Export spline with curves? ie with tangents?

[JonM]

Hello,

 

I wish to get a spline from 3dsmax into lets say AutoCad, but not as a polyline, as a spline.

 

 

When you export a dwg or dxf, it tesselates your spline into dozens of tiny straight lines, giving it many verticies even though the spline only has a few. It looses its bezier curves and tangents. I wish to know if there is a way to get the spline data out of max WITH the tangents in place. Perhaps there is a plugin?.

 

Or if there is a way in autocade to turn a comples polyline into a simple spline with curves.

 

Thanks!

Edited February 24, 2010 by JonM

[Peter M. Gruhn]

Hm.. my AutoCAD download (student) thinks the semester is over or something. So I'm winging this.

 

AutoCAD plines can be turned into splines easy. PEDIT, select the pline, enter option "spline". The corner points on your pline become control nodes for the spline. I forget the jargon but it's not the same kind of spline. It does not pass through the nodes and you don't have tangent handles a la max or illustrator.

 

You might look to see if there's a route through Illustrator file types to get into ACAD, but I think the short answer is "ACAD doesn't support that kind of spline". A conversion could be made, but that doesn't mean it's available. Maybe too one of the fancy industrial CAD formats that I don't know anything about.

 

Sorry, weak answer.