Before Christmas I watched a video from the AutoDesk University keynote. The theme of the keynote was interoperability but the goings on concerned how different AutoDesk applications could talk to each other using DWG and DWF formats. It is rather ironic that a single silo is only just beginning to tout its ability to exchange data within itself whilst the IAI is promoting the adoption of a generic IFC model. Something that stood out during the presentation was that even though 'interoperability' was the theme there was no mention of IFCs. This is a clear indication that AutoDesk is concerned about the security of their silo and through the promotion of their own exchange standards they retain format control, and consequently customer subscriptions, to their AEC silo.
On the other side of the New Year Adobe recently announced the immediate availability of their Acrobat3D software for imbedding 3D content into easily exchanged PDF files. This is a direct competitor to AutoDesk's DWF format and to a lesser extent both formats are simpler and immediately more accessible rivals to IFCs. This move also differentiates Adobe's PDF reader from the growing bunch of PDF viewers because at the moment only Adobe Reader 7.0 is capable of reading these 3D files. The success of this format in the AEC field is probably reliant on the acceptance or rejection of it by Bentley, Graphisoft and other CAD/CAM rivals to AutoDesk. Given the control AutoDesk has over DWG (even with the existence of OpenDWG) it would seem likely Acrobat3D will be picked up and promoted by competitors as a means of ensuring AutoDesk does not control the defacto 2D/3D document exchange format as well as the default 3D model format.