Export 3D from ArchiCAD to 3dsMAX

This section contains explications about some ways to export the model from ArchiCAD to 3ds MAX. what are their benefits, what are the lacks. Maybe there exist some other way to transfer the model to 3dsMAX, but i will tell about what i prefer for their operability and fastness.

• Through .DWG
• Through .OBJ
• Through .3DS

Exporting

To export the model just open the 3D Window in ArchiCAD and go to Save as. In the opened window choose the file format wich you want to export to. Some file formats has some settings to be set before exportig.

DWG file format

The DWG file format is my favourite, because it exports not triangulated meshes and separates the objects by layer. Layering is easy to use and sometimes hiding the layers simplifies the work with not hidden objects. Also there is very precise units conversion. Objects are imported with assigned wire color, that was set in ArchiCAD material. Using this method, you will find that it is easy to sinchronize 3dsMAX with ArchiCAD model, replacing just the changed objects.

The issue with the DWG translation method is that it does not export the materials assigned to objects. But anyway it is simply to select objects in 3ds max by color, by layer and then assign the materials.

OBJ file format

When the model is imported in 3dsMAX from OBJ file format, the objects are comes unified, in one single mesh with a multimaterial assigned. The multimaterial constists of a set of Standard materials with bitmaps from ArchiCAD. The unified object is not a big problem. If you use tiled maps for materials, just replace materials in multimaterial assigned. The other way is to divide object in multiple objects by ID assigned to elements in the mesh.

3ds file format

The 3ds file format is most used to export model from ArchiCAD to 3dsMAX because: the objects are exported with materials assigned and different wirecolor. The issues tha you can meet while using this file format is the model scale. For example when you export the model from Archicad and you use milimetric units, you should input the scale for conversion 1000. The other thing that i have noticed is that there might be some problems when converting geometry to editable poly or when applying modifiers. 

Also, there are other file formats, that you can use, for transfering your model to 3dsMAX. Like .skp – Google Sketchup file format, that from the latest versions of 3dsMAX is possible to import. Notice that for exporting the .SKP you have to install Google Earth connection plugin for ArchiCAD.

At the end, I suggest you to try different file formats and to choose the one that satisfies you. My option is to use .DWG.