Import Iges and step files to max? -best solution?

[LarsSonparsson]

So how do you guys import those cad models?

In future, I need to do that a lot and I haven't found any good way.
Currently I'm using NPower Translator plugin. It gives you good results every
third times or so. But I need to get reliable solution for this.

So any advice?

Thanks,

LarsSon

[Sascha Selent]

Usually I do the way - nurbs > Rhino meshing > max.

Lately read about showcase - shall do good job in converting:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...&siteID=123112

EDIT: I NEVER use nurbs in Max.

[thablanch]

I do not use nurbs in max.. but for some iges model, it works.. heavy.. but works...

( I had better results with Npowers tools than with Rinho meshing.. but then again.. depends what is the original mesh)

[LarsSonparsson]

Thanks!

The thing is, that when Npower nurbs works in Max, they are perfect.
I like to have controls to tweak quality after the model is imported.
We have had problems trying to use Rhino for that. Well we have version 3,
I'm just going to install v4 evaluation to see how it works.
Usually models we get are from Catia, I think. Very very detailed.

[askhamdesign]

Power translators

I think Power translators is the best option! http://www.npowersoftware.com/transl...ptoverview.htm

[Stoo]

Evaluating this software at the moment, looks really good apart from one issue: Has anyone else had an issue with DR on the demo version? - Network rendering works fine as either single-node or strip jobs, but using DR ends in an event where the nodes do not 'see' any of the imported geometry at all and so the image does not render.

[ior=0]

I can confirm that this is the case. I'm using Power Translator Basic 5.3.
I just going to try and install the Max9 R282 release viewer on my DR slaver as this could be the problem.
I can't seem to find a newer version of the viewer on npowers website??!! I'll report back with what I find out.

[ior=0]

You will need to add the npower viewer to the DR slaves for it to work.
V6 viewer will also work with v5.3 workstation plug-in.

you can get the free viewer here - just fill in your details and you get sent a link.
http://www.npowersoftware.com/download.htm

hope that helps, although the thread may be a little old now :\

[andrewjohn81]

we use nPower as well. There really isn't any other choice. If you mesh our models in Rhino you get slightly less control, and it takes ForEver.
Also, rhino4 Is faster at meshing, but still isn't fast enough.

One big downside to nPower is crashing. We crash all the time and it's nearly always related to nPower. They have been much less responsive to that lately than in the past also.

Often I'll have to clean up a proE model a bit in Rhino if the geometry is "bad." Meaning...there are some edges that form loops, surfaces have incorrect trim surfaces, and some edges are using an impossible tolerance.

Other than that, npower does great. Good options for tessellation, and quite fast.

[instinct]

As mentioned above Showcase has a pretty damn good tesselator. nPower gives you more "post tesselation" control.

Regards,
Thorsten

[andrewjohn81]

Showcase doesn't have as much real-time control though. You can only choose presets. You can make your own via an xml file an text editor, but that really isn't ideal.

The nice thing about nPower is you can look at your objects, pick 5 similar ones that didn't quite look right, and adjust the tessellation. Then keep doing that until everything looks nice.

It's also faster than Showcase, and Definitely cheaper.

[instinct]

It's definately not faster for complex datasets. I wouldnt wanna go back at all. And you dont wanna adjust tesselation manually for some thousand parts. In batchmode (converting multiple objects at once) showcase is pretty damn fast and the tesselator does a lot of nice things that the nPower didnt when i last tried (like waterproof meshing and alike).

Another nice thing is that if your CAD contains material/color information you can carry these over wich is pretty cool.

nPower on the other hand is ideal for those troublesome parts that go wrong and need fixing, or have missing filets and alike.

Regards,
Thorsten

[andrewjohn81]

I start in Rhino, so it seems like such an extra step to use Showcase.
I clean up the layers there.

I created a Rhino script to export each layer from Rhino as Step/iges file which definitely helps importing into Showcase, but the workflow doesn't seem to add up.

I'll have to test it out next time and see how it goes. We really only use showcase on projects where we have to chunk out decent looking images in a couple hours at high resolution with several color options. Things like that. I really hate the UI. It's really not built for dual monitor. And the way it handles materials is Definitely not ideal. It's annoying that if you want to change a material that is on an object you Have to select all the objects with that material before editing else it creates a copy of that material and won't change the other materials. This becomes difficult when you have some of those objects hidden.
I've talked with them about this before and can't see that as any sort of inconvenience or issue.

Still, I'm not seeing the problem with nPower. I've edited lots of engineering data, screws, washers, and all, at the same time and it chugged away.
I am only importing 3dm files (rhino) because we only purchased that version, and those parts are already water tight (if modeled correctly), so I don't have issues with things not joining up right. You can go back and fix things that wouldn't join in Rhino also. You can't fix loops in Any program though without killing the surface and just recreating it.

[instinct]

What kinda data are you importing then ? I did have issues with complex parts (Dashboards, Motorblocks and alike). It crawled to a halt and ate up a LOT of memory.

Materials is nothing i'd edit in Showcase but they come across if there is any info. So i dont have to assign materials manually as i would have to with nPower (at least that's how it USED to be). Showcase running as a step in a tesselation pipeline works pretty damn well for us. That might be different for less "pipelinable" stuff and/or the "occasional import".

Regards,
Thorsten

[andrewjohn81]

I'm importing appliances. I've asked some of the places in detroit, and on a per part basis, the data is roughly the same level of detail. It's not uncommon for us to have a working file 400-800MB in max, which is why we Xref nearly everything.

I Have had nPower just choke to hell on things in the past. Usually it was just one surface being bad somewhere. I've also seen some of their versions just Really suck.
For the same reason I've seen iges be better than step because I've had showcase choke on the same surfaces. With iges, since the surfaces aren't already joined, showcase will just skip the one surface. It's Usually just a bad fillet somewhere. But those are so small you often don't notice.

On occasion I'll go through and get rid of all the B-side surfaces to help some of that.
It's pretty hard to get a solid pipeline here because you never know when something small is going to get changed...over...and Over again. It's nice just to quick export that new part, and import it back into max. I'll still try out Showcase and see how that ends up working for us though. We have one floating license here.