Lw to Max

[KillMe]

thekaydara fbx plugins probally your best bet

[proton]

I remember some Max guys that I worked with in the gaming Industry and they got a free LW to Max plugin from the web...not sure the name...but it was free and worked great.

[Nando]

http://homepage1.nifty.com/ket/3dsmax.html

Has a 4.x version that alos works with 5.x of max that only imports LW objects not the scenes. Once in max convert the object to Editable poly and it should retain the exact count of vertices and Faces.

[RuiFeliciano]

It really depends on what you want to export:

- Objects , you can't go wrong going with deep exploration (you'll have to own 3D MAX in order to do any object conversion...this is using ANY conversion utility). (www.righthemisphere.com)

- Camera/Objects motion, Next Limit has an LW2MAX exporter plugin for LW (www.nextlimit.com)

[policarpo]

also try using the .FBX exporter/importer from Kaydara.

I ran some tests earlier today (trying to convert some old Max scenes) and succesfully exported Geometry, Lights, Cameras and Bones and Animation (full scenes) from Lightwave to Max.

The Max to Lightwave export was a little rougher...but i was able to get everything back into LightWave from MAX...although some animation data...specifically the camera and bones was lost. I guess Max's camera is a little different than LightWaves....or the importer isn't as robust as the Max one.

The export will drop any Subdivision Surfaces which may be applied to any geometry in the scene, but it's a quick fix...just add your MeshSmooth Modifier in Max, and in LightWave, just open up Modeler and hit the TAB key for any objects which need to be converted to an SDS.


Remember...the more we use the .FBX importer for LightWave, the better off we will be once this file format becomes a standard for 3D interoperability with other packages...kind of like the .PSD for 3D. Let's hope. :)
good luck!

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

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