3ds max as an engineering tool

[cameroon95]

Hi guys, iv recently started a new job. I am in simulations work for use with the offshore oil industry. Mainly ROVs(remote operated vehicles). My boss has asked me to become competant with 3ds max for making animations, editing existing models(inventor files etc) and also for making componets and parts from engineering drawings. He gave me a design sheet and asked me to model this in max, thing is I dont think max is really designed for this purpose. If im wrong pleas tell me,its just that im quite new. If i need to become very good at max can someone please tell me where to get very useful tutorials asides from the ones within max.

Thank you for your time

Cameron:)

[f700es]

In my opinion you are correct. Max is not the tools for this. Seems like you need inventor since he wants you to edit existing inventor files. Max is not an engineering program, it is for animations, renders and digital content creation (game data, movies and such).

[cameroon95]

Thank you for replying f700es. I think inventor is a better program indeed. It is also very useful. However my boss has given me a list of drawings to try and draw in max, i have tried to draw the outline of the tools but I have no way of adding thickness or height to essentially a 2d drawing, or do i?o:)

[Cad64]

i have tried to draw the outline of the tools but I have no way of adding thickness or height to essentially a 2d drawing, or do i?o:)

Yes, just use the Extrude modifier.

If you need tutorials, go to 3D-Palace (http://www.3d-palace.com/forum/index.php) and sign up. They have loads of free video tutorials available for download.

[f700es]

I think you need to educate your boss on the difference between the 2 programs. I think you can download inventor LT and use it for 30 days. You will be able to do simple parts with it to show the difference between the applications.

http://labs.autodesk.com/technologies/inventor_lt/

[cameroon95]

Cad64- Thanks for the link, quite a lot of great videos on there!!!


f700es- Are you aware of a different preview version of inventor that I can download, as that site will only let the us, canada and New zealand download a preview for some reason:wink:

I have some tools modelled in inventor but they are made by someone in a different department and we only have a few seeds of the software.

[f700es]

No, I don't. Can you not lie about your location and use a yahoo or gmail e-mail to fool them?

[cameroon95]

yeah im going to try that