IGS file import - taking ages

[stevesideas]

Hi guys,

Im currently importing some IGS cad files...im assuming cad anyway. These files are taking absolutely ages to import into 3dsmax and they are only 80mb. Is there a programme I can use to do this more quickly ?

It is going very slowly on the populating models pass.

I did have some STP files but max doesnt seem to like those..I thought max could import STP files...

[instinct]

IGS can be both Nurbs and/or Polydata. Nurbsdata would be tesselated on import and hence prolly take long. Better quality for both stp and iges imports is available via npower plugins or autodesk showcase.

Regards,
Thorsten

[stevesideas]

Thanks. I'll check out npower and showcase..

[stevesideas]

Bloody hell, they are both expensive ! The job is only worth a bit more than that...

[Morbid Angel]

Nurbsdata would be tesselated on import

not quite correct.
Max can import iges as nurbs.

You might want to try opening those iges in maya since maya handles nurbs a lot better. If you cant have maya do the job, you can try deep exploration cad edition which can handle those formats.
Lastly if you still cant get this done, pm me and I'll see if I can help you.

I might add that rhino can also open igeas, from where you can tesselate them by hand. Or if you can open it in maya, you can transfer those files via fbx.

[stevesideas]

Thanks Morbid, I appreciate the offer. Fortunately Rhino can import STP and IGS so I just exported from Rhino as a 3ds and all is fine. A little bit of tidying up, but on the whole a nice conversion.

[instinct]

@Morbid : I was expressing that quite stupidly. What i meant is that the nurbs data that is created is tesselated for viewport rendering. That is the case with nPower too btw. so importing in wireframe mode is a whole lot of faster.

@steve:
at least use obj instead of 3ds. But still you are loosing vertex normals by using any of the two wich isnt really desirable and causes shading artifacts and general worse quality. Would be better to do it in maya if you have and use the latest FBX wich supports vertex normals i assume.

Regards,
Thorsten

[stevesideas]

I tried using obj export from Rhino but didnt have much luck with it..That would be my prefered choice.

Unfortunately I dont have Maya.

[mcvltd]

That's odd. I always use obj out of rhino - never had any issues. What was your problem?

[stevesideas]

It just comes in as a jumble of faces...and has only a slight resemblance to the original object.

[mcvltd]

very odd indeed, never had that one.

[stevesideas]

It seems that the options where you select: sort by layer etc need to be on. It works fine then, although I still seem to have dodgy look curves in some areas once imported..