Re: ACAD to C3 2003-12-11 - By debadger
Back
By 'large' I should have clarified - 'physically large' not 'size of file'
large. I haven't tried to import 2D geometry much - a couple of tries with
polylines did work although they had so many extra nodes that they weren't
worth the bother to clean up. I make solids, extruding, doing all the
Booleans that choke Carrara in Autocad (and they choked Autocad's early
skinned models too)
3DSOUT will not help you at all with a 2D drawing, it will export a solid
model's skin which works very nicely in Carrara. Sorry, I didn't realize
you were working with just the floor plan. Acad's solid modeling is far
faster and more accurate than Carrara's, its Booleans are far more robust
and easier to do. I'd make as much of the model in that as possible, using
Carrara for its splendid surfacing and lighting which blows Acad's out of
the water.
You're doing buildings? Then take your wall footprints, form closed
polylines, Extrude to form the walls. Union and Subtract as needed to form
actual walls. Make molding for baseboards, sashes, doors, etc and put those
on their own layers. Windows, doors, doorknobs, all on different layers.
Hinge pins are extremely useful on their own layer because the location of a
hinge pin is where you want to move a door group's hot point so it rotates
properly. You can group a door, hinges and knob and take that group's
hotpoint anywhere you want - putting it on the same location as one of the
hinge pins will then make it possible to Rotate that door properly. I can
never remember which plane is what without playing with Carrara - it's
different from Acad's of course... and it's too late tonight to figure it
out now. However... if you've played with 3D you can figure it out easily
enough with a few false starts <g>.
If you haven't done any solid modeling yet, e-mail me privately and I'll try
to talk you through it. Once you get the hang of it you'll wonder why you
thought it was hard... Of course, when you first start trying to do it
you'll beat yourself black and blue a few times and make the neighbors
wonder what the screaming is but that's normal.
Instead of having a Saganload (billions and billions) of layers put all the,
say, doors on one layer. Yes, the initial imported model group has all
doors but what you do is Duplicate the group for the number of doors you've
got, Hide the master door model and then erase all but the desired door for
each Duplicate (giving each a discrete name - door1, door2, etc) When you're
sure the door models are fine, Delete the master model containing all the
doors.
I like this for a backup, in case of trouble somewhere. Call me paranoid,
but it really has helped me. You probably won't need the piping or wiring.
Nor the hardware inside a doorknob (although you may want to show the
screwheads IF you have a close-up of the door)
Elena
-- --Original Message-- --
From: kentcshum [mailto:kentcshum@(protected)]
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 7:36 AM
To: Carrara@(protected)
Subject: [Carrara] Re: ACAD to C3
I use ACAD r2000i, and I have also tried exporting to version 12's
DXF and still no luck. The DWG is only a plan of a building, and is
really 2D, so they are just lines. Before exporting, I also cleanup
those symbols, dimensions, and text and stuffs but the partitions and
elements that are needed to extrude walls from. So the file itself
isn't big at all. I have also exploded all possible polylines into
lines, since polylines won't work with many apps' 3D import|convert
functions. I have also cleaned up those lines that overlap each
other and filleted all opened corners where two lines must meet.
Whenever I do a DXFOUT, Lightwave takes it flawlessly. So I was
expecting the same thing from Carrara 3, but its just that whenever
its imported in C3, I don't see anything, as if the import is
invisible.
One thing I didn't try, double-click it and then convert to Vertex
modeler format. I am going to give this a try.
I still haven't tried again with 3DSOUT, but will do so soon as I get
the time. But thanks for all the suggestions and workaround ideas.
Thanks again for the time and help! I will post the results and
share with the group!
Oh, I am on PC's as well, there is no ACAD for MacOS after r12. I do
have a couple of those old beige G3's lying around collecting dust
tho', and I have no intentions of upgrading them.... Anyway.
Kent
P.S. Yes, it'd be nice if someone has the keyboard shortcut list
posted again, but is this list the same as the one that came with the
C3 box?
--- In Carrara@(protected), "debadger" <debadger@(protected)> wrote:
> First, what version of AutoCad are you using? I've been able to
use 3DSOUT
> since I believe version 14. DXFOUT fails unless you export version
12 -
> which could be the source of both of our confusion. AutoCad
radically
> changed its file format with 12 and many applications cannot use
the later
> versions. DXF's of Solids will NOT export, surfaces will. 3DS
format, which
> always seems to be a surface, then became a much better choice for
export
> into Carrara.
>
> It is possible your file is too large or too small for Carrara to
read
> properly, there are major size issues caused by that two decimal
place
> limit. Try scaling down by a factor of 10 if you've got a building
or up by
> a factor of at least five if you've got a finger ring and see if
that helps
> you.
>
> Let's see. Export a 3DS file from autocad - say a simple chair.
Make the
> pillows and the frame different layers so it's easier to surface
and far
> easier to figure out how to clean up the model for Carrara's
purposes. When
> you export from Autocad, use the 'save by layers' option so you
have pieces
> rather than one single model. You will need to fool with the Crease
and
> Smooth options to improve your model's appearance.
>
> Start Carrara, Open the 3DS file precisely as you would a CAR file.
Double
> click on one of the pieces. This brings up a small window that
announces
> there are No Parameters you can edit. Click on Edit (upper screen)
>Convert
> to Another Modeler>Vertex Modeler (even though the heart, meaning
preferred
> format, is on the other modeler option.)
>
> This will bring up a four view screen, showing whichever of your
pieces you
> clicked on, now in the Vertex Model window and ready to clean up.
>
> My personal preference is to click on the Reference View window,
then click
> on the single view icon (right side of the working window, top of
the set) I
> usually wind up going to View> Automatic Resize and if the view is
still
> distorted go to the Director's Camera (upper left of the working
view
> screen) and Send View to Top, Right or some view that I can then
zoom and/or
> rotate my view to figure out what I want to do from there.
>
> There are some shortcut keys - I assume since you've mentioned
AutoCad
> you're using Windows? Hope so, I don't speak Mac (not a religious
issue
> with me, just what I'm used to) Anyway. Press Z, THEN Alt if you
want to
> zoom out (z by itself will give you a zoom window) D held down will
change
> the cursor and let you rotate your view (tremendously handy for
moving
> around to figure out how things are doing.)
>
> There are others, someone's got a shortcut list somewhere... Guys?
Could
> someone post that list again?
>
> Elena
>
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