Allow CAD Data Explicit Normals to transfer to Edit Poly Objects

[DaveWortley]

This is a constant blocker to us doing more and more creative work.

The explicit normals from imported CAD data mean the mesh has to be an Editable Mesh in max, if you convert it to an Editable_Poly it will lose all its smoothing groups.... As certain modifiers are Mesh and certain modifiers are Poly, simply adding a UVW_Unwrap can completely break your object.

[pokoy]

This limitation has been removed with Max 2014 I think so it is possible for Editable Poly objects to keep explicit normals. But, as you state, many commands and modifiers will invalidate them. This limitation needs to be removed finally, I fully agree.

[markus]

Max needs to be better at handling explicit normals from cad models. Even if you use editable mesh something as simple as changing material ID, or attaching other meshes breaks the normals. attaching meshes is sometimes nessecary when thousands of surfaces are imported as multiple objects.... anyways, make explicit normals more robust is key!

[michael_spaw]

+1

-Michael