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Hi,

I'm using the Solidworks Maxwell plugin to transfer SW models to 3ds max. I export an MXS from SW and import them in 3ds Max. This works very well but when I convert the editable mesh to an editable poly the normals of the model get messed up. The reason I want to do this is because Max is very unstable when I use Modifiers on the Editable Mesh. When I put an UVW map on the object max sometimes crashes instantly and other times this happens when I edit the map. When re-opening the file after a crash max often crashes on opening.

This is very annoying! So the question is, is it possible to import the models as editable poly's? Because with those I don't have these problems.

Thanks!

Why did you choose to export from SW to MXS? Did you try stl or step which Max handles well?

If only Max would handle STL's or STEP well, from solidworks. It's a disaster really. There are separate plugins being sold to export SW files to Max just because max can't handle them properly. I've also tried using Deep Exploration to convert a STL to obj but there are often normal problems or vertexes that aren't being lined up well. That's only when I import them into Max, in the Deep Exploration viewport they seem fine.

The Maxwell plugin imports them perfectly but 3ds max has crashed more times then I can count.

Bring in the step file and it will import as a body object. Click the "weld all" button, choose your mesh quality preset, convert to editable poly, select all polygons and auto smooth them. Afterwords, you can try "quadrify all" on the model, but it doesn't always work well.

This is my workflow and I have had great success with it. I've had to create an entire oil rig model from hundreds of step files recently.

Alternatively, I have also converted iges and step to polygon with Moi3d successfully.

Tried as you said and the STEP files seem to import pretty good. I tried IGES before and for some reason there are always some details that don't import right. I always assumed IGES and STEP would give the same problems, because they are both NURBS based, but STEP files don't show any problems (yet). So far so good!

Thanks for the tip! I'll be doing it this way from now on. But how did you convert all those files in that oil rig? All by hand, one at the time?

Oh yes, one at a time!

Well that's one benefit MXS files have, all the Solid body's import at the same time.

Unfortunately I have to come back to this. I'm still having minor errors when importing STEP files (importing MXS files do not have these issues):



It's not precise and not reliable, so my previous request still stands: please fix the MXS import issue in 3ds Max.