This is a shot in the dark. I am a very experienced user of CAD (Computer Assisted Drafting) software. As such, I was wondering if there are any CAD file to Blender converters in existence. Thanks ahead of time.
The latest noob, Gurev
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I have been wondering about that myself, although I mostly did Mechanical autocad and the version I have is um.........98 or 2000 and Im a bit rusty, in 3D it might add a whole new corner to age creation, now that I think of it there is another one called Autodesk inventor that I got a small taste of its specifically made for 3D and has something that lets you animate your invention.
Can Blender read exported files from SolidWorks such as STEP, SAT or IGES? If this is the case, I might have to take another look at Blender.
If you have the full version of AutoCAD (not the LT version) from 2000 and up, you should have the ability to export ACIS solids into an SAT or IGES file.
A quick bit of googling suggests that Solidworks can export Collada .dae files, which Blender will import and that there also seems to be a DXF (autodesk's old "open" [as opposed to the closed DWG] format) exporter. EDIT: I notice there are .3DS (autodesk's "open" as opposed to the closed .max format) and Wavefront .obj exporters as well - .obj may be your best bet.
I can of course vouch for none of these options - even though the export and import filters are there, they might not be fully compatible. :) (EDIT: I could mention that I have successfullty imported DXF and OBJ from various sources, myself...)
Last edited by Jojon on Thu Sep 10, 2009 11:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
Remember the roots of Studio3DMax lie in Autocad so "When" note the commas we get the tools promised by CYAN the route to MO:RE should be easy.
Meanwhile getting your head around Blender if you have an Autocad mind set is not that profound build yourself a couple of models and if you can get a copy of the book Blender Essentials and plough through it's first models keeping in mind there's allways support here. The Blender 2.3 Guide is usefull as well (I am building a noob version of the Gus (Gingerbread Man) thats tied to a later version 2.49a).
Honest Blender is not really as mind numbing as some people would paint especialy when you can port stuff into Uru Combined Chronicles and run in the space you build.
When I was a beginner, I tried blender. Now, later, I can't imagine using anything else for modeling. I think being a beginner when starting blender is an advantage, because you won't have issues with having a mindset left over from other modeling packages, and will be able to more readily accept blender's ... "interesting" interface.
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