If you open PDF files using the embedded vector data (ie. lines), you can then use ADR (Autodesk Design Review) to snap to PDF lines in order to measure them.

This may be useful to you if you are using ADR for markup tasks.  In our office, we are still very much PDF-centric, and various PDF readers allow you to measure PDFs anyway, so … you get the idea.

If you want to force ADR to open PDFs as vectors, follow the steps on the following post at RevitForum:
Design Review Tutorial

Some direct links (you will need to login to download):

Attached Files Attached Files

Thanks to Tim West for the post, the training guide and the registry tweak.  Nice job!

From Tim West’s PDF linked above

Manual steps from Instructions.txt:
XP
    Open your system registry editor with command ‘regedit’
    ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareAutodeskDesign ReviewPreferences’
    If there is not a key called ‘PDFImport’ please create it.
    Create a DWORD value whose name is ‘PDF Conversion Method’ and set its value as 2.
    Close your registry editor.
    Open your PDF files with ADR2012
    PDF will be converted to DWF as vector; you can save this DWF file by then.

Vista/7
    Open your system registry editor with command ‘regedit’
    Expand ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareAppDataLowSoftwareAutodeskDesign ReviewPreferences’ or ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareAutodeskDesign ReviewPreferences’
    If there is not a key called ‘PDFImport’ please create it.
    Create a DWORD value whose name is ‘PDF Conversion Method’ and set its value as 2.
    Close your registry editor.
    Open your PDF files with ADR2012
    PDF will be converted to DWF as vector; you can save this DWF file by then.

www.autodesk.de has an extended post on how to view Revit files for free at this link:
Autodesk – Autodesk Revit Viewer Free

The page reviews the following methods (none of which are very exciting):

For Revit files There are various possibilities.

Display native Revit files
  • Revit installation in viewing mode
Viewing exported data
  • Viewing DWF in Autodesk Design Review
  • DWF viewing in Internet Explorer
  • DWF Viewing into NavisWorks
  • Viewing in NWD NavisWorks Freedom

The English equivalent to the .de page is considerably shorter:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=7290003&linkID=9243099

Yes – it can be done!  The program you need is called Adobe Acrobat 3D Version 8.  It is very hard to find a download link, as this program has been superseded (by what would seem to be less powerful version/s).  Look for a file called Acro3D80_efg.exe.  It can be installed as a trial.  Trust me, it is worth it.  This is one powerful piece of software.

  1. Download Adobe Acrobat 3D Version 8.
  2. Install (as a Trial, if you don’t have the serial).  It is functional for 30 days.
  3. Open DWF file – it will automatically convert to 3D PDF.
  4. Save as PDF file.

Here is one download link I found for this file:


http://te.hu/download/adobe/demo/acrobat/acro3D80_efg.zip

A set of hashes for the file are:
  File: Acro3D80_efg.exe
CRC-32: d0c02103
   MD4: 1524e7773eb8609d3433a5c7f997f0ad
   MD5: 3102b53090dc58350eca2c3e6b4fb17e
 SHA-1: f9488c4b6e79fedc9eec54edb5f0e991c7d8d21f

When you install Adobe Acrobat 3D Version 8, another program called Adobe Acrobat 3D Toolkit is also installed.  It is also seems to be quite powerful for converting 3D files and creating 3D PDFs.

You may also be interested interested in my previous post:
Create 3D PDF files from Autodesk Revit for free

Links that you may find useful with regard to Revit and 3D PDF

Post showing Acrobat newer versions lost the powerful functionality of Version 8:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/299546?tstart=1

Adobe blog post about using 3D capture and Revit:
http://blogs.adobe.com/acrobatforaec/2007/06/how_to_get_autodesk_revit_mode.html

Original blog post that got me thinking about this:
http://revitoped.blogspot.com/2011/07/application-development-building-case.html

Adobe 3D version 8 update page:
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3859

Original post that got me headed in the right direction:
http://www.rugsyd.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=623

The steps below show how to do it using the i-model plugin (you may also want to look at converting a 3D DWF straight to a 3D PDF):

  1. Close Revit
  2. Download and install i-model plug-in for Revit (you will have to register)
  3. Download and install Bentley View
  4. Open a Revit project
  5. Open a 3D view
  6. In the Ribbon, go to Bentley – Publish as i-model
  7. Open the i-model DGN in Bentley View
  8. File – Print to PDF
  9. Tick ‘Print to 3D’
  10. Click Printer button
  11. Choose a place to save your file
  12. Open the 3D PDF in Adobe Reader
  13. Have fun navigating your Revit model inside a 3D PDF file.

ftp link>

If you’re looking to buy Autodesk software, try finding it here with special deals.

Autodesk is getting very, very serious about DWFs. They will not replace PDFs overnight, but it is looking like DWF will become the exchange format of choice in the future. Particularly in the BIM / building delivery industry anyway.

Revit wants you to adopt this technology. Well, Autodesk does 🙂

So, why not try the DWF printer driver from Autodesk? Check it out at:
http://www.autodesk.com/dwfwriter

Without breaching confidentiality, I can’t tell you much…but…there are some very exciting developments in the PDF vs DWF war coming up soon!

Thanks to Shaan Hurley