3ds max->Maya file conversion?

[zworp]

hmm ahh... eeerrhh.. hmmm... there is this program, cant remember the name, that does this smoothly. transpoly or something... it's not free though...

maybe i'll post a more giving answer soon if i can remember the name

[kary]

http://www.okino.com/conv/filefrmt.htm

Polytrans is what you were thinking of?

[little]

also try this it seems to work allright
http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/Tmpl/Maya/html/index.jhtml?page=/en/Community/Download/plug_ins/plug_ins_m.html&style=normal

[JasonA]

Thanks for the responses folks,

zworp, Kary: yeah Polytrans was one of the commercial products I was lookin at. Its not cheap, at $400 for the basic package, and its Maya 4.5 support wasn't clear. Deep Exploration is the other option, but again, not cheap and its performance is not known with regards to this conversion direction...

Little, thanks I wanted to try that but it also won't load in Maya 4.5. :(

Niether will FilmBox's FBX export/import plugin which I heard was a good way to go. Again, no support for Maya 4.5.

Well, looks like most of the options out there are only going to work for Maya 4 .. argh.. ah well, if anyone knows of a new product updated for 4.5 please post!

Guess patience will be the key...

[little]

it would be a little bit of a pain but if you have 4 and 4.5 you could use the one that works for 4 and then save it as a maya file and then open it in 4.5

[GrafOrlok]

We use FBX in our regular workflow and it's a killer. I would be very surprised if they didn't put out a version for 4.5 within reasonable time. 4.5 has only been out for a couple of weeks so my guess is that they're just a little slow. I doubt Polytrans and the other commersial packages are out with a 4.5 version too, so just hang in there! One day...

Meanwhile, try the "little" way above...

[little]

i found another option ( im wanting an answer for this also because if i can learn to import models into maya 4.5 then i dont have to learn to model in maya i can just keep using max )
this worked for me in 4 i dont have 4.5 to test it yet and it worked better then the 3ds importer for maya 4
get wings3d from www.wings3d.com then export from max as 3ds import to wings and export from wings as obj and then import into maya
its a little bit of a pain to go through all those steps but it didnt mangle my model as much as using the 3ds importer did

[little]

ok so im posting to fast but i think i found the best way you can go to www.maxplugins.de go under the max 4 section ( even if you have max 5 ) the search for obj there is an obj importer and exporter there from hadware and it seems to work really well

[JasonA]

Graf Orlok,
yeah .FBX format export/import was my first choice. Another guy told me it was a great way to go as almost everything was supported. But I tried loading the plugin and alas, being intended for maya4, it won't load in the plug-in manager. I hope they recompile a new version quickly too!

Little,
wow I cant keep up:) Ok well on your last post, So far thats what I've been doing is using the OBJ file exporter plugin for max (from maxplugins.de). While maya does inmport the OBJ file, two problems with it that I've run into. First is that all of the smoothing group info in max gets lost, so all my round/curved shapes all look faceted once brought into maya (which I don't know how to fix). Secondly, and not soo bad is that the texture map assignments are lost so Id have to retexure everything.

I'll have to try the wings3d idea, I haven't tried that before. Ultimately, its not that I don't want to learn how to model in Maya, but I want to be able to use the models (few as there are) that I made using max without having to rebuild them.

[little]

thats almost the situation im in i dont want to learn how to model in maya if i can get a good way to import and export from max to maya and back then i can model the way iv always done and my partner can do all the texturing so i dont have to learn maya right now

[JasonA]

This is just a repost from somehting I posted elsewhere... In case someone reads this from the Sticky Maya FAQ.

I've had some luck using RightHemisphere's Deep Exploration, but I've found it to not be very reliable. you can try some converting with their 30 day demo. You'll also have to download their Maya 4.5 update plugin patch from their forums.

[Deep Exploration 2] (http://www.righthemisphere.com/products/dexp/downloads/deepexploration.exe)
[Additional update plugins] (http://www.righthemisphere.com/forum/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=625)

I say "some" because it doesn't convert all the geometry I've thrown at it so far (going straight from .max to .mb). On a few occaisions I've had to start from a .3ds file and also sometimes had to convert to a .obj and import that into Maya. If you can convert from max/3ds to mb then chances are you'll get the mapping coordinates, but the only channels supported seems to be diffuse/color and transparency. forget procedural shaders like noise or whatever, they won't go. Neither will complex textures or even textures with multiple UV's. Bumps map, nope them neither. all that stuff goes *poof*. occasionly the program couldn't convert smoothing group data and that was a serious pain in the butt..

oh and you have to have max and maya both installed.

Anyways, I've found it be frustrating, incomplete and not very consistent. For this reason there's no way in hell that I'd pay for the software. But after some hell, you can get your files over but chances are you'll be reworking them somewhat.

I wish PolyTrans hada 30 day demo....

