Workflow for exporting blender animations to 3D PDF

I am looking for a workflow that can export Blender Animations to a 3D PDF. The idea is to use it for archiviz-type presentations. I have spent some time looking at responses on these forums and the StackExchange, but the threads are all relatively out of date or don’t address the animation side specifically.

At the moment I have a project that uses both shape-key animation and modifier keyframes to demonstrate a shed being built, and because I wasn’t aware of this requirement when I began animating, everything is on a different action layer.

In the future, i’d like to know what the best practices are for animating things in a similar way with the end goal being a 3D pdf.

I have tried using Meshlab with .FBX and .OBJ. The .OBJ file just crashes Meshlab outright, and the .FBX has serious issues with the materials I haven’t had the patience to address yet. .FBX also didn’t seem to properly import my animations, which I would chalk up to them not being formatted well for this application.

I have also been trying SimLab, but their UI is equally frustrating and has been unable to pick up on my animations. Also I have been using their trial, so I am unable to use it for commercial work and nearly $200 Canadian for their product just isn’t justifiable to me right now unless I can really prove it does exactly what I need.

I believe I understand the limitations are in the animation styles I have chosen (Modifier keyframes mainly) and the sheer amount of animations as the actions are not joined is the source of my grief.

Many thanks!

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Not sure specifically about that workflow, but I would definitely recommend starting with a much simpler test scene. Export a static cube and get that into a .pdf. Once that works, animate the cube and export that. Find out what you can do, and that will inform the ways you can adapt your more complex scene to work.

I bet you are right about the animated modifiers, those will be tough to export in any format. I have never played with 3d models in a .pdf, but I would be kinda surprised if it were able to handle complex animation.

Hi Rug,

Have you posted the question on the Simlab Forum?
I recall when I visited there regularly some time ago the developers would often answer questions in addition to any responses from users.

@SterlingRoth I have been able to get a static end-frame version of my scene into 3D .pdf, which is great. The issue I believe would be solved by using an Alembic .abc format, but Simlab doesn’t support that at this moment.

@chrisd Good idea, I will check over there for this specific program’s workflow. Ideally I’d like an open source or just free pipeline for this job, but sacrifices must always be made… I just don’t want to go boldly forth without ShapeKeys or animating Array modifier values :sleepy: