au-tiger Posted November 12, 2010 Share Posted November 12, 2010 Hey everyone, Normally when i create surfaces in autocad i use sweeps, lofts, rulesurf and extrusions. They all look good inside of autocad. But now when i create these on my computer and open in other programs (3d studio, HVE), they are no longer surfaces but are editable splines, and are not viewable as surfaces. I tried on another computer and the process works fine. So it must be my computer. Does anyone know if there are settings that may have been changed to cause this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cad64 Posted November 12, 2010 Share Posted November 12, 2010 Just to be clear, you are creating these surface objects in Autocad and saving as .dwg format. You then Import the .dwg into 3DS Max and your surfaces come in as Editable Splines, not Editable Meshes? Is that correct? You're not Exporting from Autocad in some other format are you? And you're not Exploding the Mesh in Autocad are you? The only explanation I can come up with is that you are not saving your CAD file before Importing to Max. For instance, you draw two lines and then Save. Then you use the RULESURF command to create your surface. Then you Import your CAD file to Max. Since you didn't save after creating the surface, only the two lines are Imported to Max, which would Import as Editable Splines. Could that be what's happening? Can you post some screenshots, or possibly post your files? I cannot duplicate this problem on my computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
au-tiger Posted November 12, 2010 Author Share Posted November 12, 2010 These objects are created in AutoCAD 2010 and 2011. They are saved as 2000 dwg., imported into 3ds max 8. Normally, max reads these objects as editable meshes but is now reading them as editable splines. I just figured out that if i use - thicken command - and save as dwg., then import to max that it does read as editable mesh. But i probably quadrupled the faces to the object. File size on large projects would be a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cad64 Posted November 12, 2010 Share Posted November 12, 2010 Why are you saving your CAD files as 2000 format? Max 8 should be able to import 2004 format and possibly even 2007 format. Try that and see if you have better luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
au-tiger Posted November 12, 2010 Author Share Posted November 12, 2010 Already been tried, no luck. The process worked monday - does not work now. I'm out of ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
au-tiger Posted November 12, 2010 Author Share Posted November 12, 2010 I save as 2000 format because we have 5 seats of ACAD 2000 throughout our office. This way everyone can open all files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cad64 Posted November 12, 2010 Share Posted November 12, 2010 The process worked monday - does not work now. I think I may know what's causing this. When you import your .dwg, are you importing as "AutoCAD Drawing (*.DWG, *.DXF)" or as "Legacy AutoCAD (*.DWG)"? I believe it's the "Legacy AutoCAD" import that's causing this. Try importing as "AutoCAD Drawing" and see if that works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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