Any CAD to LW tuts?

[_frankly_]

Hi all,

 

I'm very new to the architectural visualisation scene.

 

I have used Lightwave to import CAD/3DS files to great success, but not of the architectural type, only product prototypes etc.

 

So does anyone know of any tutorials or advice that cover the process of transforming a standard CAD/3DS file into a fully-fledged Lightwave fly thru scene?

 

I'm desperate!! I need something now!!

 

Thanks.

[Hector]

Hello:

 

In the architectural scene the most common format is probably DWG. DWG is the autocad format. However, any dwg file can be also be exporterd as a dxf file. Architectural drawings not necesarily contain 3d data, it may be only 2d.

 

An array of other CAD programs are also able to export their files in dwg. or dxf format like VectorWorks. I am not shure about Archicad (information from archicad will probably come en 3d) and I am not sure about Microstation. I gess they do as well, may be others in the forum may clarify this.

 

As far as I know, Lightwave dos not support DWG so you will need files in dxf format.

 

As a VectorWorks user, I can give you some hints for a file coming from this program:

 

1.- Before exporting 2d or 3d geometry in dxf from vectorworks, make sure that you asign a solid "fill color" to any polygon or 3d object. For a strange reason if you don't do it lightwave doesn't find the objects!. Make sure that before exporting you set the units to Meters. In that way 1 meter in vectorworks will be 1 meter in Lightwave. If you have your units in milimeters in vectorworks, then 100 mm will be 100m in lightwave instead of .10m

 

2.- Drawings are organized in "Layers" and "Classes" in Vector works. However, lightwave doesn't seem to recognize those and all the geometry is place in one lightwave layer upon import. Which makes the selection of different objects a very complicate task

 

So what I do is to organize in vectorworks objects in different "classes" or "layers" following certain logic (columns, windows, 1st floor slab, etc) and Export each layer individualy as a dxf file.

 

Then in lightwave I import each file at a time in a different object (you can see several lightwave objects -actually files- in lightwave simultaniously. As all the files imported share the same origin, every piece fall in place in relation to the others. Press "a" to get the geometry centered in the viewports.

 

3.- You will probably have to flip the surfaces as they come with the normals inverted.

 

4.- Sometimes extrusions coming from vectorworks loose their end caps, which is ussualy not an issue, but sometimes it is, so you have to create them by selecting the points an creating a new polygon.

 

5.- I ussualy apply the merge points command as it seems to solve certain problems in the display while in "wireframe shaded" mode in the viewports (some polygons look darker before merging the points).

 

6.- When exporting objects from vectorworks make sure to set the 3d resolution at least to medium to avoid curved objects look too faceted.

 

7.- I am not 100% but i think that lightwave will not recognize "blocks" which are called symbols in vectorworks.

 

7.-Once you have the geometry imported and all the previous points sorted you can then further organize your model by ceating additional lightwave layer in any object. For example it works for me to have a first floor layer and a 2nd floor layer in my "slabs" object. Or separate the polygons that will receive different textures like "granite 1 layer" "granite 2 layer".

 

Having several objects, each with some layer for a single architectural model, works well.

 

 

9.- If you receive only 2d geometry from your client you will have to model everything in lightwave from the 2d shapes. Make sure you get enouggh information from your client in forms of elevation and section so you cantake measurements of the walls hights and so on.

 

Hope that helps. Some more information will come from autocad users.

[_frankly_]

Wow! Thank you so much for your advice.

 

I am working in an top-class architecture firm so I'm surrounded by top AutoCAD users and some Viz users, and suprisingly not many have heard of 'lightwave'. When I compare LW to 3DS Max bells start ringing for them.

 

Lightwave seems to take all the surfaces and textures from Viz, which will be all prepared by one of the junior architects. So i'll be taking the viz file as a 3DS and importing this into LW. I'll have to tweak the Viz file and export seperate files for LW layers. Thanks for that tip.

 

And a big than you for the scale tip. I imported an AutoCAD-exported 3DS file into LW that turned out to be 90 kilometres long!! That screwed up the camera function in Layout.

 

So it looks like i'll need to make a few tweaks in AutoCAD/Viz before I export a 3DS model for LW.

 

Any other tips on AutoCAD and Lightwave are very welcome.

 

Thanks again.

[lup]

i agree with what was said before

i personnaly work with ArchiCAD and lightwave so i import my archiCAD models (3D) into lightwave by the 3ds format and this seems to be the best way to do it: 1 file per layer and surfaces attributes that lightwave recognises.

However u can try some conversion file programs that seem to work pretty well (for example Deep Exploration,it s the one i tried).With this method i managed to make Lifhtwave directly recognize ArchiCAD's layers without having to make a seperate file for each layer u want to keep separate in your 3d scene...Anywawy this software is quite useful at least to browse your libraries (objects,textures...)without having to import them in modeler to see what they look like.

Hope i got myself clear, it s been a long time i hadn t practice my english...

 

Nice to hear from Lightwave users applied to architecture...