3d Warehouse alternative?

[Alan Cooper]

@ jsiggia,

 

For .max files you need to have 3dmax installed before you can translate to another format.

You could post your files here and ask for someone with 3dmax to convert.....or go to the Autodesk site and download a 30 day (fully working with no restrictions) trial.

I just received a reply from Zamzar who specialise in file conversion, I found their free service useful when I wanted an old Microsoft Works document translated to Open Office format, but they do not yet offer very much in the CAD department:

 

Hi Alan,

 

Thanks for your email.

 

We'll pass your request for MAX to OBJ/DWG conversions on to our engineers for further investigation, to see whether these are conversions we could offer in the future. Sorry that thy aren't something that we offer at the moment.

 

Many thanks,

 

The Zamzar Team.

 

If anyone else feels inclined to give them some 'encouragement' please feel free to get in touch with them at support@zamzar.com

 

[Alan Cooper]

Hi Alan,

 

Just copy a file into your project and it will automatically adopt your Working Units.

 

Of course, that assumes that the models are accurate, and not flawed in other ways (and just downloading a Warehouse file and resaving as .FMZ is generally insufficient to produce quality geometry...)

Thanks Tech. What is numeric accuracy setting for?

I see that if I set it to 0.5mm in project settings, and draw a few rectangles on the XY axis in an axonometric view, the action palette shows the measurements as the rectangles are being created changing in 0.5mm increments. I would expect that as I click the mouse to end a rectangle, the rectangle would be created at the size I see in the action palette, but in reality, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, having checked the rectangles afterwards. I had grid and angle snaps off, guide snap on, point and interval snaps on, lock reference plane on, and in some cases I was starting a rectangle by snapping to the point of another.

Maybe it is something like this that made a model I did inaccurate. Unfortunately I turned it into a component which became a template for a few others before I realised the inaccuracy.

[Tech]

Hi Alan,

 

The Numeric Accuracy is the smallest value that you typically want to be used in a file, the smallest value that will be displayed, and will be used as an inherent minimal grid snap.  However, if  you Snap to a part of another object that is NOT on this grid module, it will snap exactly to that location -- which may result in some values being other than the Unit Accuracy value.

 

Does that make sense with what you are doing?

[Alan Cooper]

Thanks Tech for the explanation, which confirms what I thought......

that it's broke unless I'm mis-understanding.

 

If I have numeric accuracy set to 0.5mm and only snap to existing points or use the numeric input, I shouldn't be getting odd multi-decimal place results.

Admittedly, I was ending some of those rectangles with a click on the page, not snapping to anything, but when I see a value in the action palette and click, I expect the result to be that.

 

Maybe numeric accuracy needs to be disabled until it works?

 

[Tech]

Alan,

 

We are not aware of anything being broken.  If you find specific steps to cause something unexpected, please create a new thread and post a file and steps so we can understand and respond accordingly.

[AHTOH]

Anton, I still haven't got round to inspecting your models, but a couple of things have come to mind on the subject of standards.

One is that there is going to be a divide between metric and imperial users. [idealistically both are flawed, I favour a metric system in base 12 or 16 or greater but that's another matter, though we won't compete with superior intelligence without it ] 

 

The other, is what tolerance do we work with? I have myself had issues with my own models, which is annoying where a measurement of a cabinet has turned out to be 1000.0002 mm or similar. There are tolerance settings in formZ but I wish everything could be perfectly accurate so these issues don't arise, but not all fractions do divide into decimal perfectly. I have tried to correct my models but FormZ doesn't always want to play when zoomed in by massive amounts.

 

Maybe we will have to put up with some level of inaccuracy and reduce the number of decimal places in our dimensioning.

I wonder if the FormZ engine works in metric or imperial and converts from one to the other?

Hi Alan.

Sorry for late reply. 

Well, what the beauty of FormZ that there is no difference whether you work in Imperial or Metric. Just hip Project options and change it to whatever you want. Same thing with numeric accuracy: I usually work with 1 mm accuracy. But you can take my file and make one foot if it is up to you. And than work with one foot accuracy creating a city block.

 As for the decimal places: I have this normally unchecked. Not sure what is it for as I chosen whole integer number accuracy.

Anton.

[Alan Cooper]

Hi Anton,

Yes, whole integer works for a lot of things, complications can occur however when copying using divide distance if not by common denominator, and when referencing from a whole integer place on the line of an angle which is not orthogonal. It may be worth checking the dimensions from time to time to several decimal places to ensure the whole integer setting is true, otherwise things which appear to be touching could be nearly touching or overlapping slightly. There is another thread about this on the discussion forum called numeric accuracy as there appears to be an issue at the moment.

 

Of course, it matters little if shelves are placed with equal spacing and that happens to mean that whole integer spacing is lost, unless something else is referenced from that position which is not in sync with the rest of the model. Other situations could matter more, but we expect this to happen in such a situation. However, if it happens in a situation we rely on and do not expect anomally, we need to be aware as soon as possible before something else is referenced from it. This is an instance where the very old days of cad [before my time] when there was no snapping, but everything was inputted from coordinates, had an advantage, but very time consuming and prone to other errors anyway.