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Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Import a CAD model into 3ds Max, preserving its solid and parametric structure.
Type:
Tutorial
Length:
5 min.
Tutorial resources
These downloadable resources will be used to complete this tutorial:
Transcript
00:04
Three Ds max is really the optimal choice for product visualization
00:07
for three reasons.
00:09
First, it has excellent support for C
00:11
AD or computer aided design formats.
00:14
Second, the three Ds max interface is intuitive and easy to use.
00:18
And third three Ds max is bundled with Arnold A physically
00:22
based renderer which is renowned for its power and flexibility.
00:26
So let's get started in three Ds
00:28
max.
00:29
I want to begin by just simplifying the interface a little
00:31
bit since we're going to be focusing on rendering in materials.
00:35
I'm gonna hide some of the panels that we won't be using.
00:37
First, I'll hide the ribbon appear on the main toolbar
00:42
over here on the left, we have a few panels we won't be using.
00:45
We've got the Viewport layout tabs.
00:47
Let's hide that
00:48
right. Click on the textured bar at the top
00:51
and hide the viewport layout tabs.
00:54
Likewise with the scene explorer,
00:56
we will be using the scene explorer,
00:58
but we'll be using that later in a floating window,
01:00
right click and hide the scene explorer as well.
01:04
Also the time slider down here, we won't be using that.
01:07
So I'll right click on its textured bar
01:09
H the time slider
01:11
at the top of the screen on the right of the main toolbar, we see the projects toolbar
01:16
and that's where we can create or assign a project folder structure.
01:20
I've currently got it assigned to the default documents. Three Ds
01:24
max,
01:25
I want to point this to the existing project folder I have created
01:29
and to do that, I can click on the set active project button
01:33
and you'll do that if you're using the exercise files provided with these videos.
01:38
If you don't have the exercise files,
01:40
then you want to create a new default project folder.
01:44
All right. So click on set, active project.
01:47
I've saved my project folder on the desktop. So I'll just navigate for that.
01:51
Go to desktop
01:53
and I've got a folder called product
01:54
viz.
01:55
Choose select folder.
01:57
OK. Now our project is set up properly.
01:60
I also want to set my units and grid size.
02:03
So go to the customized menu
02:06
to units, set up
02:08
and set that to metric with centimeters.
02:11
Click OK?
02:13
To set the grid size, right? Click on the snap button on the main toolbar
02:17
in the grid and snap settings. Dialog go to home grid,
02:21
set the grid spacing to one centimeter
02:24
and we'll set the perspective view, grid extent to
02:30
and then we can close that dialogue.
02:31
Now we're ready to import our C ad document.
02:34
Let's do that. We'll go to the file menu
02:37
and choose import,
02:39
import.
02:41
We're taken directly to the current project's import folder
02:45
and we've got a step file in here
02:47
and we saved it out to a step file for compatibility with three Ds Max.
02:53
So select Ham radio dot step
02:55
and click open
02:57
in the import settings.
02:59
Very importantly up at the top, we don't want to convert to a polygon mesh.
03:04
One of the great advantages of three DS MX is its ability
03:07
to preserve the solid or parametric nature of AC AD model.
03:12
We don't want to convert to polygons.
03:13
At this stage, we want to preserve the parametric model.
03:17
That'll give us the ability to change the tessellation
03:20
or meshing settings. Later on in our production process
03:25
change, convert to MS
03:26
to off
03:28
down here.
03:28
We want to leave the up axis as Z up because that is the three Ds max convention.
03:33
We do want to change the hierarchy mode
03:36
by default, the C AD file is going to be organized into groups.
03:40
We want to change this to
03:42
use layers.
03:44
Now, the objects in the C AD file will be organized into three Ds max display layers.
03:49
That'll make it a lot easier for us to select things in the view ports
03:53
with those settings, click import.
03:56
And then at the bottom of the three DS
03:58
max interface,
03:58
we see converting using a TF which is Autodesk translation framework.
04:04
That'll take just a moment
04:06
once that's finished, we see that we have a ham radio in the viewport
04:10
and all the objects are currently selected.
04:12
I can go around and select individual objects,
04:15
go to the modify panel
04:17
just to show you that these are all of the type body object.
04:21
A body object preserves the parametric or solid
04:24
model characteristics of the C AD document.
04:27
And we have the ability to change the tessellation
04:30
down here. We see Viewport display settings,
04:33
it's set to medium
04:35
and in rendering approximation,
04:38
it's set to production.
04:40
And these are good values. We can actually leave these as they are.
04:44
We won't need to change these.
04:46
But in some cases, you might want to go in here
04:48
and tweak the rendering settings
04:50
so that the tessellation at render time will be cleaner
04:53
and you won't get jagged edges on any of your models.
