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Expor t ing to AutoCAD DWG Files 545
Note:
Hatch patterns are stored in drawings as
anonymous blocks. Skip Hatches And Points
skips any other anonymous blocks in the drawing
file. Hatch p atterns created in AutoCAD R14 are
skippedregardlessofthissetting.
Group Common Obj ects—Puts imported objects
into a common group, based on how they are
derived. In other words, the group would include
all objects on a common layer, or color, and so on.
Geometry Options group
Weld Sets whether coincident vertices of
converted objects are welded according to the
Weld Threshold setting. Welding smoothes
across seams and unifies normals of objects with
coincident vertices. To use the Weld option,
firstturnonConvertToSingleObjects,because
weldingoccursonlyforverticesthatarepartof
thesameobject.
Weld Thresho ld Sets the distance that determines
whether v ertices are coincident. If the distance
between two vert ices is less than or equal to the
Weld Threshold setting, the vertices are welded
together.
Auto-Smooth—Assigns smoothing groups
according to the Smooth Angle setting. Smoothing
groups determine whether faces on an object
render as a smooth surface or display a seam at
their edges, creating a faceted appearance.
Smooth Angle—Controls whether smoothing
occurs between two adjacent faces. If the angle
between the two face normals is less than or
equal to the Smooth Angle setting , the faces are
smoothed.
Unif y Nor mals Analyzesthefacenormalsofeach
object and flips normals where necessary, so they
all point out from the center of an object. If the
imported geometry is not properly welded, or if
the software can’t determine the object’s center,
normals might be oriented in the wrong direction.
Use the Edit Mesh or Normal modifiers to flip
normals.
When Unify Normals is turned off, normals are
calculated according to the face vertex order in
thedrawingfile. Facenormalsfor3DSolidsare
already unified. Turn off Unify Nor mals when
importing 3D Solid models.
Cap Closed Entities—Applies an Extrude modifier
to all closed entities, and turns on the Cap Start
and Cap End options of the modifier. The E xtrude
modifier Amount va lue for a closed entity with no
thickness is set to 0. Capping makes closed entities
with thickness appear solid a nd closed entities
without thickness appear flat. When Cap Closed
Entities is turned off, the Extrude modifier Cap
Start and Cap End options for closed entities with
thickness are turned off. No mo difiers are applied
to closed entities without thickness, except for
Circle,Trace,andSolid.
ACIS Options group
Sur face DeviationSpecifies the maximum
allowable distance from the 3ds Max surface mesh
to the parametric ACIS surface. Small numbers
produce more accurate sur faces with a greater
number of faces. Large numbers produce less
accurate surfaces with fewer faces.
Expor ting to AutoCAD DWG Files
File menu > Exp ort > AutoCAD (*.DW G)
When you export to an AutoCAD 2005 or
AutoCAD 2000 drawing file, you convert your
3ds Max objects into AutoCAD objects. Because
AutoCAD doesn’t support animation, objec ts
export in a static state defined by the cur rent frame
set by the time slider.
If layers, instances or colors are used to organize
objects in the scene, that struc ture is maintained
when the model is exported.