dosch cars

[carlangas]

Hi all,

 

I recently purchased the 2004 collection and are having problems converting the units, I work in meters and I think the cars come in inches. when I try to convert the models to my working units the wheels and break assy end up out of position and not where they should go, I also tried making the whole car a group then changed the units and that didnt work either. im using max.

 

anyone have any suggestions. ive reached a dead end.

 

thanks

[skala67]

I use Cinema4d but have probably run into the same problem as you. All the cars are built at slightly different scales. What I usually do is find the actual height of the vehicle via the internet. (just google ei. "jaguar dimensions", and it will direct you to a page that has the proper exterior dimensions.) Then I do a conversion using the actual height and the height that the program says the model is. I usually use the height as the ratio, because a car that is too tall or too short looks alot more out of scale than a car that is a little too long. I hope this helps. Unfortunately I cant help you with the Max side of things. Good luck.

[carlangas]

What program are you using?

 

Im using 3ds max 8

[BunGHoLe]

Are the wheels separate from the whole thing? If not and you don't need to animate the wheels you can attach all the parts (if they were made with poly modeling). If not and you want to animate the wheels see the pivots if they are in the center.

How do you import the cars....with merge or some other way. Or you just open a max file of a car and than a window pop-up to warn you that the file is not at the same units as your project and do you want to adopt the file unit scale (or smth like that). If thats the case just click adopt file scane units.

[carlangas]

Hi TJ,

the real problem is that when I scale either via, "change world units", or import the inches scene to my meters scene. when max scales the car, some parts of the car become, "dettached" if you will, they end up being away from where they were originally placed within the car assemby. sort of like an exploted assembly drawing. everithing is to scale, just not in their proper place.

[Sawyer]

Hey Carlos maybe we should swap cd's I had the Dosch cars where everything was metric. Basically I just grouped everything and found the tire size for the car and then just scaled up to match the tire size. Actually I am pretty sure some were not to scale at all. Seems like Dosch could do a bit more to get these all out to people to the correct scale(s).

[carlangas]

Hi Sawyer,

 

we should swap cs's;) after a while I finally gave up and did the same thing, just used the scale gizmo, I also had to get the dimensions for the car at the nissan website and just scaled it down to its approximate size.

[Tommy L]

Sounds like you need to change the dropdown at the top to 'world' instead of 'local' (or vice versa)

[carlangas]

Sounds like you need to change the dropdown at the top to 'world' instead of 'local' (or vice versa)

 

 

that could be it, ill try that and see if works

[RyanJ]

I know this post is four months old, but I always appreciate when a problem is solved......well, partially. I too had the exact same problem and tried every which way to get the Dosch cars to come in right after scaling to metric. After alot of head beating I realized a quick and easy way. Open the Dosch Max file on its own (in imperial). Then, export it to a .3ds. Reopen your metric scene, import the .3ds and check yes to convert units....voila. I also found that in a jiffy the standard materials work pretty well and render quite fast without converting to vray.....which can't be done by simply right clicking and converting.

[Eric]

This is the first time I've seen this thread, and this may or may not be helpful information. However, people will come across this situation in the future, so here is what helps me.

 

I visit car review sites that list specifications for the vehicle height, width, and length. I open the car model, then draw a box the size of what was listed in the review site. Then I scale the car to fit inside the box. It's not perfect, and might be off by a couple of inches (the models are rarely drawn to the same dimensions listed on the review sites), but this has worked pretty well for me.

 

Now, in regard to your units problem - I haven't a clue - but it sounds like it's probably already been answered in the above posts.

[Ray]

 

I visit car review sites that list specifications for the vehicle height, width, and length. I open the car model, then draw a box the size of what was listed in the review site. Then I scale the car to fit inside the box. It's not perfect, and might be off by a couple of inches (the models are rarely drawn to the same dimensions listed on the review sites), but this has worked pretty well for me.

 

This is what I do, except I use the car's wheelbase--seems to be pretty accurate.

[carlangas]

I know this post is four months old, but I always appreciate when a problem is solved.......

 

Thanks Ryan, Im still having this problem, sounds like what youve mentioned is the best solution

 

EDIT:

I actually tried emailing the dosch people a while ago but it seemed to me like they couldnt or werent interested in solving this problem for me.