XREFing an AutoCAD Model into Max

[spittle]

How well can you do this? When I've imported a Max model into AutoCAD before, I've had a hell of a lot of tidying up to do, to delete stray faces/edges and get rid of artifacts.

I'm wondering what would happen if I xrefed an AutoCAD model in so I could begin working on the texturing?

Also I'd be using UVW unwrapping to create the textures, and photoshop as well if I'm working at home.

[LCE]

If I understand correctly what you are talking about, then it works ok, but as with ACAD, it is all dependant on the individual drawing...

[Cad64]

You can use the "File Link Manager" to link to your Autocad drawing. It's basically the same as Xreffing. Any changes to the Cad file automatically updates the Max file.

What happens a lot, with Autocad models brought into Max, is that the faces sometimes get flipped inside out. Also, vertices, especially on curved surfaces, are sometimes spaced out randomly and not connected, so there is some welding to be done. Then there's always the problem of curves flattening out. So there is still quite a bit of tidying up to do. But a lot of it depends on how well your Cad model is built. There will always be a few problems, but the cleaner your Cad model is, the fewer problems you will encounter.

I generally insert a 2D cad drawing, or image, into Max and then just build my model completely in Max using the drawing as reference. That way I don't have to deal with any importing problems that may occur.

[spittle]

I'm wondering, if you used file link manager, then can you still clean up the mesh and have it linked to the AutoCAD drawing? I mean, can you still flip surfaces etc?

[Cad64]

You can Move, Scale and Rotate individual parts of the linked file, but if you want to edit the geometry, you will need to Bind the linked file.

[spittle]

I guess you can't flip a face that's around the wrong way? I think I'll probably stick to importing the model when I'm pimping it up.