Hi Rick, yeah unfortunately Max's OBJ importer is of rather poor quality and will tend to skip the shading normals that are in the OBJ file.

If it does not read in the shading normals and instead cooks them up by just averaging the normals from surrounding polygons, it tends to make for a glitchy and bad quality shading.

If you can get the normals transferred, it really helps to make a much smoother render.


Like others mentioned above, probably your best bet is to use the FBX export which is in the current MoI v2 beta.

For that to work best you also need to make sure you are using the most recent FBX import plugin for Max, which can be downloaded here:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=10775855


Also as falcon mentioned above, that alternate Guruware OBJ import plugin for Max is probably a good idea to try as well.


You mention that the Rhino export works better? There is one big structural difference between MoI and Rhino's OBJ export, which is that MoI will produce what is called a "welded" mesh by default, and Rhino does not. Maybe the Max importer that you are currently using is not able to handle importing normals when the mesh is welded. If that's the case you can turn off welding when exporting from MoI - when you get to the mesh export dialog, click the little arrow in the lower left corner to expand it and uncheck the "Weld vertices along edges" option.

Possibly with welding turned off your current importer will be able to import the normals and then produce a better shading.


Please let me know if you are still having problems after trying the above stuff.


- Michael

Also 3ds Max 2010 has SAT data translator, see demo video here http://www.autodesk.com/us/3dsmaxdesign/connection_extension/sat/3ds_max_design_extension_sat_820x510.html

does anyone know if it works with MoI .SAT files. Please let us know.

Hi Rick, you may want to check this thread:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=2766.1

Yup, the thread bisenberger shows above is good to reference as well.

That's another difference that I forgot to mention between MoI and Rhino's OBJ export - MoI can export n-gons (polygons with more than 3 or 4 sides), while Rhino only exports polygons that have a 3 or 4 sides.

Some programs or import plug-ins can have difficulty dealing with complex n-gons.

When you export from MoI there is an Output: option that you can switch between Output: N-gons, Output: Quads & Triangles, and Output: Triangles only.

So if you want to have an output the same as Rhino you would set that to Output: Quads & Triangles.

However, it is pretty nice to have N-gons if possible as it makes for a cleaner looking wireframe in your modeling views. Using FBX format with the latest import plugin helps to get both n-gons and shading normals transferred over into Max properly.

- Michael