I import STEP files with named bodies (which in turn have named faces) in 3DsMax.
In later stage, I assign different materials to the bodies and faces for rendering.
(Manual assigning is not an option bacause of the volume af drawings and material combinations.)
Retreiving the names of the bodies works fine when I make a smal change in one of DirectConnect's ini-files (see below); but because, for as far as I know, it's not possible to name faces in 3DsMax, I'm looking for a solution to assign materials based on face name.
There is someting called Named Selection Sets, this could be a solution to my problem, but it means that DirectConnect or programming wise it should be possible to create selection sets upon importing named faces. I'm guesses/hoping one can configure DirectConnect in one way or another, but I cannot find any information conceirning this.
So in short, how can I assign materials to faces imported from STEP by face-name?
In attachment, a simple STEP file with a body "PRT1" with a face "FACE1".
For access to the body names change the following:
In file :
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMaxDesign\2014 - 64bit\ENU\plugcfg_ln\DirectConnect\DirectConnectTranslationOptions.ini
Set :
CopyParentNameToObjectNodes=OFF
Hello. The requested process of "Named faces in STEP-files to Named Selection Sets in 3DsMax" has been reported to our development team as a feature request / request more information. When more information arrives we will do our best to post / blog about it.
Thank you for your patience.