all of their 3D models integrated into that, which is a much better educational experience for them," Dr Fluke said.

Stoyan

Thank you for your candor and supply of test code. I will have a look at it over the next few days and let you know how it works on my system. I do understand that there may be a few glitches.... you will find more in my code.

Have a great day
Doug

Hi Samun,

The new MoleculeViewer and SpringLayout samples in version 5.1 demonstrate the DiagramView3D control.

Stoyan