Importing 3ds files

[mf]

I am trying to import a 3ds file of a house that I made from SketchUp, but when I bring it into VIZ, all of the faces are divided in half diagonally. Does anyone know why this is, or how to fix it? This is a problem because I have to apply images to the wlals of the house, and it cuts them in half when I do.

[TerryJones]

Your model is made of polyface meshes. This is what you are seeing.

[Steve_Bennett]

I am trying to import a 3ds file of a house that I made from SketchUp, but when I bring it into VIZ, all of the faces are divided in half diagonally. Does anyone know why this is, or how to fix it? This is a problem because I have to apply images to the wlals of the house, and it cuts them in half when I do.It could also be the graphics mode you've set VIZ to run in. Try changing the mode it's running in to Open GL or Software driven.

To change it go into your Start Menu ->> All Programs ->> Autodesk ->> Autodesk VIZ 2006 ->> Change Graphics Mode. That will let you change the option you've selected initially if needed.

[surijanto_cadd]

If you want to import 3D drawing into VIZ or 3DS Max make sure your object is 3D Solid Object.

[stefan.boeykens]

What export settings did you use in SketchUp?

I have imported 3ds-files from SketchUp and from ArchiCAD into 3ds max several times and they come in nice, usually...

One problem I sometimes have is with vertices that are not welded, but you can do this in VIZ/max if you want.

There is a plugin to import 3ds-files into 3ds max that originate from ArchiCAD, by Marc Lorenz. Maybe you can try them and see if the SketchUp models come in fine.
http://plugins.angstraum.at/ -> ArchiCAD import Wizard

The plugin doesn't require ArchiCAD, but it was made to facilitate imports of ArchiCAD models into VIZ/max.

[Chirag Mistry]

Well, I think this is typical of VIZ/MAX. It always creates geometry using triangular faces...so when you bring a rectangular face into viz, it breaks it into two triangular faces (creating the diagonal line).

There is a way you can hide it, but it is a time consuming procedure...basically you have to make it a mesh...select the object and Edit Mesh

Once a mesh, select edge mode and select the diagonal edge...on the modify panel (right hand side...I think its all the way down) select visible or not visible...this way you can hide each edge...but it will take you forever...

The better way to do this is use Multi-Sub Object material instead of standard...create a multi-sub object material and say to no.1 material in this sub-object material you assign the picture material (this would be the same as you wuld do for a regular one). Then you would apply the multi-sub object material to your entire mesh.

After this you would select the mesh using the face mode and select those two faces of the rectangular where you want the picture to be applied and on the right hand side...material id put 1 (this is the coressponding number that you assigned the picture material in the material editor)...once you give it the ID number, it applies the material...the last thing to make the material look right is while having those two faces selected apply UVW map...there you go all done...

So similarly you can keep applying material to any face or faces you want...different materials will have different ID no. but will reside in the same sub-object material list.
The only thing to be aware of is, every time you apply the UVW map, you have to collapse the stack to make it an edit mesh and hence you wont accidently change the applied UVW mapping.

Hopefully this all is not very confusing my dear friend. Let me know if it is, I will post an example.

This will also help to understand better, http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=3197848&linkID=982674

[stefan.boeykens]

I just re-tried and it all works fine.

Made a simple model in SketchUp 5. Assigned several maps. Exported as a 3ds-file.

When I import this in 3ds max (r6) everything looks fine: no additional edges, texture mapping on the right place, smoothing correctly assigned.

Can you describe what procedure you did follow?

Edit: I did notice that all faces in the model are seperated. This makes sure the texture mapping coordinates correctly survive from SketchUp.
You can weld them again in VIZ/max (modifier "Vertex Weld"), since this program allows several UV-coordinates and smoothing coordinates per vertex, which was not supported in the (old) 3ds-fileformat you use for translating the model.

You might try to export the SketchUp model into an FBX-file, which is a much more recent file format and is supported in 3ds max. I tried and this also works fine.
You still might want to weld vertices...