[Tex/LaTex] 3d model cannot be displayed (movie15, pdflatex)

movie15pdftex

I try to include a 3d model in a PDF file, but I get the error message: "A 3D data parsing error has occurred.", when I try to display it in Acrobat Reader 9.3 under Ubuntu 10.10.

I translated the tex file that you can find in the zip file under http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/U3D_support

I figure that there are the following error sources:

  • U3D file is corrupt or incompatible
  • the movie15 package is too old or incompatible
  • the tex file does not use the right options

I am currently unable to create my own u3d files with MeshLab and I did not find any other example files on the internet.

I already "replaced" the movie15.sty that is inside the zip file with movie15.sty that is shipping with Ubuntu.

I would be very greatful if someone could point me in the right direction.

For your convinience the beginning of the tex file:

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[3D]{movie15}
\usepackage[UKenglish]{babel}
\usepackage[colorlinks=true]{hyperref} 
\begin{document}
\title{Embedding interactive 3D object in a PDF using MeshLab and U3D}
\author{Visual Computing Group - ISTI - CNR\\ \href{http://vcg.isti.cnr.it}{http://vcg.isti.cnr.it}}
\maketitle
\begin{center}
\includemovie[
    poster,
    toolbar, %same as `controls'
    label=lau.u3d,
    text=(lau.u3d),
    3Daac=60, 3Droll=0, 3Dc2c=0 745.639 0, 3Droo=745.639, 3Dcoo=22.607 -1618.68 -149.864,
    3Dlights=CAD,
    3Drender=Wireframe
]{\linewidth}{\linewidth}{Laurana.u3d}
...

Best Answer

It appears that the U3D file that you have is incompatible with the version of Adobe Reader you are using. From my testing, your U3D file works fine with Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.0 but not with Adobe Reader 9.4.2. Furthermore, opening the U3D file in Photoshop and exporting again back to U3D produces a file that can be used without problems with Adobe Reader 9.4.2. So it's clearly an incompatibility problem.