9

Legacy AutoCAD Import 549
becomes an instance of [CHAIR.01] named
[CHAIR.02].
WhenConvertBlocksToGroupsisturnedoff,
block definitions are ignored and block insertions
are treated as separ ate objects, similar to exploding
blocks in AutoCAD.
Sk ip Off and Frozen Layers—Excludes the import of
objects on layers that are hidden or frozen.
Ski p Hatches a nd Points—Excludes the import of
hatch patterns and point objects.
Hatch patterns are made of many short line
segments and points. Importing all the objects in
hatch patterns can overload your 3ds Max scene.
Note: Hatch patterns are stored in drawings as
anonymous blocks. Skip Hatches And P oints
skips any other anonymous blocks in the drawing
file. Hatch patterns created in AutoCAD R14 are
skippedregardlessofthissetting.
Group Common Objects 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 vert ices 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 T hr e sh o ld—Sets the distance that determines
whether vertices are coincident. If the distance
between two vertices 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
groupsdeterminewhetherfacesonanobject
render as a smooth surface or display a seam at
their edges, creating a faceted appearance.
Smooth Angl e—Controls whether smoothing
occurs b e tween 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.
Unify Normals—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 c an’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 Normals 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 Extrude
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 entitie s
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 modifiers are applied
to closed entities without thickness, except for
Circle,Trace,andSolid.
ACIS Options group
Sur face DeviationSpecifies the maximum
allowable distance f rom the 3ds Max surface mesh
to the parametric ACIS surface. Small numbers
produce more accurate sur faces with a g reater
number of faces. Large numbers produce less
accurate surfaces w ith fewer faces.