What is PDF/E?
The “E” in PDF/E stands for Engineering. PDF/E was published as ISO 24517 in 2008 as a standard for creating PDF based Engineering documents to be used in a variety of application areas. Key areas making use of PDF/E file format include geospatial, construction and manufacturing workflows. The PDF/E standard provides a mechanism for the exchange and archiving of engineering documents based on the PDF format. PDF/E comes with the support of interactive media, including animations and 3D engineering model data.
Brief History
- March 2004 - First Announcement
- 2005 - Submission to ISO
- 2006 - Voting for PDF/E format
- 2007 - Approval for PDF/E format
- 2008 - Official availability and update of the standard
PDF/E Characteristics
PDF/E has been in use for creation and exchange of engineering and technical documents. Its main characteristics for supporting 3D engineering model data makes it stand out for the reason that files generated in PDF/E format doesn’t require any specific software applications for viewing it. Instead, these can be viewed using the free and widely available Adobe Reader software. PDF/E is based on PDF v1.6 but has limited the embedded capabilities that are not used when creating engineering documents.
The PDF/E standard has following benefits;
- Reduces requirements for expensive & proprietary software
- Lower storage and exchange costs (vs. paper)
- Trustworthy exchange across multiple applications and platforms
- Self-contained
- Cost-effective and accurate means of capturing markups
- Developed and maintained by PDF/E ISO committee
