Importing AutoCAD lines/polylines

[Three D]

I'm having some problems changing imported AutoCAD (2010) polylines into 3DS Max (2010) shapes. I import the lines okay but when I try to change the splines to an editable poly it dissappears. Also, if I add a normalise spline modifier to the spline the smallest segment allowed is 1.0(m). Should I not be able to select a smaller segment size? I want to change my AutoCAD lines into a shape so I can shapemerge it to a terrain mesh.

 

I've attached a zip files of the lines in AutoCAD 2010 and the imprted lines in 3DS Max2010.

 

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[Three D]

Hi. I managed to get the result I needed by making a region out of the lines in AutoCAD and importing the region into 3DS Max. I could then create a shape out of the imported mesh.

 

I'd still like to know why 3DS Max cannot deal correctly with AutoCAD lines/polylines though so if you have any ideas I'd appreciate it.

 

Thanks.

[Thablanch]

I'm having some problems changing imported AutoCAD (2010) polylines into 3DS Max (2010) shapes. I import the lines okay but when I try to change the splines to an editable poly it dissappears. .

 

You need to change them to editable spline, not editable poly. Convert a line to poly will make it diseapear, as there is no polys to be showed.

[Three D]

Thanks Thablanch, I was doing that - I'd import the lines and then convert to a spline but Max would not then recognise then spline as a shape when I wanted to shapemerge it (so then I wrongly presumed it had to be a poly). I'll retry and see. Thanks.

[dlparisi]

You can import or link closed polylines from autocad into 3ds and directly make them into polys by adding an edit poly modifier. In your case it looks like you had individual lines and arcs (at least in the file you uploaded) so inorder to get them to work you'd need to get them all into one edit spline (using attach or linking them "by layer"). Select all of the vertices and click "weld" on the edit spline modifier. From there you can use shapemerge (or even edit poly).

[Three D]

thanks dlparisi. that makes sense.