parasolid importing

[chrisjacks21]

Anyone had any experience or know any plugins for getting parasolid files (.x_t) into max?

We usually ask for igs/stp and then cleanup in Rhino and use npower translators to bring into max - the guys supplying the CAd models have said using the native parasolid would be far better, as when they export as igs/stp some surfaces 'pop-out' which is why we have to tidy in Rhino.

Any thoughts?

[instinct]

npower translators also read parasolids. Depends on the type of license you have if i am not mistaken.

Regards,
Thorsten

[chrisjacks21]

ok thanks Thorsten, will look into again. Yes there seem to be loads of different versions/license types etc.

[kimgar]

we're using translators pro to import step files which works really well. waiting for a universal demo license now, hope it is as stable as the pro translators.
optimizing the model for max is another story though, what's up with max and attaching meshes? i never got this to work properly

[instinct]

Get any of the fast attachment scripts out there

[kimgar]

yeah, i've tried various attach scripts, but they all mess up one way or the other.

[chrisjacks21]

So, having some success importing x_t files directly into max. Generally surfaces seem to be tidier than old method of taking stp/iges through rhino first. Although getting some pretty huge clunky max files (up to 1GB!) is this normal, any tips on optimising?? Going to try bringing in smaller more detailed objects in seperatly and lower the viewport/editable mesh quality on the power import dialog...

[instinct]

We hardly use PowerTranslators these days, so i would not really know. In regards to the attaching issues, i thought you meant mass attaching issues. Fucked up vertex normals with CAD data is a pretty common issue with many many operations in max. Rest assured that max is usually better than other tools still lol. For common operations (like detaching) we have either custom mods or scripted workarounds.

Regards,
Thorsten

[kimgar]

ah, so vertex normals is the culprit, thanks thorsten, at least now i know where to look for workarounds, some good info here : http://wiki.polycount.com/VertexNorm...als_in_3ds_Max
i'll see what i can make of it, giving a problem a name is half the solution

regarding model optimizing, i'm struggling with that myself. it really depends on what model you have and what you will use it for. instances use less ram, but max don't like many objects and can't attach these without messing up vertex normals. xref proxies are good, but only work per single mesh, so here's the attaching again. vrayproxies is great but will not enjoy your 1 gig max file and containers are just a pain.

all in all, i find it's all a great pain, sorry