Export Cad Model to Maxwell Studio???

[mnewsum]

I have been making 3d models and drawings in Cad for some time now, but still have been unable to find a good way of rendering these images in Cad, so I just got Maxwell. Does anyone know how to open a 3d cad model in maxwell studio to apply materials and render?

[Cad64]

Save your CAD models as DXF format and then you should be able to Import them into Maxwell.

[mnewsum]

I tried that in the beginning,but still nothing shows up in maxwell after the import. A window pops up that has an option for an "import table" but nothing happens when i click this button, and if I select "ok", my model does not appear.

[Cad64]

Ok, well you could Export your CAD file as .stl format and then try Importing that into Maxwell. Autodesk really screwed over it's users when it removed the 3DSOUT option from the program. It's very difficult to get your models into other programs without the .3ds format. I really don't understand why they did that???

 

If you have Autocad 2007 or 2008 installed on your machine, you can download and install the 3DSOUT utility, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't work in 2009 or 2010.

[mnewsum]

Sweet, the .stl format is letting me at least open the file in Maxwell. Now I just have to learn how to use it. Thanks for the help. I thought I was going to have to send it to 3dx or sketchup pro to get the import to work.

[mnewsum]

Well... I thought I could make it work, but the model keeps coming in as one solid block and I can't divide it back into its parts.

[rocneasta]

you have to separate all parts that you want to texture differently into separate layers. one object per layer, or objects with same texture/material definition.

[heavysan]

The 3ds out utility works up to and including 2009. I would hope that if they see how much it is desired they would maybe keep updating it for the newer versions.