importing AutoCAD drawing to maya
 

how do i import and render an AutoCAD drawing in Maya 7.0 or Maya 8.0

i have tried importing .dwg and .dxf files to maya 8 but just nothing happens ( not even error comes )

Not too sure but there might be a plug in for it that might not be enabled.

Have a look in the help files, do a search for .dwg and .dxf files to see what it says.

I had this problem a while back, the only way I could get it to work was...Import the dgn, dxf etc into 3DStudioMax (yes, you read it correctly) then export it as an obj from max and read into Maya. This isn't obviously ideal if you don't have a ready available version of Max but I couldn't get it to work any other way, you can purchase these plug ins but the ones I found aren't free and as it was a one-off for me didn't justify paying for a once off.

Just dod the dirty work for you and had a look in the help files,

look for a fbxmaya.mll plug in in the plug in manager

NOTE - I'm on 8.5 so this might be a new feature that ive overlooked (as I've never needed to look into it so I probably would have mostly ignered it in the release notes)

thanx

but unfortunately i have fbxmaya.mll loaded but no luck:headbang:

yeahm the fbx never worked for me either. it took me a week of pi$$ing around before I gave in a went the max-maya route. Hope you find a quicker/easier alternative.

The help files also mentions that you can get translators, not sure if there free (doubt it though)

i dont know about translators

Just stumbled on this, may be worth a dabble. http://www.highend3d.com/downloads/t...stem-3696.html

importing cad drawings into maya
 

this was a problem for me too. i have two versions maya 6 and maya 8. to get cad drawings into maya, i did;

first way
you save the cad drawing as an autocad 2000 file. i was unable to open the 2007 version in maya 6.
then proceed to maya 6 and then import the file into maya (make sure you have the dwg plug in activated).
from there you save the file and then open it in maya 8

second way ( recently found out)
for you guys with maya 8 go to this link

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...&siteID=123112

and get the DirectConnect Products for Maya this allows you to import the cad drawing directly into maya8 once the new plug has been installed.

There's also the cheap, pathetic approach:

1) Take a screenshot (Ctrl + Print Screen)

2) Open up some image program, like Photoshop

3) Ctrl + V to paste what your computer just took a screenshot of

The sweet thing is, in Photoshop, if you create a new document, the program checks to see if you have ANY image currently copied, and will create a canvas the SIZE of what you have copied, so when you paste your image, it will fit to the canvas.

4) Save as a .jpg (or other image format)

5) Import into Maya as usual

Please note, however, that this is only good for relatively small image planes; if you've constructed some gigantic skyscraper or mansion, this will be a much more agonizing process, as you might have to zoom into the scale you want in CAD, take multiple screenshots, paste them, and "maneuver" them around like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

Oops this seems to be quite a big problem to lots of people

i wish autodesk do somthing about this