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Inventor and 3D Studio Max - why must they both be installed???

14 REPLIES 14
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Message 1 of 15
Josh_Petitt
900 Views, 14 Replies

Inventor and 3D Studio Max - why must they both be installed???

< Rant >

Why must Inventor and 3D Studio Max both be installed on the same PC to enable importing Inventor files into 3DS. This is a major roadblock. If it was done solely on the basis to sell more seats of Inventor, then someone in marketing has their head where the sun doesn't shine. In the real world (that I have experienced), companies buy Inventor and hire drafters/engineers to use it. The drafter/engineer is concerned about form/fit/function and creating drawings for production. These same companies buy 3DS for visualization and producing pretty pictures (for marketing) and they hire graphics artists to use 3DS. The graphics artists know about colors, lights, materials, special effects etc, topics that they were taught in school. I know of no drafter/engineer that has time in their day to also do marketing and pretty pictures (there are other departments for that). But unfortunately the two departments (engineering and marketing) cannot communicate with software they bought from the same company! This is really a PITA...

Today, a graphics artist called me and asked for some models so they could do a flythru in 3DS for a very important customer proposal (we work for the same company in different departments). So I told him where the models he needed were located. But alas, he calls me back and says he cannot import because he doesn't have Inventor. Would he ever have a need for Inventor other than to import models? No, because it is outside of his field. So instead I must take time out of my busy day to save a bunch of .iams to .dwgs (oh yeah, its not easy to save an .iam as a 3D model, I first have to export as a neutral format then import into ACAD, then change orientation because Y is up in IV and Z is up in ACAD). Then the graphics designer has to spend a bunch of time importing the .dwgs and re-coloring everything.

All the marketing hype I see for Inventor is "go from 2D to 3D". ADSK, how about trying to cater to the companies that went to 3D a long time ago?

< /Rant >
14 REPLIES 14
Message 2 of 15
Anonymous
in reply to: Josh_Petitt

Josh,
I'm apparetnly following you around on here today. 🙂

I believe it is possible for your co-worker to load Inventor on his machine and let it time out after the 30 day trial and still be able to access Inventor models with 3DS max.

This suggests that 3DS max is looking at the registry (hint, hint )
Message 3 of 15
Josh_Petitt
in reply to: Josh_Petitt

sneaky, we will give it a try...
Message 4 of 15
skitko
in reply to: Josh_Petitt

I would like to know if this worked or not. What was your out come from this Inventor to 3D Studio Max test. Also what version Inventor and 3d Studio Max do you have
Message 5 of 15
Josh_Petitt
in reply to: Josh_Petitt

The marketing guy gave up on IV to 3DS because it was too hard. He had to contact our re-seller to get a trial version of IV, then contact the IT dept to install on his machine, then figure out how to do an import that looked good. He ended up using ACAD blocks that we made special for him and having to touch up alot. Totally disappointing and absolute waste of resources to not be able to re-use the data.

where is Digital Prototyping when you need it?
Message 6 of 15
mikegore
in reply to: Josh_Petitt

3ds max's built in Inventor import kinda sucks, if you ask me. When you section (slice) an inventor part in max, its merely a hollow surface. Chances are also pretty good, that a lot of your normals will be flipped to the wrong direction.

The best solution I've found is a third party package for 3Ds max which does not require Inventor at all. NPower Translator for 3ds max is $495 and does an astonishing job importing models from Inventor and Autocad. You need to first export the model as STEP, and then use the NPower software to import it into max. If you're importing an assembly, the model retains their hierarchy.

Check out their demo here.
http://npowersoftware.com/translators/Power_Trans_Pro_invetorto_max_workflow/Power_Trans_Pro_invetorto_max_workflow.html
Message 7 of 15
raymondlee306
in reply to: Josh_Petitt

you could as a work around export as IGES or STP, and try importing them. sometimes MAX has a hard time with inventor's FILLETS though, but could be wortha shot.
Message 8 of 15
Anonymous
in reply to: Josh_Petitt

I always export from IV to Mechanical Desktop, then do a 3DSout.

--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert
Autodesk Manufacturing Implementation Certified Expert.
Instructor/Author/Sr. App Engr.
AIP 2008 SP2, AIP 2009 PcCillin AV
HP zv5000 AMD64 2GB
Geforce Go 440, Driver: .8185
XP Pro SP2, Windows XP Silver Theme
http://teknigroup.com
wrote in message news:5997942@discussion.autodesk.com...
I would like to know if this worked or not. What was your out come from
this Inventor to 3D Studio Max test. Also what version Inventor and 3d
Studio Max do you have
Message 9 of 15
Anonymous
in reply to: Josh_Petitt

Dennis,

So what will you do in the 2009 world.
I just noticed that MDT did not install, only Acad and Mech.
Message 10 of 15
Josh_Petitt
in reply to: Josh_Petitt

>I always export from IV to Mechanical Desktop, then do a 3DSout.

why must there be extra steps? It seems that Inventor<=>Alias is getting all the attention, but 3DS has been around forever and there are LOTS of users. Why not Inventor<=>3DS?
Message 11 of 15
Anonymous
in reply to: Josh_Petitt

If you install ACADM 2009, then you only have ACADM. If you skip that
install, then you can install MDT 2009 after youu have downloaded it from
Autodesk or ordered the free 2 DVD set online. However, you could use an
earlier MDT version with STEP

--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert
Autodesk Manufacturing Implementation Certified Expert.
Instructor/Author/Sr. App Engr.
AIP 2008 SP2, AIP 2009 PcCillin AV
HP zv5000 AMD64 2GB
Geforce Go 440, Driver: .8185
XP Pro SP2, Windows XP Silver Theme
http://teknigroup.com
wrote in message news:5998452@discussion.autodesk.com...
Dennis,

So what will you do in the 2009 world.
I just noticed that MDT did not install, only Acad and Mech.
Message 12 of 15
Anonymous
in reply to: Josh_Petitt

I agree....

--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert
Autodesk Manufacturing Implementation Certified Expert.
Instructor/Author/Sr. App Engr.
AIP 2008 SP2, AIP 2009 PcCillin AV
HP zv5000 AMD64 2GB
Geforce Go 440, Driver: .8185
XP Pro SP2, Windows XP Silver Theme
http://teknigroup.com
wrote in message news:5998458@discussion.autodesk.com...
>I always export from IV to Mechanical Desktop, then do a 3DSout.

why must there be extra steps? It seems that Inventor<=>Alias is getting
all the attention, but 3DS has been around forever and there are LOTS of
users. Why not Inventor<=>3DS?
Message 13 of 15
raymondlee306
in reply to: Josh_Petitt

i just did this last night, MAX will recognize a Stereo image file "STL" saves few steps
Message 14 of 15
Anonymous
in reply to: Josh_Petitt

So what ever happened to the direct importer's that 3DS had
for Inventor? I remember playing with that back around IV6
and whatever version of 3DS was out then. Did they stop
providing that (it was a plugin if I remember right)?

raymondlee306 wrote:
Message 15 of 15
JimBeard3129
in reply to: Josh_Petitt

wow, never heard of 3dsout command. Are you sure about that command? you must mean igesout or stepout, right?

 

 

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