AutoCAD and B.A.T.

[elef3r]

Hi i have some designs in autocad and i want to know how to export that designs to B.A.T.

Can someone help me please?

i also speak spanish.

Thanks!!

[swat-medic]

Cool!  AutoCAD is a great program!

Basically, (if your exporting go Gmax), export your model from AutoCAD into a gmax readable format.  .3ds extension.  The import the  .3ds file into gmax, simple as that! 

[whatevermind]

I've been picking away at this for the past week or so, so I figured I'd expand a bit on what's posted here already.  Basically, there's two ways to get models from AutoCAD into Gmax (and probably 3dsmax, if anyone would like to confirm that).

• DXF - Gmax is able to import .dxf files, which can be exported by AutoCAD.  The prevailing wisdom seems to be that the older the .dxf format, the better Gmax will read it.  My own testing supports this, and I had the best results with r12 format .dxf (the oldest my AutoCAD supports).  However, the resulting model in BAT wasn't exactly something I could easily work with, and prone to doing not what I was telling it to do.  Which brings me to,


• 3DS - 3DS is a format used by 3dsmax, and is more suited to graphics modelling than the multipurpose DXF format.  AutoCAD drawings can be exported to .3ds files using the 3DSOUT command.  In AutoCAD 2006 and earlier, this command is built into the program.  Starting with AutoCAD 2007, this command was removed and offered as a free addon, available here.  Note that the 32-bit and 64-bit versions refer to your version of AutoCAD, not your computer.  The readme contains directions for installing and loading the addon, as well as useful information about the command.  Exporting to .3ds, I've been able to get models that (so far) function as well as anything modeled directly in Gmax/BAT.

Hope that helps anyone else out there thinking of using AutoCAD for modelling.  I've only begun to explore the possibilities, so there may problems down the road, but I suspect that the two are relatively compatible.  If there's anyone out there who has used AutoCAD for modelling and has any tips, pointers, or helpful hints, I would be interested to hear them.

I should probably also note that I'm only sculpting with CAD, saving the textures, lights, etc. for BAT.  From what I gather, that seems to be the best way to use the two programs together.