3DSMax to SolidWorks

There is a model in 3DSMax that we need in SolidWorks. We don't
necessarily care very much about how choppy or smooth the surfaces
are, but it would be nice for the program to recognize certain
features like "oh, you are trying to select this edge", instead of
"oh, you are selecting the entirity of your import" when making new
lines and so forth.

So far, the only success we've had is importing as a .stl. This
works, but it treats the object all as one "thing". For instance, it
won't let me create a cross section view of my model because it
refuses to go ahead and cut the thing in half.

Exporting from 3DSM as a .igs doesn't work, but my coworker bought a
program that can export as a variety of types from 3DSM, and through
this, we are able to export as .igs. When importing to SolidWorks,
however, all that we can see is a wireframe type representation of our
object. It is literally just a list of 1500 "Imported Curves". Is
there any way to easily fill this in or "skin" the object?

We've tried a few other file types with no success. Any help would be
greatly appreciated. Again, we'd like to be able to create a section
view in SolidWorks. Thanks,

calcbandit

 

One more thing, FeatureWorks->Feature Recognition seems like it'd be a
really useful feature. Why is it grayed out no matter what I select?
How can I make this work?

 

FeatureWorks is an add-in that is part of the professional or premium
edition of SolidWorks.
See here: http://www.solidworks.com/pages/products/3dmech.html

You may try bringing the file into Acrobat 8.0 3D and exporting it as
an .x_t from there. I haven't tried it with 3DS files but have tried
it with .WRL and STEP files with good results.

Josh
www.solidsmack.com

 

If you have SolidWorks Office Premium 2007, and have ScanTo3D add-in
enabled, you can load .3ds files from the SW open file dialog
directly.

Regards

Mark

 

Thank you for the suggestion. I am downloading Acrobat as we speak.
However, to clarify, I DO have SolidWorks 2007 Professional and have
the FeatureWorks addin, but the feature recognition command only is
grayed out.

Unrelated Question: In trying to fill in this wireframe, I find that
I can select a polygon and click "Filled Surface". The problem is
that I don't want to have to do this 1500 times. Any way to get
around this by just selecting them all and doing something? It gives
me an error message when I try this now: "The patch cannot be
created. Try a different curvature method, alternate face, or surface
quality setting." I've mucked with a few of the settings. If I could
simply fill in all the polygons to make a surface my problem would
essentially be solved, since SolidWorks lets me do a section view on
the wireframe mesh igs import.

 

Hey Mark,

This advice was awesome, but only worked once. I successfully
imported my model but would like to do so again to fiddle with some
options. Now, however, I can't load the .3ds. The problem is that
whenever I activate the Scan-To-3d add-in, it automatically unselects
itself. Like I will go Tools->Add ins->Check off Scanto3d->Ok, but
then I can go right back into Tools->Add ins and scanto3d will be
unchecked. It worked once but I can't get it to stay activated
again. Thoughts?

 

Hello Mark,

The only problem that I kind of have with going this route is that
going to the scan to 3D is built a little more for scanned data.
Sometimes the data direct from 3Ds/Max is not a scanned data set. It
would be nice to just open it like a Rhino file. In other words a
little more direct opening of the file as if it were a neutral format.
Actually this would be nice for .obj as well.

Thanks

 

This sounds like a registry problem with your SolidWorks installation
and I have experienced myself. The problem is that the permissions in
your registry keys for SolidWorks are not set to Full Read Write
access since all your settings in SolidWorks should be saved when you
end your session. That sounds like its not happening for you since
your add-ins should be set the way you left them when you exited SW.
If you know how to use START>Run>regedit, you can correct this
problem by giving full permission to yourself for the SolidWorks keys.
If you don't feel confident in doing this, find someone that knows
how to use Regedit and this might be the problem.

Regards

Mark

 

There is a huge disconnect between the MCAD world and the FX/
postproduction worlds in that NURBS and Polygonal/Mesh modeling are
incompatible. This is a passion of mind to try to overcome and I'm
working on several fronts to see what we can come up with. BTW, the
AutoSurfacing in 2008 is greatly improved in getting .3ds and .obj
files to Solid models.

Regards

Mark

 

Thanks again but I think you misunderstand the problem. Even if I
don't close SolidWorks, just the add-in's pop up window by clicking
okay and selecting Scan-to-3d, nothing will happen and the next time I
go back to Tools->Add ins->, even if 3 seconds later, Scan to 3d will
be magically deselected.

As an experiment, I turned on every single add in. I then clicked
okay, and SolidWorks took a moment to load every add in EXCEPT Scan-
to-3d, the one I need to use. When I go back to tools->add ins, there
are checkboxes next to all add ins except scan to 3d, which somehow
got unchecked in the whole process.

 

Okay, I understand. My official advice is to have your VAR deal with
this since this is not normal and something is clearly wrong with your
install. Unofficially, can you load the scanto3d .dll from SW? To do
this launch SW and then File>Open and select the file type .dll from
the file types list box then navigate to C:\Program Files\SolidWorks
\ScanTo3D\Addin and load the swngre.dll. Then you should see the
ScanTo3D add-in on by defualt. Now quit SolidWorks and then re-launch.
Is it still not selected in the Add-ins list?

Regards

Mark

 

This worked, thank you very much!