What CAD software works best with Maya?

[rlb]

Hi Everyone,

 

starting my architecture degree in september, I was wondering which CAD software works well with maya (if any at all?!)?

 

Having read through some other threads and looked through the gallery it seems that AutoCAD in combination with 3DS Max is the most commonly used. Is there a reason for that (other than that its mostly used in the industry) or is it really so much more powerful for architectural visualisations?

 

Sorry, if this is a n00b question, but until now i always thought of Maya being the more powerful tool?

 

Any help / advice / or suggestions on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Karlfucious]

Auto Cad and maya work fine together. to get the best translation you may want to download the Maya bonus tools for the 3ds plug in. The downside of using the 3ds plug in is that it doesnt carry over any of your line work just your 3d models. As far as using the dwg plugin it tends to be a little buggy when converting your 3d geometry but works really well with line work other than the fact that the up axis in maya is y by default instead of z in cad. With the 3ds plug in it automaticly flips it so that its in the right direction. I have had some problems trying to import models from Arch desktop into maya. For one it doesnt read the aec objects at all. The only way that I have been able to get those models over to maya is with using my friends copy of Max as a hub. I personally am not a big fan of arch desktop anyway because it kind of forces you to do all your work with the aec objects. Also It likes to hide a lot of your more common Auto Cad tools somewhere inside the package. One more gripe is that when you do finally get the models translated over it creates a ton of unwanted geometry that you dont even need. As far as why most people are using Max for archictectural visulations go, I think its because Max is an auto desk product and also it has vray which from what I understand is really easy to use. I havent really tried out any other cad apps so I cant really speak for them but more than likely you will be using regular Auto cad in school so you should just stick with that in my opinion.

[derijones]

I've had little problems going from AutoCAD to Maya - although I hate 3D modelling in AutoCAD and use Solidworks for most of my modelling as I'm way faster with it (I do engineering design work mostly - hence the copy of Solidworks, it's a tiny bit of overkill otherwise as It's something like 4 times the price of Maya complete!!). If you are having problems importing stuff, have a look at Deep Explorer (I should definitely be on commision for these guys!) - works pretty well to go from most CAD packages or 3D file formats to Maya.

Rhino seems to work fine as well for IGES modelling and I've been looking at the "easy site" layout package for doing road layouts etc - seems pretty quick. I prefer Rhino to Maya for modelling as I come from a CAD background and it all seems a bit "arty" working in Maya without typing in distances and numbers etc.

I'd say that if you are planning on doing mainly architectural stuff, then it might well be worth you going down the VIZ / MAX route rather than Maya as they seem to be more focussed on that area and have access to a variety of good render engines right away. Also there is a far greater knowledge base for those packages and arch viz than Maya, on here and elsewhere on the net. However, if you already have Maya skills or are looking to do more general animation and CGI work then go for it - it's one hell of a programme and there are no excuses for not producing wonderful work!

Cheers

Deri

[brandon_heng]

i have gone from working in Max to maya and now back to MAx.

 

personnally, i have had quite a bit of problems doing the 3ds to Maya translation. In the firm that i work, we use archicad/Autocad to model and importing geometry to maya with 3ds causes it to crash on some jobs.

 

Max on the other hand seem to handle the data transfer pretty well and has a heaps of affordable renderes to choose from. Maya on the other hand, doesn't have that many affordable third party renderers.

 

Also IMHO, setting up the environment and lighting is much easier and faster in max then in maya to achieve the same results.

 

the war between maya and max is a long and tiresome one and can be read in forum threads on http://www.cgtalk.com. Big hollywood studios tend to lean toward maya because they already have a linux setup, use renderman as their renderer and have a team of MEL scripting TD's.

 

I would go with Max/autocad.

[ajvbochove]

3DS Max is the media and entertainment software of the same Autodesk of AutoCAD, so they will do everything to keep them work together.

That's the reson why I use Max and AutoCAD together.

Max has also a File Link Manager and you can Import the common AutoCAD DWG files!

