Stl Import

[alexisonfire]

hello all,

i have created parts of an apache helecopter in solidworks and would like to import them in to maya to create the body using polygons and animate it. i have tried importing as an .iges file but it takes about 2 hours to import and model comes out as a dark blob and refuses to render. have found that i can import parts as .stl (only about 4 parts at a time tho, any more and they just dont open???) and modify>convert>displacement to polygons. this would be ideal but the displacement conversion only seems to work for the first part in the assembly and the rest stay as wireframes. i could import each part individually but there are about 80 parts to the assembly and assume that there will be an easier way to go about the job!

have been teaching myself maya for about the past 6 months and could really do with the help!

thanks

[deke-kincaid]

The problem sounds like you are telling Solidworks to convert all your nurbs geometry into polygons and importing that into Maya. Most Cad programs are terribly inefficient at tesselating geometry and they do everything at an extremely high setting. Instead you should export the raw nurbs and import them into Maya and then if you want to work with polygons, do all your conversion there where you have more control.

You should be able to get the iges exporter to output nurbs instead of polys. Also I believe Solidworks can export Alias Wire files or even better use the STEP file format.

[joojaa]

Excuse me, but proe does a fine job at this okay so they arent loops but it sure as hell has contoll over it and it tesselates over seams no prob!

[alexisonfire]

I unfortuanately do not own a copy of proe so am pretty much stuck with what im trying to do. When i exprorted the IGES file i made sure that it was exporting with nurbs geometry and it sill comes up as a blob and no render all of the curves come out very rough too. Have been all over the net looking for solutions but everyone seems to be convinced that IGES is the way forward, i just cant get it to work!

[joojaa]

It is supposed to look rough, your vbery limitted udnerstanding is fdoing a trick on tyou here....

THis is somewhat hard to explain sicne if you didnt get what you saw you dont know of the etchnology base, and if you do not knwo of th etechnology base you have o idea of what to expact and you choose to believe your eyes isntead of what is. And its realy hard for you to grasp the solution.

THisng is its a tesselation and probably a scale issue too. Anwyay its something that took me 1/2 years of active work on the subject to fully comprehend when i frust straters out doing thsi kind of stuff.

But one thing se maya gets jsut the shells as iges does not acrry oever anyt other info, nir woul may care as maya has no concept of splods, and thus no over seam tesselation- Also note mayas nurvs views arent WGHAT you siee is what you get they are vrry coerse approximations.

If your inexperienced in maya use im sure you will not get it.

Anayway if you rely on your eyes and your defaukt settings it will never work out for you. Se the mathematical accuracy is there your not seing it!

Ill make a small example file or 2.

[alexisonfire]

Ah, well i appreciate any help i can get on the matter! You mentioned that it it is quite complicated and is fine if you think it would be too difficult for me to comprehend. Thanks for your input all the same

[joojaa]

I mena its far to hard to explein here, so that you understand. But teh solution is easy to grasp. IM a bit bust now.