CompuServe Thread

#3ds to Acad to 3ds

2 messages in this thread
#169949From: Kim HeaverMay 13, 1995 7:12 PM
It is a bit of a toss up which forumn I put this in, but here it is. Autocad R13 has the ability to reading and editing a 3DS file, which is great for tweaking meshes. Question is If I take a job from 3ds into autocad then back into 3ds again, is there any loss or unexpected change in the data. Its a good feature that I'd like to make use of, but I don't want to get caught out part way through a real job and find that something is lost in translation. Thanks, Kim
#170098From: Phillip L. MillerMay 15, 1995 8:57 AM
Since you're going from 3DS->ACAD->3DS the data in the round trip should be lossless since you're going from single->double->singe precision. The only thing to be careful of is your 3DS Unit definition – make sure it's consistant and doesn't change. Nothing affects the location of the transfered data either, this includes 3DS construction planes, axis labeling, global axis position or ACAD current UCS – it's always according to true 0,0,0. A slight round off happens going from ACAD->3DS->ACAD, but then the AutoCAD entities are being meshed in the conversion so you always have something different anyways. Note also that if you're using this route that DXF translation gives quite more meshing control than 3DSOUT does (although it's incapable of translating ACIS entities). – Phil