Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

DWG and materials

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hi, I am trying to save 3d DWG for import in 3ds max, but DWG was exported without materials, in max I receive all geometry with 1 material. Do anyone succeeded to export 3d DWG with materials?
8 REPLIES 8
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
You don't. To transfer materials (actually, internal engine-only texture image), export as 3ds.

Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Anonymous
Not applicable
I know for 3ds, and I work that way, but was told that v12 will have 3d DWG export, like revit. OK, we can export 3d dwg, but with loss of materials that make this unusable...
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Hmm. Don't know who told you anything wold be new in 12 with 3D dwg export - AFAIK, nothing has changed with 3D dwg import/export for many years... dwg is a pretty inferior 3D format, so not sure why you would want to use it anyway?

2D dwg import/export is improved in 12 though.

Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Anonymous
Not applicable
IMHO DWG is much better 3D file format from 3ds, 3ds is 9-10 year old file format, form 3d studio DOS (Before it became 3ds MAX) I think.So bad that Archicad still don't have good 3d DWG export...
Anonymous
Not applicable
I don't know much of the subtleties of DWG vs 3DS, but I agree that AC needs much better 3D out support. The 3D DWG from Revit is much cleaner. I would also like to see support for ACIS solids and 3D DWF.
Electric Flute
Booster
Yes, 3DS is an old file format, not the best choice nowadays.

3Ds Max chose DWG as the official file format to import geometry from other Autodesk softwares like Revit.

The File link Manager only works with DWG. When you use the File Link utility to link a drawing to 3ds Max, the objects have an active link with the original drawing in Revit. This means that any edit made to the drawing in Revit can be immediately updated in 3ds Max by reloading the link.

So Why would I choose 3ds? Just because it is the onlu format availabe form Graphisoft.

It is a shame ArchiCAD don't have a decent DWG exporter.
AC26 > AC5 - Win10
Anonymous
Not applicable
Electric wrote:
It is a shame ArchiCAD don't have a decent DWG exporter.
VERY MUCH SO! I do hope this gets some attention soon. With Autodesk buying up everything in sight it will become impossible to do serious BIM with ArchiCAD unless it can interoperate effectively through DWG, DWF and whatever comes out of this recent Autodesk-Bentley deal.
Anonymous
Not applicable
along the same lines, I'm wondering if those of you with AC 12 can tell me how the import of 3D DWG models is? Will I be able to import DWG models of furniture successfully in to AC 12? And will I be able to assign multiple materials to them? Thanks in advance.