Importing from serious CAD apps

#1 I'm a little out of sync with the state of AutoCAD. I assume you mean DXF files? If i remember correctly a DXF file contains *alot* of non convex geometry in it unless the drawing was made with convexity in mind. It would be on par with the issues of importing a 3dsMax scene into QuArK.

That said... could an importer be written? Sure it could easily. Will Pipeline export any of it... probably not.

One common technique used to recreate real world stuff in 3d apps is to start from a side, top, and left image rendered under you're viewports. This way you're placing geometry while looking at the drawing in the background. CartShop4 doesn't have this feature, but i think people have faked it by putting textures on brushes.

I think there is a possibility of seeing this feature in CartShop5.

#2 Yeah, dat's it - DXF files. I don't remember the other industry standard (or vendor-created) file formats are.

Concave surfaces - dang, I forgot about that. That would be what makes it difficult. Thanks for the reminder. I gotta go back and think about that for a while.

#3 This is example of "besedka" made in ArchiCad and than exported in TGE demo in 3ds format. Archicad is CAD tool that fully supports dxf.

"Besedka" made in ArchiCad and rendered in Artlantis:

"Besedka" inserted in Torque as 3ds object:

And what we have now:
1) Object is "overlighten" (it maybe ArchiCad exporter problem)
2) There is no shadow (but it can be aded)
3) This model takes huge loading time

I think remodel this model :) using CShop or QuArk will be simleer task.

#4 1) That is probably a problem with your lighting settings not the engine nor the exporter

2) True, DTS objects do not cast shadows by default but the Lighting Pack can take care of that

3) How big is this file that it takes such a huge loading time? How long is "huge"? Did you place this shape in from the editor or did you have it already in the mission and you noticed a long load while the game was loading objects. If it really is taking a very long time, I would lower the models poly count in max if it is too high and then try reexporting.

#5 I can look at how rounded those logs which make up the shape are and tell you're gonna have a huge file there.

#6 The problem of lighting because of ArchiCad materials parameters, all of them a from 0 to 100 (percents) and when you try to export model in 3ds or VRML format you get all parameters set to 1 :)

I load 3ds files not DTS (there was a resource about loading 3ds files in TGE), they are realy huge, dont remember size of 3ds but in WRML format "besedka" was 3,2 Mb, a house (not presented here) was about 40Mb.

I think using dif format for structures like houses or like "besedka" is a better idea then exporting and reexporting all this stuf:
http://photobucket.com/albums/y245/ViiKzzz/

My plan for now is:
1) Buy CShop
2) develop dll's for CShop that will produce primitives needed for modeling log houses
3) add in TGE some code to support open/close doors and windows with glass

#7 Hi, did anything ever happen with this. Still looking for some kind of CAD to DIF solution.

#8 One of the problems is the way geometry is created in CAD programs is not consistent with how BSP compilers expect geometry for DIF conversion. If you have a ton of artwork, I would recommend going the opcode route and implementing polysoup collision. You will have to have your programmers figure out culling methods, but it will be easier than tweaking something out of GameLevelBuilder for Max (once you get your CAD stuff into Max and scaled and oriented correctly).

#9 But if you did use Gamelevel builder.
You could....

1.Save DXF
2.Import into 3dsmax
3.Use GLB3 to convert to Convex
4.UV Map It
5.Use Ryan Mounts Macroscript to export texture correctly.
6. Import into Constuctor, as MAP-DIF
7.Tweak it
8. Export

But I agree with David youd probably have alot of tweaking to do.
Might not fully import/export fully.
And polysoup would solve all these problems anyways.