Not enough RAM
David,
Thank you very much for your reply, I understood everything you said perfectly
!
I have, in AutoCAD already drawn my bike using different layers (eg. Frame,
Forks, Seat_post, Cogs, Tyres etc).
In fact I do know that it is the 1000 "little AME_solids" (i.e. the tyre
treads) causing the problem as I did try exporting only those to 3ds and they
would'nt load (that was where I got the 45 minutes wait and gave up).
What I definitely am going to do however is to create a seperate DWG for each
of the components as you explained (i.e. One dwg for Wheels, one DWG for Frame
etc). It will certainly make using AutoCAD quicker and more organised than what
I have been doing so far.
Incidently I forgot to mention to you that when I tried to convert the tyre
treads only from DXF to 3DS, the utility DXF3DS.EXE couldn't handle it (so
there is something definitely wrong with my Treads, I feel).
I will do all that you have suggested and I'll certainly let you know how I've
got on.
Bye for now and many, many thanks for your interest and help,
Jez