#Visual Link program
8 messages in this thread
Jeff,
The program John's referring to is AutoVision (kind of an "AutoShade 3.0"
with a raytracer instead of Renderman with most of what Visual Link
contained tossed in).
It can be used for assinging materials to AutoCAD models and then shipping
them out to 3DS, or bringing in a 3DS mesh to for (slow) raytracing, but do
not get lulled into thinking you can keep going back and forth – there are
several inconsistancies that will drive you crazy (loosing all your smoothing
groups tops the list). If you can get Visual Link cheap, then you'll
basically have the AutoVision mapping abilities you want without shelling out
the $800.
– Phil
p.s. although you can OSnap mapping coordinates in AutoCAD you must define
ALL the points for the given map type each time you enter specific points –
you can not use selected points to move, stretch, scale, or rotate existing
mapping 🙁
i heard an informed rumor AV price was getting chopped in half.
The 3DS Import works very nicely and seems faster than VL.
>>Half price<<
Hmmm…..That's the price it shuld be at – if not less (since they are
competing with AccuRender).
>>Import works very nicely<<
The meshes come in fine, after all that's the easy part – they do with DXF's
too, but it's a one way import. If you go back to 3DS again you're in for a
LOT of 3DS manipulation (in smoothing, materials, and possibly object
assignment). What's been your experience going back and forth between
3DS-AV/ACAD-3DS-etc.?
– Phil
Dear Phil, I don't know that there are sveral inconsistancies that can
drive me crazy when using Visual Link program within AutoCAD. I think
I will forget about Visual Link. I thought it is easier for me to
make 3D drawings in AutoCAD, save them in DXF format, load them into
3D Studio, create lights and cameras, assign materials, and render
them. Jeffrey.
Jeffrey,
I hope I didn't mislead you. The inconsistancies I spoke of were in
AutoVision, and only if you make more than one transition (like going from
3DS to ACAD and then back to 3DS <- that WILL cause problems). If you are
only going in one direction (say from ACAD to 3DS) then either program will
work ok.
If you don't mind assigning mapping and materials in 3DS (R3 has made it a
LOT easier than in R2/R1) then your best DXF convertor is still the good old
DXF3DS.EXE utility – it is the ONLY utility that gives you complete control
over arc/circle segmentation.
– Phil
Dear Phil, Thank you very much for telling me the inconsistancies are
in AutoVision. I think that the DXF3DS.EXE utility is on the CD-ROM
disk that came with the "3D Studio Applied" book. I don't know how to
map materials on objects in drawings well. Jeffrey.
Phil:
I think I was suppose to get visual link for fee back in the 2.01
days, I got my 3ds in the time frame but I never pursued it. Maby
it's time to get on someone about it. I thought it didn't work at all
with R3 so I never cared untill now. I wonder who I should speak to
about my unfortunate linkless circumstance <g>.
Don't feel TOO left about about being "linkless". About all these two
programs give you is the ability to assign mapping and material to
entities before export from ACAD to 3DS – if your end goal is to
render in 3DS eventually. Neither do anything new or magical for
making entities more 3DS/normal friendly – you still have to model
well. In fact, neither provides a method for flipping or unifying
normals (let alone welding). As far as R3 support goes – AutoVision
is about as R2 as VL was, but it really doesn't matter because all of
those abilities are 3DS's and you'll be using them there.