Anyone using Rhino? - exporting to 3ds Max and/or UE4?

Gooner442

Afternoon all,

I realise this is a games focused forum so probably very few Rhino users - jut wondering if there are and how you export to 3ds Max? I export as .dwg which is fine except for if I want then to go into UE4 as it triangulates all the meshes. Just wanted to know if anyone had a workflow where they get cleaner meshes out of Rhino?

Cheers

Gooner

GarageBay9

It's been literally 20 years since I used Rhino, but I recall it could export .objs. That should be a decent enough passthrough to Max.

Gooner442

Yep .obj is also possible, .dwg is actually better but with either you still have triangulated meshes created. Just wondered really if anyone was using it to create there stuff with the end result going to UE4

Dave Jr

We use Rhino for some objects at work. Usually when we are provided files by clients.

You can export from rhino to use within max the following files:

.OBJ
.SAT
.STEP
.DWG
.DWF

However, none of these will deliver a nice quaded mesh; the best result directly from Rhino to max or from one of these file types, was to add an edit poly to the top of the stack and play around with the "max edge length option in the body object modifier. (this quads the mesh and adjusts the polycount)...

HOWEVER, this still has some issues.

The best streamlined result we've configured at work is to use Moi3D as an exporter. (http://moi3d.com/)

The Moi3D algorithm for coverting these CAD file types to generic polygon meshes is much much cleaner. We usually import to Moi3D as a DWG/STEP/SAT and re-export as a .Obj, it gives a live adjustment for polycount etc and its all usually perfect quads.

Hope that helps.

Gooner442

Great advice, thanks Dave. I've heard of Moi being pretty good with meshes, I'll certainly look into it. Have you also tried exporting as IGES to Max? - that way you still have NURBS in Max, though I still had the issue of trying to turn that into a mesh with good topology

Gooner442

Just running a few tests with the MoI demo. When I export to .obj I am given an output dropdown where I can choose n-gons,quads and triangles or triangles only - you say you get almost always perfect quads, is there some setting I'm missing? - as on my tests I am getting a mix of quads and triangles

Dave Jr

Hey sorry for the delay in response, forgot about this.

I should of added IGES to the list of file types supported; as that is also one of them. So can REVIT files be if you have downloaded the additional extension for REVIT files with your 3ds max software.

With Moi, I probably should of said that the majority of the time I get perfect quads. What I've come to conclude is that it entirely depends on how the CAD file was created. Like polygon modelling, there are some quick and dirty ways to produce a CAD file which whilst it looks ok and suits their purpose, won't be so forgiving when converted. So some clean-up may be required!


If however, you do seem to have any more problems I'm more then happy to pm, let me know if u get better results or a more improved workflow!

Cheers

Dave

Gooner442

Thanks again Dave, I think in part the lack of quads is due to the creation of the surfaces. I also find MoI kind of horrible to use, either unresponsive where I have no idea if it's processing something or over sensitive with zooming/panning etc - I probably just miss a command line!

Ruz

I remeber years ago trying to get a nurbs patch head as all quads( its called chasing the triangle). what a frigging nightmare. was cool software though