ADT/MAX/VIZ Issues

[Sawyer]

I have been given a file that was created in ADT (2004 I think), then they tried to render it in VIZ but they didn't know how to do it so they really altered things (for instance I am told they did not understand how multi sub materials work and they did not know how to attach multiple materials to the windows so they exploded them all in CAD.

 

The issues I have with the file while using max are:

 

normals are eveywhere. To the extend that I think some skinny triangle faces are actually missing. Thats pretty common, flipping normals, & cap holes is getting me there.

 

Next issue which I have never seen is that when I imported this .dwg into MAX it was not at the correct scale. Both MAX & Autocad were set to inches but a 7' door in cad was 2'10" in MAX. If I imported the file as a 3ds no problem. Weird.

 

 

Have others run across this? Is there something that would help me if I run into more problems?

 

Thanks

[William Alexander]

Sawyer,

 

Are you running 7 or 6 with subsription? Without any AEC object is for all practicle purposes is corrupt. Even when it's exploded in ADT they seem to loose the proper normals and such. Although solids faces and regions tend to work pretty well, if created as said.

 

Or

 

they're running an older version of ADT and it's behaving in Max the way it use to behave in Viz3, proffessional cleaning always required. Although that should'nt be the case.

 

Cheers

WDA

[abicalho]

When File Linking or Importing a DWG, make sure "Rescale Units" is always ON. Else one "whatever" in AutoCAD becomes one "whatever else" in MAX and units will never match. If you enable rescale, everything will match.

 

Alexander

[Sawyer]

HMMM I am using MAX 5. I have done the Autocad route many times but it has been years since I have taken an ADT File.

 

For future work is it possible if they have VIZ to have the file imported to VIZ, maybe have everything collapsed to mesh or poly, and then brought in to MAX?

 

Anyway abicalho, what are you refering to with rescale units? I see it as a dialogue with importing 3ds files but not on dwg or dxf. Am I missing something or is this an option in 6 that I am not aware of? I have never had this be an issue before. A cad file set to inches becomes a max file in inches. I have gotten spun around on metric before but never with this.

 

Thanks

[abicalho]

This option is new in R6.

 

What you need to make sure, in MAX, is that your System Units is set to Inches, not only your Display Units.

 

Alexander