CompuServe Messages

We use Softdesk products extensively in our office, but I tend to avoid AutoArchitect for my 3D Studio models because of the face normals problem. Some of their routines use thickness extrusions, and some use 3D faces, but none of them are optimized to work with 3DS. I have talked with their tech support people about it, and it is doubtful they will change anytime in the near future because of the programming headache of trying to draw the objects so that the normals are what one would want in 3DS. I generally cannot afford the overhead of rendering with 2-sided on, so I usually just build all the stuff myself. If you mainly need walls and such, there is a program called Facade (David Cohn can jump in and elaborate) that is good for an AutoCAD add-on that has correct face normals in 3D Studio. I am getting pretty good results these days with R12 DXF files, and I am looking forward to having the 3DSOUT option in AutoCAD R13. If there is anything else I can do, let me know! Bob Keefer, AIA