3DS Exports

Okay, thanks Richard, I will look into this..
Patrick

Hi Richard

I don’t know if anything can be done about this issue,
but when I export a model from 3DC to 3DS, the poly
count goes way up in the model.

The company I work for building models uses 3D Studio
Max4, and when I finish with my end of the model work,
I have to export the model in 3DS format for them to
use.

The last model I sent them (the Cargill GP9) was some
where around 4500 polys in 3DC (which is fine for
MSTS) but they said when opened in 3D Studio had a
poly count of over 18,000….

I’m really no good with 3D Studio, but I’m told that they
Bassically have to rebuild the model to make it usable in
MSTS, which is not a good thing for me…. andnbsp;

Is there anything that can be done on the export plugin,
or anything I should be doing before I export the model
to get it ready for 3DS?

Thanks
Patrick

That sounds like a big jump. Bigger than I would have expected.

I don’t think the export adds any faces. At least I have never seen that in my experience. What probably happens is that the model is being triangulated on export. A cube that is made up of 6 quadrilateral faces when triangulated results in 12 traingles. The number of faces has doubled. But, from MSTS’s point of view they are the same. A cylinder with 16 sides goes from 18 faces to 60 faces when triangulated. But again, they are the same from the perspective of MSTS.

The problem is that the two of you are not using the same measure to compare faces. There is a plug-in available on the 3DC web site ([img:13a4fwwz]http://www.amabilis.com/mediadownloads.htm#Scripts[/img:13a4fwwz]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amabilis.com/mediadownloads.htm#Scripts">http://www.amabilis.com/mediadownloads.htm#Scripts</a>&lt;!– m –>
) that will count the number of triangles in a model. That will be useful to see if your model actually andquot;increasesandquot; in triangles on export.

Also, they could likely import the model from OBJ format or X format if they want into MAX. I don’t think 3DS is the only option.

Richard