Converting nurbs from Max to Lightwave and vice versa?

[kopperdrake]

Sorry for all the questions :) Has anyone any experience of passing nurbs and metanurbs backwards and forwards between Lightwave and Max? I assume there would be some loss of data integrity? A Max-based client is asking :) I know the best thing is to convince him to use Lightwave but you know some people - they just want to know about the goodness this side of the 3D fence ;)

Dunk

[Triple G]

I've never used Max, but since LW doesn't support NURBS, you would need to tesselate (freeze, triangulate, whatever the term is that Max uses) your NURBS mesh into a polygonal surface in order to be able to bring it into LW.

Going from LW to Max you likely have 2 options. Assuming Max has some way of converting polygonal surfaces to NURBS or Sub-Ds, you could take your Sub-D object in LW, and hit Tab to convert it to its polygonal cage. Bring that cage into Max, and convert it to Sub-Ds/NURBS. Or, you could freeze your Sub-D object in LW, then bring the frozen (polygonal) mesh into Max, though this could result in a very high-poly object depending on your model and the settings you freeze the Sub-Ds at.

As far as file formats, I'd try FBX (free import/export plugins available at www.alias.com) or OBJ. Good luck. :)

[toby]

I'm converting a subD object from LW to Max on my current assignment. After exporting a subD object from LW to OBJ, I import it into Max and apply the TurboSmooth modifier to it. I'm only half-way through it, and so far it looks very much the same - although I'm sure it's not identical.

[kopperdrake]

Oh - So you're exporting the raw un-subD'd polys over to Max and TurboSmooth does a similar job to subDs? That's worth knowing if that's the case.

Thanks for the answers guys :)

[toby]

Yes, but no need to un-tab them, subd's just become regular polys in the obj. I can't comment on deforming geometry once it's in Max, I don't even know if TurboSmooth is the right tool for that.

If you need UVs, that's another headache.

There's also programs that do this stuff, Polytrans and Deep Exploration, but they're not too cheap. $400 or something.