umare

When exporting from autocad what format allows for textures files to be included in the conversion so that the file can be used in maya?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks UMare

toxic_box

Hello umare

Till now no Good Format for Translating...you sould use Autodesk Direct Connect . to Connect DWG Files t maya......Maya will import the DWG as A Bunch of NURBS Surfaces...No Textures and Materials....This is the worst thing if you plan to Make an ArchViz with in maya....you have to Remodel in maya....will be much better.

So If you need to Visualise an AutoCAD or Revit Project...MAX is Recomended!

Cheers

/Tai

umare

Thanks Tai, your reply was very helpful indeed.

UMare

Karlfucious

I find that using sketchup as a bridge between autocad / revit to maya gives me the best results so far. DWG to sketchup, then FBX to maya will convert much cleaner geometry. Plus any blocks will be converted to components in sketchup which will be converted to instance copies in maya.

If you don't have sketchup you can always use the old 3ds to maya with the bonus tools 3ds import but i find it takes a lot more clean up that the latter method.

shaneis

Blender http://www.blender.org/ is a great program for bridging between CAD and Maya as well... and it is completely free. Same workflow as Karlfucious mentioned CAD DXF > Blender FBX or OBJ > Maya. It is also good for the .3ds and .max imports.

Antisthenes

Rhinoceros works as a good "bridge" too

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shaneis

Hmm...

SketchUp Pro - Win XP/ Vista, Mac OSX - US$495,
Rhino - Win XP, Vista - US$995
Blender - Win XP/ Vista, Mac OSX, Linux - US$0.00

That, my friend is what we refer to as a "no-brainer".

Antisthenes

995? naaa free for 25 saves or 140 for commercial licenses for students

__________________
The most necessary/useful piece of learning is that which unlearns what is untrue: 'evil'
may be acquiring Happiness through virtue which is based on knowledge!/?

Karlfucious

I can't really comment on how well blender translates the files over since I've never used it but Sketchup converts over really clean geometry. Instead of importing a bunch of garbled triangles it tries to keep planar faces as ngons where possible. The only places it triangulates the mesh is where holes occur. That makes cleanup a much easier process and saves a lot of time. Also, all the face normals are in the correct direction.

Another plus of using the sketch up method as mentioned before is the fact that blocks/families convert to instance copies in Maya. So If you need to further detail a window you can model on one and the changes will carry over to each identical window.

With all that said there is no perfect translation. Sketch up is just the best I've found so far. Not only that Sketchup is a very handy little tool that I find invaluable to my pipeline.

shaneis

Thanks for the info Karl. Tri's and normals are an issue. You can achieve similar results with Blender, though it isn't as simple as one or two clicks. Might just have to look into SketchUp.

Blender - free for unlimited saves, forever, for everyone...