CompuServe Thread

>> SOMEONE PLEASE HELP. WHEN I CREATE A FILE IN AUTOCAD R13, AND USE THE 3DSOUT EXPORT FILTER, TO BRING THE FILE INTO 3DSR2, I HAVE A BIG PROBLEM : ALL BLOCKS WITH THE SAME NAME END UP WITH THE SAME INSERTION POINT. IN OTHER WORDS, THEY ARE ALL ON TOP OF EACH OTHER. I HAVE EXPERIMENTED WITH THE OPTIONS IN THE DIALOG BOX, BUT NO SUCCESS. IS THIS A PROBLEM THAT CAN BE FIXED? << coupla emergency things you could try… a) explode the blocks b) save out blocks of same name to different names (there is even an AutoLISP routine to automate this process in the ACAD forum) reminder… 3DSr2 is several releases behind the 3DS release that R13 shipped during. i don't believe 3DSOUT is fully r1 compatible for example. -dave

Mike, R13 is creating 3DS R4 compatable .3DS files. I would not rely on them importing into R2 correctly. One possible work around is to import DXF files instead of the 3D Studio file. This will require several steps, though. 1 st… do any of your blocks contain ACIS information? If so, that can not be put into the DXF file. Do a 3DSOUT to turn the ACIS model into Polygon data, then a 3DSIN to incorperate the Polygon data back into the R13 DWG file. 2. Perform a DXFOUT to save a DXF file from AutoCAD. However, this will be a R13 compatable file, and 3DS R2 will not read it. So… 3. Go over to the ACAD form and get DXFX13.EXE which will convert your R13 DXF file into an R12 DXF file. This new file should be able to be read into R2. Of course, I haven't actually tried this……but it sounds good. <g> -Brian