From: Marc Bernatchez Subject: Re: PROD: The best CAD -> VR converter Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 10:50:52 -0500 >Granted that I will never decide on which CAD program my customers will >use, I expect there is A best combo (VR engine/CGI modeller) that would >cover let's say 80% of the conversion cases without having to manually >redraw the scenes. > >the World Tool kit efficiently uses 3DS files but the problem lies in >the CAD->3DS phase which is rarely optimal!! Hi Cyril, Granted, I had the same problem a few months back when I used WTK in combination with the 3DS format. The problem with this format is that it doubles your polygon count in the scene for most purposes due to the fact that this format only support triangular polygon surfaces. Since most of our surface are quadlets (rectangular faces with 4 3D coordinates), you get the picture. I haven't found any satisfactory utility that would let me convert from 3DS file format to nff (Worldtoolkit format) or any other formats without this tri-point poly limitation. Ultimately, the small scene editor that Sense8 has made available for its WorldUp (and now WTK as well) would be the best tool for that. It support co-planar polygon reduction and such so that you can greatly reduce your meshes for maximal real-time speed. Try to see if you can use this utility loading your 3DS inital file, then filter it with the polygon reducer and finally, save it as a nff. Oh, I remember why I couldn't use this strategy... This utility only save in WTK6 nff format (they changed their file format in the latest release to makes things more fun for us ;-) Let me know if you find other ways to remidy to this problem. Bye =============================================================== Marc Bernatchez | tel.:(514) 338-8749 Sederta Inc. | Fax: (514) 338-1915 9300 Henri-Bourassa Ouest, | E-mail: mbernat@sederta.com Suite 250, Saint-Laurent |================================ Quebec, Canada |www.sederta.com (business) H4S 1L5 |www.imaginative.com/vresources | ...(a non profit VR project)