Preparing AutoCAD Drawings for Import

In this tutorial, you will clean a 2D AutoCAD drawing, by deleting unnecessary objects and freezing unnecessary layers to prevent them from being imported into 3ds max. You will also prepare a 3D AutoCAD file for import, taking advantage of the benefits of both 3ds max and AutoCAD.

To successfully and efficiently use AutoCAD objects in a 3ds max scene, it's imperative that the files be properly prepared. Specifically, you'll need to pay attention to layer management in the AutoCAD drawing

Understanding ByLayer Drawing Import
The 3ds max 6 Layer Manager is similar to the Layer Properties Manager in AutoCAD. Both enable you to hide and freeze layers, and to control the visibility and color of objects on those layers. You can also determine whether a layer’s objects are plotted in AutoCAD or rendered in 3ds max, regardless of the visibility of the objects in viewports.

Once imported, each layer in AutoCAD becomes a new layer in 3ds max, and each object becomes a new object on its respective layer. Because AutoCAD generally produces a new object with each entity created, this can translate to an enormous number of entities that are imported into 3ds max. This number can be significantly reduced by converting and consolidating lines into polylines and combining objects into blocks, which are then converted into groups during import.

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