Scale problems with ArchiCAD exports

[Ken Walton]

Anyone know how to fix/set your drawing units to the "right" measurement when exporting to 3ds? After trying everything I can think of (including exporting a 1x1x1 cube to determine the faulty factor), my objects still come into max wrong. I thought maybe there was a bug in ArchiCAD that was exporting cm instead of inches because the resulting scale factor was between .3 and .4, but it still seemed a little off for this theory.

 

For example:

I'll create a 10'x10'x10' slab, switch to 3d view, and save as 3D Studio. If I set my drawing units to "inches", input a value of "1" (the same settings I'm using in max), and then save, my model (which should still be 10'x10'x10') is now a 3" cube... Even when I try to adjust the drawing units to compensate for the menacing factor, it doesn't come out right.

 

Genuinely confused,

Ken Walton

[matt_vinoir]

Go to marc Lorenzs website. In the archicad model download he explains how to get round it.

I want to know what that download is like by the way. It cleans up your model into 3ds so sounds good to me

[plastic]

well, its free so try it out. it comes with an uninstaller, so you can kill it if you don't like it.

 

http://plugins.marclorenz.com

 

help with the scale issue:

http://plugins.marclorenz.com/archicad_wiz/faq.htm

 

some more deep information about archicad, max and my plugin:

http://www.asro.kuleuven.ac.be/asro/English/HOME/SBs/render/3dsmax.htm

[stefkeB]

Originally posted by Marc Lorenz:

well, its free so try it out. it comes with an uninstaller, so you can kill it if you don't like it.

 

http://plugins.marclorenz.com

 

help with the scale issue:

http://plugins.marclorenz.com/archicad_wiz/faq.htm

 

some more deep information about archicad, max and my plugin:

http://www.asro.kuleuven.ac.be/asro/English/HOME/SBs/render/3dsmax.htm

Correction

http://www.asro.kuleuven.ac.be/asro/English/HOME/SBs/render/3dstudio.htm

[nymn]

if you still need a solution to this problem... here goes..

i found this under the "help" section of the ArchiCAD v11 program, which is explaining the file save formats available:

 

-(under 3ds format)

"Drawing Unit: In this field, you can define the distance in the ArchiCAD project that will be translated into a drawing unit in 3D Studio. As ArchiCAD works with metric data internally, setting the drawing unit to 1 meter (=1000 mm) will result in a 1:1 model after the conversion."

 

as i interpretted it, if you change the default setting from 1.00 (inches) to 1000 (mm) then you are essentially saving the file full scale.

 

see below:

 

when i tried exporting it this way, and importing the 3ds file into max.. it was to scaled precisely as i had drawn it originally in ArchiCAD...

 

hope this helps,

~SG