Macworld has posted a review of Photoshop CS3 Extended by Greg Miller, an architect and interactive software and Web developer specializing in new media. Here is the beginning:
"Photoshop CS3 Extended includes all of the same features as Photoshop CS3 but adds a brand-new set of tools and capabilities for the integration of 3-D models, video and animation, and image measurement and analysis (see all Photoshop upgrade options at the Adobe Store).
"In CS3, Adobe did a very good job of making interface improvements without moving too far away from the familiar. Most of the new elements unique to Photoshop Extended are well integrated into the standard Photoshop and accessed from familiar tools such as the Layers panel or various menus.
"Photoshop CS3 Extended can now import and manipulate 3-D objects, such as OBJ, 3DS, U3D (Acrobat 3D), KMZ (Google Earth), and COLLADA (XML files used most often for gaming) file formats. While these formats are all common and useful, the omission of DWG — the most popular format for exchanging CAD (computer-aided design) models — is glaring.
"Importing a 3-D object into a file is straightforward: you simply use the Open command from the File menu to navigate to and select your 3-D object. The 3-D model automatically opens in its own Photoshop layer. Layers with 3-D objects can co-exist with 2-D layers in the same document. After that you can scale, rotate, position, and render the model just as you would in any 3-D program. You can even create cross-sections, or slices, of the model in real time and adjust the location of the sections with a slider control. Performance on my test computer, a MacBook Intel Core 2 Duo with 2GB of RAM, was snappy. I encountered no lags of any kind in rotating, cutting sections in, or moving the model."
