ArchiCAD > max: Scale Issues

[Ken Walton]

Any idea why I'm getting totally screwed up scale factors when I bring my models into MAX? I've tried everything I can think of, including exporting a 1:1:1 slab to check my differences. When setting the drawing unit to 1 inch in ArchiCAD, and the same settings in max, my 10' cube is now 3 inches. What am I doing wrong? With other programs (like Rhino), I've been able to jump back and forth (to/from max) seamlessly as long as the units were declared the same in both programs. Any advice is appreciated...

 

Thanks,

Ken Walton

[matt_vinoir]

Damn that's not good. Esp with the old gi problems with size. I;m meant to be introducing viz 4 to arhcitecture students who use archicad, i need this to work please!.

Any help on this? Are you imnporting a 3ds file? Dwg isn't as good at importing the solids for conversion but i think more stable for dimensional correctness. Marc Lorenz is the guy to talk to. He has a nifty clean up tool for archivad models into max/viz too. Anyone know about that?

[plastic]

ok, first get my ArchiCAD Import Wizard script:

 

http://plugins.marclorenz.com

 

since i keep getting emails from american archicad/max users i did a tutorial on this topic:

 

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

 

this should fix it. the problem is that archicad uses metric system units while max/viz uses inch.

 

please tell me if it works with this settings, i can't really prove it since i work with metric units.

 

regards, marc

[stefkeB]

Apart from what Marc allready said (and he can know it) I like to tell you my own settings:

 

I work in metric all the time. For ArchiCAD to 3ds max exports, I use 1000mm = 1 unit in the ArchiCAD 3ds-exporter. And then I let max rescale (convert units) upon import.

 

The system units in max can be inch or metric, but the display options are set to metric (that's what I want to see at least). Apparantly, setting the system unit in 3ds max to inch or meters doesn't matter.

 

I tried a simple slab (10 on 5 meter)

--> When I set the max system unit to inch, the model ends up at 10 on 5 units and when the display unit is meter it's 10 on 5 meters.

 

--> When I set the max system unit to meters, the model ends up at 393,7 on 196,85. When setting the display unit to meters it's 10 on 5 meters.

 

By the way, if you know 1 inch equals 2.54cm, then you can understand that 393,7 units = 10 meter / 2.54 * 100