AutoCad and DS
Sfariah D
Posts: 25,852
in The Commons
Can Autocad be used in making DS stuff? or is CAD different than the 3D stuff thta I use?
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Comments
My experience with TurboCAD (many years ago) is the models tend to have lots of n-gons that need to be triangulated before export if possible or cleaned up in a proper modeling program.
Daz can't open a .dwg file, and standard AutoCAD doesn't have an option to export as an .obj, so there's no direct link. I'm sure you could bounce it through a number of intermediate programs to get to DAZ, but I'm not sure what the sequence would be.
You can create technical and architectural models with AutoCAD, everything more organic or clothing is very hard to make. Especially with clothing, there is no easy way to import a figure to model on top of it.
I made a lot of props with AutoCAD using this route:
AutoCAD -> .3ds -> Carrara -> .obj
Since 3dsmax can read .dwg, .3ds export is no longer avaliable in AutoCAD (~2009).
Today my workflow is:
AutoCAD/Inventor -> .step -> MoI 3D -> .obj
Although MoI 3D (Moment of Inspiration) is CAD-like modeller on it's own, I mostly use it only as file cleaner and converter.
I have to add, that I want the AutCAD file in first place to build real things, e.g. loudspeakers, furniture etc.. For me the 3D model is a nice to have bonus. If I'd want to make 3D models only, I would choose a different software.
I want to use Maya but I have a 32 bit computer. oh well.
Even a 10 year old Core 2 Duo is capable of running a 64bit OS.
Maya 2013 is the last version that supported 32bit. The Autodesk subscription usually includes the use of any previous version. Not all versions are still avaliable for download, but it is my experience with some Autodesk products that they at least offer one older 32bit version, if there no longer is a recent 32bit version.
Both 'solutions' are not optimal. Programs like 3dsmax, Maya and Cinema 4D are top-of the-line and require a state-of-the-art PC. Even the first mentioned AutoCAD is far from being lightweigth, I use it on a daily basis at work and it's quite easy to fill 64GB of RAM and to push two Xeon processors to their limits with some fairly complex models.