Bryce ungrouping

[Jon]

Is there any way to ungroup meshes that are brought in to Bryce from AutoCAD that are on the same layer? For instance, I have two items that I exported out of CAD as a 3DS file. These two items are on the same layer in CAD & Bryce but reside in different planes. I need to bring one of the items to the same plane as the other, and I really don't want to go back into my AutoCAD drawing to do it. Any ideas? The ungroup command in Bryce seems to be unavailable if things are on the same layer or considered the same mesh even if the items are not physically connected. Any help would be appreciated.

Jon

[CADTutor]

The basic problem is the 3DS file format. By default, all objects on the same layer become one object when you export from AutoCAD to 3DS. However, you will notice that when you export to 3DS, the dialogue box offers other options for object creation. See http://www.cadtutor.net/dd/bryce/atob/atob.html#One.

If you put your two meshes on different layers all will be well. Alternatively, you can use one of the other options under "Derive 3D Studio Objects From" when you export.

The Bryce "Ungroup" option is of no use once combined objects are imported because as far as Bryce is concerned, they are a single object.

[fuccaro]

I never created models in Brice. But just for my curiosity: is it possible to create a sphere or something containing one of the meshes and use boolean operations to create a new object as the intersection? Repeating the operation you can get the two distinct objects.
Well, this is just my opinion. I don't have Brice to try.

[Jon]

Well, I got around my problem...I deleted what I could't separate, jumped back into AutoCAD and corrected the problem in less than an hour. Of course I did tinker with doing it in Bryce using booleans but Bryce is definitely NOT a CAD program. I guess the lesson here is to fix problems using the software you know will get the job done. Aside from that Bryce is great for all the eye candy and I'm getting the hang of creating photo-realistic images. If I can ever get my clients to quit making changes I can finish this project up and post it here for further review. Thanks for the replies.

Jon

[CADTutor]

Yep, Bryce is much better at the eye candy than the modelling but you can use it to create primitives and you can use booleans.

My method is to do all modelling in AutoCAD and then simply use Bryce for materials, environment and render. You do need to make sure that your AutoCAD model is layered by material type so that assigning material finishes in Bryce is nice and easy.