Reduce Faceting When Importing Into 3ds Max

[jonreed]

Does anyone know any tricks on how to reduce the amount of faceting when you import a model from Cad into 3ds Max? Any tips would help.

 

Thanks

[Sketchrender]

theres an option in the import option for amount of facets.

[Bruce Hart]

As Philip said - there is an import option - "Maximum surface deviation for 3D solids". The lower the distance, the more facets you will see in curved objects. Inside of AutoCAD, the command that controls facet display is Facetres (and depends on zoom factor). The import option in Max seems to override this however.

[igorius]

AutoCAD

Your design must be a three-dimensional solid object to output an STL file.

1. Make sure the model is in positive space

2. At the command prompt type “FACETRES”

3. Set FACETRES between 1 and 10. (1 = low resolution, 10 = high resolution)

4. Next, at the command prompt type “STLOUT”

5. Select Objects

6. Choose “Y” for Binary

7. Choose Filename

[Fran]

In Max 2010 and 2011, you can import SAT (ACIS Solids format) files as Body Objects. AutoCAD and many other CAD softwares export to .sat. This would be a good format for exporting curved and rounded AutoCAD objects. I did a very modest article on SAT import on my blog: http://surrealstructures.com/blog/?p=723

 

There are many advantages to using Body Objects, so check them out if you get a chance.

[igorius]

@fran

there is an error loging on ur blog?

[Fran]

I'm moving my blog today. You picked the wrong day to access that article, I guess. Try again later.

[Fran]

The blog seems to be fully operational now if you are still interested in that article.