Acrobat 3D Version 8

Today I was given an hour long briefing and demo by John Cristofano, Rak Bhalla and Bahman Dara of Adobe about their latest version of Acrobat 3D due to be released in the Spring of 2007. The briefing was arranged by AR-Edelman, Adobe’s PR firm. It was a combination of phone call and an online presentation. It’s great what people can do sitting on the opposite sides of the globe.

I will write more about this later. It’s 11:30 pm here in India and I’d better leave office soon. Otherwise I’ll have to face my wife’s fury. I already have a headache from keeping my cell phone to my head for an hour. Next time I am going to use a speaker phone.

A quick note on their beta program. The Acrobat 3D Beta Program began back in December 2006. This program has three stages. The first stage involves only “hand selected” customers, about 10 only. I guess they must be real special. The second stage is what they call a “larger audience”, about 1000. Interestingly, SolidWorks users feature prominently in these 1000 beta testers. The third and final stage is the “Free Public Preview”, wherein anyone can download a fully functional copy from Adobe Labs. This is due to happen in March.

As regards pricing, Acrobat 3D 8 will be priced at $995. Registered users of Acrobat Professional can upgrade to Acrobat 3D starting at $545 and registered users of Acrobat 3D can upgrade to version 8 for $295. Customers who purchased Acrobat 3D after September 18th, 2006 are elegible for a free upgrade to version 8.