How to Import a SolidWorks file to 3Ds Max

SolidWorks & 3Ds Max 

SolidWorks is a 3D Mechanical Computer Aided Design software program developed and produced by Dassault systems SolidWorks corp. It was mainly designed for the designing of French aircrafts. SolidWorks is currently used by more than 2 million engineers and designers all over the world , more than 1.9K companies are using all over the world.

Autodesk 3ds Max also called as 3d studio max. It is a 3d integrated computer graphic design software for making 3d models, Animations etc. It was developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It is mainly used for the graphic designing and now frequently used by video game developers

Steps for Importing SolidWorks file to 3ds max

1. Open your SolidWorks file from the saved folder. The SolidWorks file may be a part file (.sldprt) or Assembly file (.sldasm).

2. Click save as button from the file menu 

( file > save as ) , then a window will pop up.

3. Change the name and Save As Type to 

"ST (*.stl)" it is the extension for Stereolithoraphy.

4. File after saved in the format .stl will look like this.

5.  Open your 3ds Max software and click 

file > Import > Change " file type" to STL (*.stl) > Open

6. After opening the STL file a small window will pop up and shows the features that we have to give to the imported file.

7. Set the Weld Threshold = 0.01

  * tick Use threshold for simple component.

  * tick Quick weld for multiple components joining

  * Smooth angle = 30.0 

  * tick Auto-Smooth

  * tick Remove Double Faces

  * tick Unify Normals

  * press OK button

8. After clicking OK you will get the imported model in exact shape but in different color. you can change the color of the model as your wish by clicking the button at the right middle portion of the screen " Name and Color", simply click the square color box to choose the color you want.

Note: This technique can used for both part file and assembly file importing. But the problem is if you are using this technique to import an assembly file the model imported in 3ds Max will be in single component and can't be treated as different components. So you can't select the each component of the assembled imported model.