Thanks, Bill...I tried the Mesh4CAD option, but the trial version limits you to 250 faces at a time (or maybe total) and my first attempt exceeded that pretty easily...I next added the 3dsout plug-in (available for free thru Autodesk) and was able to achieve pretty good - really quite acceptable - results in a small trial from a smoothness standpoint...the issue I have with that process so far is that when exported to 3ds, the layers from ADT are lost/changed into something 'arbitrary' and less functional...as a result, there is additional work required in Artlantis to get the layers back, which is tedious, annoying, etc. and would be a lot of redundant work for a 'large' project, but it does work...
To TeamSquid...I've avoided SketchUp for quite awhile, favoring the intuitiveness of AutoCAD (which drawings usually have to be done in either initially or eventually, anyway) - at least to me - and the higher quality renderings that Artlantis is capable of...
Martin...curved surface meshes are rendered in Artlantis much better that 3D solids are - planar elements are handled very well - and, and this is a downfall of the AutoCAD + Artlantis tie-in, the structural elements available thru the ACAD Design Center (like slabs and mass elements) are not handled by Artlantis without exploding everything (same with SketchUp, I'm told), which is doable, but something I try to avoid (unless it's something like curtain walls)...
Thanks for all the suggestions - I appreciate the help and am always trying to learn something new (so please keep them coming)...
Carter