topic Re: Surface export as .obj to Inventor Texture irregularities in 3ds Max Forum

Surface export as .obj to Inventor Texture irregulaties

jeffrey.s.barrero — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 18:51:22 GMT

Good afternoon

I am generating a Surface in 3Ds Max out of a Civil 3D - LandXML file, but once I export it from 3DMax as an .obj file; Inventor is displaying the surface with some irregularities that I would like to eliminate.

Any assistance or guidance is greatly appreciated.

Wish you all a great day

Inventor import from 3Ds Max3Ds Max export

Re: Surface export as .obj to Inventor Texture irregulaties

hagen.deloss — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 22:09:15 GMT

@jeffrey.s.barrero

Thanks for bringing your question to the forums!

That looks like a pretty dense mesh, I wonder if you could use a relax/smooth tool to get those blemishes out.

It's pretty much sculpting at that point.

Duplicate the mesh by selecting it, and holding Shift+drag the mesh to one side (I would suggest selecting a mesh Copy when tooltip pops up).
Right click the mesh and select Convert to > Convert to editable poly
On the upper ribbon, select the Freeform > Paint Deform tools
use the Flatten tool to relax the problem areas. (watch out for the corners of the mesh, as they would be effected to)

Here is a gif of this tool.

Let me know if this helps, if not, I'm more then happy to keep helping out 😄

Re: Surface export as .obj to Inventor Texture irregularities

jeffrey.s.barrero — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 18:05:21 GMT

Thank you for your respond

I am not sure if it has to do with program version, but the Freeform tab is not populating when selecting the surface. Also the I was hoping to change the color texture, but not its form or shape. My intent is to show the surface terrain as it currently is for construction, and I was hoping to use 3Ds Max to allow me to provide an ideal look and to show contour lines as in Civil 3D.

If I should be looking in to a particular section, step, or process, please let me know, and I will be happy to do some digging to understand the thought process when using 3Ds Max.

Thank you all for your time, and wish you a great day

Re: Surface export as .obj to Inventor Texture irregularities

brentscannell — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 18:14:16 GMT

Hi @jeffrey.s.barrero

In order to get those freeform tools, you must convert the object to an "Editable Poly" type object. There a few different mesh types in 3ds Max, and some tools do not work with all the mesh types.

If you right click on your object in the viewport, and near the bottom of the resulting menu, you should find a "Convert To:" submenu and a "Convert to Editable Poly" command.

This should give you access to those tools.

Re: Surface export as .obj to Inventor Texture irregularities

hagen.deloss — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 21:52:01 GMT

@jeffrey.s.barrero

Ahhh, i think I understand.

To create a material and assign it to an object within 3ds Max, you can follow these steps, or follow along to this video here.

An image of the surface terrain would be needed in order to project it onto the surface. That can be a jpg or other image file type (png, tga, tiff etc).

I hope this helps! Let me know if there is anything further I can clarify.

Re: Surface export as .obj to Inventor Texture irregularities

jeffrey.s.barrero — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 11:00:37 GMT

@hagen.deloss your example looks great, Thank you so much. I am going to see if I can export/import the actual contour layer from Civil3D to 3Ds Max to maintain it ass thru as possible, and if I am not able to figure out on my own; I like to share the file with you, to see if you could enlighten me in what I am doing wrong.

Thank you for your patience, and help.

Wish you all a great day

Re: Surface export as .obj to Inventor Texture irregularities

hagen.deloss — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 21:48:32 GMT

Hi @jeffrey.s.barrero

Any ideas or questions regarding this issue? It would be helpful if you had time to give an update, that way other Community Members can benefit from your process 😄

Please select the Accept as Solution button if a post solves your issue or answers your question.

Re: Surface export as .obj to Inventor Texture irregularities

jeffrey.s.barrero — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 15:42:29 GMT

Thank you so much for following up

I have not been able to fully troubleshoot the entire process, but I was able to improve the texture by exporting/importing as it appears to be specific to each program.

Civil 3D being the source of the surface terrain data.

Export to 3Ds max, Output tab - Export to 3Ds Max as a C3DVSP3D.vspcfg file.

From there I can import it to 3Ds Max thru the Civil View, then Geometry Import in Civil 3D (VSP 3D) file...

( In this step I am still looking in the option of transferring the contours )

But till then, I am getting a much better result in Inventor

A clean Surface, but I will up load it once I figure out how to transfer the contour lines.

Thank you for all your help, and if you have any suggestions please let me know

Re: Surface export as .obj to Inventor Texture irregularities

hagen.deloss — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 23:31:37 GMT

I want to make sure I understand correctly,

You are looking to export the contour lines from Civil 3d into 3ds Max, right?

Looks like you can extract the contours as polylines inside Civil 3d, export them as a .dwg file into 3ds Max in that case. This workflow gif comes from my colleague @copper.chadwick

Feel free to test out the attached example .dwg by navigating to File > Import > Import it into 3ds Max.

Copper also passed along these helpful tips on the Civil 3d side " the contours should have 3d elevation to them as well, and if you need them to display differently, just modify the surface style in C3D.

The surface style displays the contours based upon the parameters, which are in turn based upon the surface

(every 5' in altitude for example)"

Re: Surface export as .obj to Inventor Texture irregularities

hagen.deloss — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 22:16:26 GMT

@jeffrey.s.barrero

Any ideas or questions on my previous post? It would be helpful if you had time to give an update, that way other Community Members can benefit from your process 😄

Please select the Accept as Solution button if a post solves your issue or answers your question.

Re: Surface export as .obj to Inventor Texture irregularities

jeffrey.s.barrero — Thu, 02 May 2019 18:19:26 GMT

@hagen.deloss

I apologize, but I have not had a chance to work on it. I am will work on it this weekend, because I am missing a lot of 3Ds Max fundamentals and some Civil 3D; hopefully the online courses I am this weekend will help me achieve what I want.

I will update you early next week, or update the board so the community can benefit from my learning experience I hope.

Thank you for following up, and this forum is very lucky to have you in it.

Re: Surface export as .obj to Inventor Texture irregularities

hagen.deloss — Wed, 15 May 2019 22:35:47 GMT

@jeffrey.s.barrero

Thanks for the kind words, I can't wait to see the end result of this project!

And don't hesitate to post questions here, I'm more then happy to pass along learning content 😄