Exporting from rhino

[Xist]

There was a bit of debate on this in the "nice edges" thread from a couple days ago, but I'll try and sum up/give you my take. In order of preference:

1. Use nPower's Rhino to Max translator, which lets you import a .3dm file right into Max. Everything stays Nurbs, excellent quality.

2. IGES, generally I go with the "3DS Max 5.0" option, but on occassion if a surface isn't trimming properly after I import it into Max I'll try "3DS Max 3.0." Doesn't help that often though, to be honest. Be sure that after you get the IGES into Max that you go into the modifier panel>surface approximation, hit the "renderer" radio button and then hit the "high quality button." That defaults to Distance 5.0, Edge 5.0, Angle 3.0 and Merge 0.01. This is pretty consistent, but in the event where you are getting small gaps between surfaces try bumping your Merge up. I wouldn't reccomend going over 1.0 with merge , particularly if you have small radii (1/128" or so), it will just join the wrong edges and give you gaps, but something around 0.2 - 0.5 can really help your cleanup.

3. OBJ Mesh. For surfaces that I just can't get Max to take as an IGES I just import it as a OBJ mesh object (NOT NURBS, just isn't pretty). Check that thread I mentioned earlier for more detailed info on why to use OBJ, but basically it won't force triangles like .3DS does, and there is no polygon limit.

Hope that helps. Yay for my 1st post.

[khalilofpk]

hmm.. thanks for reply. I will check that for myself. just saw a model of camera in turbo squid This (http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/175357) . what do you think which one is appropriate method for modeling this object Rhino or subD modeling.
Thanks
Khalil.

[Lord Banshee]

There was a bit of debate on this in the "nice edges" thread from a couple days ago, but I'll try and sum up/give you my take. In order of preference:

1. Use nPower's Rhino to Max translator, which lets you import a .3dm file right into Max. Everything stays Nurbs, excellent quality.

2. IGES, generally I go with the "3DS Max 5.0" option, but on occassion if a surface isn't trimming properly after I import it into Max I'll try "3DS Max 3.0." Doesn't help that often though, to be honest. Be sure that after you get the IGES into Max that you go into the modifier panel>surface approximation, hit the "renderer" radio button and then hit the "high quality button." That defaults to Distance 5.0, Edge 5.0, Angle 3.0 and Merge 0.01. This is pretty consistent, but in the event where you are getting small gaps between surfaces try bumping your Merge up. I wouldn't reccomend going over 1.0 with merge , particularly if you have small radii (1/128" or so), it will just join the wrong edges and give you gaps, but something around 0.2 - 0.5 can really help your cleanup.

3. OBJ Mesh. For surfaces that I just can't get Max to take as an IGES I just import it as a OBJ mesh object (NOT NURBS, just isn't pretty). Check that thread I mentioned earlier for more detailed info on why to use OBJ, but basically it won't force triangles like .3DS does, and there is no polygon limit.

Hope that helps. Yay for my 1st post.

From what i can tell the "default" option for the IGES Export is better for importing into 3dsmax than the "3dsmax 5.0" option.
I just did a test with an object that had surface/loft/boolean/trim/fillets and IGES(default) came out first than OBJ(Mesh) came out to be second best.

[Xist]

hmm.. thanks for reply. I will check that for myself. just saw a model of camera in turbo squid This (http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/175357) . what do you think which one is appropriate method for modeling this object Rhino or subD modeling.
Thanks
Khalil.

Since I tend to model products mostly precision is a big issue, for that reason alone I rarely do any subD modeling (though I think it is terriffic fun). Now if you are just doing it to get a nice rendering out of just go with whatever you are comfortable.

From what i can tell the "default" option for the IGES Export is better for importing into 3dsmax than the "3dsmax 5.0" option.

If you look in the advanced fields there really isn't much difference that I can see, but I'll try to check that as well next time I have some issues.

[andrewjohn81]

I agree with Xist, go with what you are comfortable with. Subd really isn't as precise. You will notice in that example that none of the radii are correct, that guys just approximated all of them. It looks pretty good, but if you really want it to be believable and it is something that people see alot, then I would be as accurate as possible. That's why humans almost never look real in the computer. We're use to seeing them, so unless you go extremely realistic it just doesn't look all that great.
Poser is a perfect example of that. Any decent 3d artist can spot a poser model from 50 yards away.

Reguarding the iges export, yes the default option is better if you are using max 5 or higher. There were further limitions in 3 and 4. This was discussed a few times over in the max forums.

[khalilofpk]

hmm.. ok, I got it.. so metter is accuracy.. but if someone just want to find out easy way of modeling this object.... then...?

[krembo99]

i had a lot of problems with IGES - especially with big files.
Don´t know why, but i am always doing everything in 3ds ... and it works great 99.9 % of the time.
I am doing architecture, so the curve is usually limited, but than again, i had only once or twice problams that couldn´t be resolved with simple 3ds ...

[jph]

hi folks ,

I am doing my renderings an animations mostly in C4D so so far nurbs is no option... (rumors in the C4D forum say that there is a plugin coming to import rhino files into C4D ...) So far I have been using the lightwave format to export files into C4D, ... which has been working fine. But just today a friend of mine showed me another way of handeling iges files to get them into a nice mesh. He took the iges file and imported it into a catia, and the exported it as VRML, opend it in C4D and the resulting surfaces still had the information of the normal direction of the resulting polygons, which results in a better surface quality while rendering....

so here is my question: which of the export formats to export a polygon mesh, preserves the normal directions....


later jan

[nate10184]

I usually export via .3ds because I have had some real problems with IGES. Though everyone seems to say .obj is the best export format, I don't see it as an import option in MAX 4. Am I missing something or was obj compatibility not added to max until later editions. Generally .3ds works fine for me but it does have a 55k poly limit. Am I really missing out by not using obj? What are the differences? Thanks.

- Nate

[sephcor]

I usually export via .3ds because I have had some real problems with IGES. Though everyone seems to say .obj is the best export format, I don't see it as an import option in MAX 4. Am I missing something or was obj compatibility not added to max until later editions. Generally .3ds works fine for me but it does have a 55k poly limit. Am I really missing out by not using obj? What are the differences? Thanks.

- Nate

I saw someone else say to use this as well but Max doesn't import this format natively. There are some plugins you can use evidently. I ran across one today (don't remember the name) and it was free but it said something about a glitch with Max 6.1 so I didn't bother. I use 3ds too but I could see long skinny triangles causing some problems. I know I will be looking further into the OBJ format eventually.

[tilite]

i was having this debate not so long ago with a few ppl here and at uni... out of every file extension i have tried i find dwg autocad files easily the best. i dont know much about exporting in dwg format (i only started ussing it this week) but i do know its the best i have used and i dont have any problems with it... it will even import things that others just wont... it is the most direct corellation i have seen between rhino and max.

as i said their may be soemthing dramatically wrong with it but i am yet to encounter it and no one has told me otherwise... so if you know anyhign about it please share!

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