[Karlfucious]

Not to start a software flame war here but you can do everything in Maya that you can do in Max if not better in some cases. As far as third party render support, Max does have vray but the Maya version is in beta testing as we speak. Plus Mental Ray comes free with both Max and Maya so you already have all the renderer you will ever need. Yes Mental Ray is kind of hard to pick up at first and can be a little of a pain in the ass at times but it is more than capable of producing even better images than Vray if used right.

 

Now back on topic lol. I have had Maya crash when importing 3ds files on occasion but they are always when they are exported from Max. I personally have been exporting as 3ds from regular auto cad flawlessly for a while now and have never had it crash once. I even upgraded Auto Cad 2006 and it still works great. Now there are a few instances where the geometry from cad doesnt carry over such as changing the thickness of lines to make your geometry but I personally dont think that is a verry good workflow anyway and usually only do my modeling with solids. So when it comes to either use Max or Maya I would have to say try them both out and use the one you like best. I personally find Max to be more of a chore to use than Maya but thats just my personal opinion. I bet almost every max user will say the exact same thing about Maya lol.

 

Derijones, you say that you are a solid works user and im kind of curious on how you think that it compares to Auto Cad. I do Cad Cam work as a profession and looking for something a little better than regular old Cad. Does Solid Works have Nurbs Modeling Tools or is it just Solids. Also If is does have Nurbs are you able to tweak shapes on a component level simular to Maya or Max. I have had some luck working with Nurbs in Maya and exporting as Iges to Master Cam but Maya isnt Nearly as accurate as I need it to be. Hopfully in the Near future We will be getting a Haas 5 axis mill and Im looking for some software to take full advantage of It. Sorry for the short thread hijack.

[derijones]

Karl

I've used Solidworks since 2001 - mainly doing structural design for ships and boats. This basically involves importing IGES data from a Naval Architecture package and designing all the internal ribs and frames to be CNC plasma cut in steel or aluminium.

I've not really used AutoCAd for solid 3D stuff since version 14, but Solidworks is very intuiative for working in 3D and producing "mechanical" parts if you know what I mean (assemblies with nuts and bolts, flanged sheet metal parts etc).

It can do NURBS surfacing, but isn't the hottest apparently ( I don't get in to that side much) - yes everything stays parametricaly attached and moves with the edits you create, but I don't think there is as much control as in Maya or Studio tools (or even Rhino).

You may want to look at a package called VX - I've just had a 4 hour demo this morning and It's very powerful with surfaces and solids - if you're doing "curvy" organic design it's well worth arranging a demo - if you download it and try to use the demo version you may well get frustrated ( I know I was) - it's not as intuiative as Solidworks, but having seen someone good on it, seems pretty quick and very powerful - it's also a good bit cheaper than Solidworks - I think I might well be going down that route.

To get good feedback on Solidworks, it's well worth looking at the solidworks newsgroup - it's a pretty active one.

Regards

Deri (off for some lunch and a brain rest!)

[csven]

using Pro/E with Maya. export out as obj meshes (i've never cared for exporting .iges to either Maya or Alias Studio - obj and slp have always given me outstanding results).

 

just another option on the table.

[Karlfucious]

Thanks for the feedback derijones. What I do is mostly make custom comission furnitrue, gates, and some cnc sculpture so my tolerences dont really have to be all that exact but atleast to 1/8". I pretty much do all of my work on either the 4'x8' plasma cutter table or else the 5'x10' cnc router so the majority of the work 2d geometry. i do is in standard My software budget is kind of slim lately because i just forked out 25,000 for the new cnc router table but hopefully it will make its money back shortly. I think ill try out the demo of both solid works and vx to see what i think. Thanks

[derijones]

Karl

PS - VX has a machining module available - I'm not sure what level of systems it'll drive, but it would be worth you looking at it - they are trying to push it at the moment so you should be able to get some decent (up to 50%) discounts.

Send me an email - derijones@hotmail.com as I might well be interested in your CNC router experiences - it's something that I'm looking at for the future.

Sorry about the thread hijack!

Deri

[brentwatanabe]

Maya is parametric if you keep construction history on.

 

What are the advantages of OBJ over IGES? Geometry quality?