04:56
But as I said, for this model, the default settings are going to work fine.
Video transcript
00:04
Three Ds max is really the optimal choice for product visualization
00:07
for three reasons.
00:09
First, it has excellent support for C
00:11
AD or computer aided design formats.
00:14
Second, the three Ds max interface is intuitive and easy to use.
00:18
And third three Ds max is bundled with Arnold A physically
00:22
based renderer which is renowned for its power and flexibility.
00:26
So let's get started in three Ds
00:28
max.
00:29
I want to begin by just simplifying the interface a little
00:31
bit since we're going to be focusing on rendering in materials.
00:35
I'm gonna hide some of the panels that we won't be using.
00:37
First, I'll hide the ribbon appear on the main toolbar
00:42
over here on the left, we have a few panels we won't be using.
00:45
We've got the Viewport layout tabs.
00:47
Let's hide that
00:48
right. Click on the textured bar at the top
00:51
and hide the viewport layout tabs.
00:54
Likewise with the scene explorer,
00:56
we will be using the scene explorer,
00:58
but we'll be using that later in a floating window,
01:00
right click and hide the scene explorer as well.
01:04
Also the time slider down here, we won't be using that.
01:07
So I'll right click on its textured bar
01:09
H the time slider
01:11
at the top of the screen on the right of the main toolbar, we see the projects toolbar
01:16
and that's where we can create or assign a project folder structure.
01:20
I've currently got it assigned to the default documents. Three Ds
01:24
max,
01:25
I want to point this to the existing project folder I have created
01:29
and to do that, I can click on the set active project button
01:33
and you'll do that if you're using the exercise files provided with these videos.
01:38
If you don't have the exercise files,
01:40
then you want to create a new default project folder.
01:44
All right. So click on set, active project.
01:47
I've saved my project folder on the desktop. So I'll just navigate for that.
01:51
Go to desktop
01:53
and I've got a folder called product
01:54
viz.
01:55
Choose select folder.
01:57
OK. Now our project is set up properly.
01:60
I also want to set my units and grid size.
02:03
So go to the customized menu
02:06
to units, set up
02:08
and set that to metric with centimeters.
02:11
Click OK?
02:13
To set the grid size, right? Click on the snap button on the main toolbar
02:17
in the grid and snap settings. Dialog go to home grid,
02:21
set the grid spacing to one centimeter
02:24
and we'll set the perspective view, grid extent to
02:30
and then we can close that dialogue.
02:31
Now we're ready to import our C ad document.
02:34
Let's do that. We'll go to the file menu
02:37
and choose import,
02:39
import.
02:41
We're taken directly to the current project's import folder
02:45
and we've got a step file in here
02:47
and we saved it out to a step file for compatibility with three Ds Max.
02:53
So select Ham radio dot step
02:55
and click open
02:57
in the import settings.
02:59
Very importantly up at the top, we don't want to convert to a polygon mesh.
03:04
One of the great advantages of three DS MX is its ability
03:07
to preserve the solid or parametric nature of AC AD model.
03:12
We don't want to convert to polygons.
03:13
At this stage, we want to preserve the parametric model.
03:17
That'll give us the ability to change the tessellation
03:20
or meshing settings. Later on in our production process
03:25
change, convert to MS
03:26
to off
03:28
down here.
03:28
We want to leave the up axis as Z up because that is the three Ds max convention.
03:33
We do want to change the hierarchy mode
03:36
by default, the C AD file is going to be organized into groups.
03:40
We want to change this to
03:42
use layers.
03:44
Now, the objects in the C AD file will be organized into three Ds max display layers.
03:49
That'll make it a lot easier for us to select things in the view ports
03:53
with those settings, click import.
03:56
And then at the bottom of the three DS
03:58
max interface,
03:58
we see converting using a TF which is Autodesk translation framework.
04:04
That'll take just a moment
04:06
once that's finished, we see that we have a ham radio in the viewport
04:10
and all the objects are currently selected.
04:12
I can go around and select individual objects,
04:15
go to the modify panel
04:17
just to show you that these are all of the type body object.
04:21
A body object preserves the parametric or solid
04:24
model characteristics of the C AD document.
04:27
And we have the ability to change the tessellation
04:30
down here. We see Viewport display settings,
04:33
it's set to medium
04:35
and in rendering approximation,
04:38
it's set to production.
04:40
And these are good values. We can actually leave these as they are.
04:44
We won't need to change these.
04:46
But in some cases, you might want to go in here
04:48
and tweak the rendering settings
04:50
so that the tessellation at render time will be cleaner
04:53
and you won't get jagged edges on any of your models.
04:56
But as I said, for this model, the default settings are going to work fine.
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