[little]

my main question would be does polytrans work if it does it would be worth the price

[lildragon]

Hmm been having the same dilemma, but this MAX2OBJ plugin seem to work really well http://www.habware.at/duck4.htm direct link http://www.habware.at/max4/max2obj4.zip

here's how Kar looks in Maya

seems only really basic geometry gets mangled, such as his goggle lens and hair plugs :shrug: but that's really easy to re-create :)

salud

[JasonA]

Oh by the way, I don't know what version of maya you're running, but if its 4.5, have you tried the updated 3ds import plugin? I tried it the other day and I can't get it to load....

just curious how many other people using 4.5 can't get it to load. I always get an error message that goes something like "Error: The specified module could not be found."

you can download the new plugin here:
http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/Tmpl/Maya/html/index.jhtml?page=/en/Community/Download/plug_ins/maya_nt/3ds_nt/3ds_nt.html

[lildragon]

Thx JasonA, and nope haven't tried it, the habware .obj exporter worked fine for me :) just have to tweak the mesh where somethings fell through

salud

[lildragon]

Originally posted by JasonA
just curious how many other people using 4.5 can't get it to load. I always get an error message that goes something like "Error: The specified module could not be found."



yup yup same error :hmm:

salud

[brianellebracht]

I have the exact same issue with the new plugin from AW for Maya 4.5.
Here is my Post...

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28680

Brian

[JasonA]

Well, a bit of an update but not entirely a solution.

Alias|Wavefront updated the 3DS -> MB Import Plugin (http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/Tmpl/Maya/html/index.jhtml?page=/en/Community/Download/plug_ins/maya_nt/3ds_nt/3ds_nt.html) for Maya 4.5 and it actually works now (which is a good thing). However, it still needs more work, as it does not include lights and some other things too. Also, the shader support is *very* limited.

So far I've found several models that don't import properly in Maya, problems ranging from geometry objects getting scattered throughout the scene, to geometry getting ripped apart (vertex/face stretching). But in some other cases it worked pretty good, so its a bit iffy. Still worth having around but definitly not a %100 solution.

Cheers,

[brianellebracht]

Thanks alot for the update, I will try it out today,
Brian

[Fedron]

Do somebody know how to do the inverse process, i mean MAYA----to--> MAX.

Is there an 3ds exporter????????

[JasonA]

Not that I'm aware of, but you can always export an .OBJ file and then import that into Max. Look for kerosene's thread here (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29878) in the Maya forum

[Fedron]

Thanks Jason!! :)

[Grayson]

This thread seams a little quicker then the other;so I'll ask this here.

Now that we have figured out some nice ways to get still meshes back and forth; how would you go about getting an animated mesh from Max to Maya or vice versa.

[JasonA]

The only options I know of aren't free, but if anyone knows differently I hope they'll post. And whether or not they work 100% every time, with no probs is another question.

1. The first would be Right Hemisphere's Deep Exploration. They claim to be able to translate animation data. You'd have to download their demo (http://www.righthemisphere.com/products/dexp/downloads/deepexploration.exe) and update plugins (http://www.righthemisphere.com/forum/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=625) and give it a try. I think the retail price is $250

2. Okino's PolyTranS (http://www.okino.com/conv/filefrmt.htm), a commercial converter (and believe me, its not cheap). They boast being a sure fire solution which includes quite a bit, including support for gobs of CAD formats as well as VFX 3D apps. Check out their website. The have a partially functional demo which could give you a taste. But retail its $400-$750 depending on what plugins you get with it.

3. Kaydara's FBX format plugins (http://www.kaydara.com/partners/sdk/fbx/index.php?filename=compat) are apparently FREE but they only support Maya 4 right now. I think they support animation data, which would make sense cause the plugin I think is for MotionBuilder (an animation program). Anyways, I really hope they update their plugins. We'll have to wait and see...

[Michel Besner]

New FBX plug-ins are available for 3ds max and Maya !!
(and yes, includes Maya 4.5 !!!!!!)

http://www.kaydara.com/support/download/index.php

M.

[JasonA]

hey thanks posting! very cool having the prez of the company following up on the thread :eek:

So far I've done a couple of test conversions, and it seems to work really well:) Thanks again!

:buttrock: :airguitar :airguitar :buttrock:

[JasonA]

One little complication with using the Kaydara's filmbox plugin in Maya 4.5 is the way textures get reduplicated in the export/import process.

If you have one texture that is applied to different objects in your scene, then the texture gets duplicated once for every object. The result? When you import the model into maya, you'll have multiple instances of the same texture in hypershade (one for every part). thats a pain, cause if you start deleting the extra texture shaders, some of the parts in your scene loose texture information. you'll have to reselect the object/faces and reapply the one shader if you want it applied to mulitple objects...

needless to say, if your scene has alot of textures, some of which gets applied to multiple objects, then you'll have a bazillion texture nodes in hypershade when the model is imported..

:hmm:

[Michel Besner]

Thanks for the info, I've informed our R&D team and will see what we can do about this ...

M.

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