Any way to render lines from Autocad?

[Tim Nelson]

Is there a way to take linework in Autocad, import or link them in Viz and have them be renderable w/ thickness? Similar to rendering splines made in Viz, but coming from acad.

 

Thanks,

tim

[STRAT]

what exactly do you want to do?

[Tim Nelson]

Well I've got a bunch of diagonal pipes that form the entry of a building. Sort of decorative & structural at the same time. Its a pain in the a** to model cylinders in acad that are at angles.

 

Basically what I decided to do is make my 3d lines in acad, then import them into Viz. Then trace those lines w/ splines in Viz so they can be renderable.

 

But I was wondering if there was some modifier that would convert my cad lines into renderable splines so I wouldnt have to do the xtra work.

[Fran]

Hi Tim,

 

If your autocad lines are coming in as Editable Splines, you should be able to click on them and make them Renderable from the Rendering rollout in the Modifier panel.

[Tim Nelson]

Fran - thats what I was hoping for, but no such options when I import them. I wonder if it would make any difference if I made them as plines instead of regular lines.

[Fran]

Hi Tim,

 

It isn't an import option. Just import the dwg then click on the object. It should read as an editable spline in the Modifier panel.

[Jason Matthews]

You said that doing cylinders in cad at an angle is a pain. Have you tried extruding along the path to make these. Or are you extruding, then rotating?

 

Like Fran said, import the dwg into Viz, click on the line, click on the modify panel and then click renderable. You can then set the radius of the line.

[Diego Rosales]

You could look for a script that makes all lines renderable. Presto.

Or you could just attach all lines with the same thickness and then click on renderable.

Diego

[Vince Paske]

I thought the File Link Manager had the ability to bring the drawing with the option to make lines renderable with a specified thickness? I'm assuming you are using Viz4? The problem with this is that all of your lines will be rendered, whether you want them to or not. You could then go to the modify panel and extract the line out of the VIZBlock. You loose the association with the linked drawing, but you can add an edit spline modifier and make those lines renderable.

[abicalho]

Select the objects you want to set the renderable property to, MAXScript > New Script and paste this code there:

 

for i in selection do if hasproperty i.baseObject #renderable do

(

i.baseObject.renderable = true

i.baseObject.thickness = 10

i.baseObject.DisplayRenderMesh = true

)

 

Now choose File > Evaluate all in that window and you're set.

 

Of course, this will make them renderable with a thickness of 10. Change the thickness to whatever you want and that should work.

 

Alexander

[William Alexander]

Fran - thats what I was hoping for, but no such options when I import them. I wonder if it would make any difference if I made them as plines instead of regular lines.

Yes, then the renderable spline of the import works and all spline editing and material options in viz are available.

 

WDA

[Chad Warner]

What I always end up doing when using a file-linked dwg, is converting the linked lines into editable splines. (right click, convert to, editable spline) then you have the renderable option. It looks like Alex's Script might be the way to go however.

 

-Chad

[Wayne Harney]

Chad

 

I do this all the time using the settings in File Link Manager as already mentioned. It's true that it makes all your lines render but I just keep all my lines that I want rendered in a seperate dwg file. You can link many dwgs into 1 viz scene with different settings.

[Tim Nelson]

Wow, thanks to everyone for the help. I will have to remember this for next time because I already finished up on this one.

 

This forum is the best.