Importing a CAD model

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Three Ds max is really the optimal choice for product visualization

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for three reasons.

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First, it has excellent support for C

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AD or computer aided design formats.

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Second, the three Ds max interface is intuitive and easy to use.

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And third three Ds max is bundled with Arnold A physically

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based renderer which is renowned for its power and flexibility.

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So let's get started in three Ds

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max.

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I want to begin by just simplifying the interface a little

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bit since we're going to be focusing on rendering in materials.

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I'm gonna hide some of the panels that we won't be using.

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First, I'll hide the ribbon appear on the main toolbar

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over here on the left, we have a few panels we won't be using.

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We've got the Viewport layout tabs.

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Let's hide that

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right. Click on the textured bar at the top

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and hide the viewport layout tabs.

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Likewise with the scene explorer,

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we will be using the scene explorer,

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but we'll be using that later in a floating window,

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right click and hide the scene explorer as well.

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Also the time slider down here, we won't be using that.

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So I'll right click on its textured bar

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H the time slider

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at the top of the screen on the right of the main toolbar, we see the projects toolbar

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and that's where we can create or assign a project folder structure.

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I've currently got it assigned to the default documents. Three Ds

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max,

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I want to point this to the existing project folder I have created

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and to do that, I can click on the set active project button

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and you'll do that if you're using the exercise files provided with these videos.

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If you don't have the exercise files,

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then you want to create a new default project folder.

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All right. So click on set, active project.

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I've saved my project folder on the desktop. So I'll just navigate for that.

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Go to desktop

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and I've got a folder called product

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viz.

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Choose select folder.

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OK. Now our project is set up properly.

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I also want to set my units and grid size.

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So go to the customized menu

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to units, set up

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and set that to metric with centimeters.

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Click OK?

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To set the grid size, right? Click on the snap button on the main toolbar

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in the grid and snap settings. Dialog go to home grid,

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set the grid spacing to one centimeter

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and we'll set the perspective view, grid extent to

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and then we can close that dialogue.

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Now we're ready to import our C ad document.

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Let's do that. We'll go to the file menu

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and choose import,

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import.

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We're taken directly to the current project's import folder

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and we've got a step file in here

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and we saved it out to a step file for compatibility with three Ds Max.

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So select Ham radio dot step

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and click open

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in the import settings.

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Very importantly up at the top, we don't want to convert to a polygon mesh.

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One of the great advantages of three DS MX is its ability

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to preserve the solid or parametric nature of AC AD model.

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We don't want to convert to polygons.

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At this stage, we want to preserve the parametric model.

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That'll give us the ability to change the tessellation

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or meshing settings. Later on in our production process

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change, convert to MS

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to off

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down here.

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We want to leave the up axis as Z up because that is the three Ds max convention.

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We do want to change the hierarchy mode

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by default, the C AD file is going to be organized into groups.

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We want to change this to

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use layers.

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Now, the objects in the C AD file will be organized into three Ds max display layers.

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That'll make it a lot easier for us to select things in the view ports

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with those settings, click import.

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And then at the bottom of the three DS

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max interface,

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we see converting using a TF which is Autodesk translation framework.

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That'll take just a moment

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once that's finished, we see that we have a ham radio in the viewport

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and all the objects are currently selected.

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I can go around and select individual objects,

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go to the modify panel

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just to show you that these are all of the type body object.

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A body object preserves the parametric or solid

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model characteristics of the C AD document.

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And we have the ability to change the tessellation

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down here. We see Viewport display settings,

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it's set to medium

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and in rendering approximation,

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it's set to production.

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And these are good values. We can actually leave these as they are.

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We won't need to change these.

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But in some cases, you might want to go in here

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and tweak the rendering settings

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so that the tessellation at render time will be cleaner

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and you won't get jagged edges on any of your models.

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But as I said, for this model, the default settings are going to work fine.