All:
What is the best format when going from Rhino3.0 to Maya 6.0 for rendering. Is there a way to keep the layers and turn them into object
groups when translated into Maya?
Any suggestions?
For NURBS data, use IGES (which supports layer information but you’ll have to try with a Rhino file to make sure that information is compatible between the two apps).
For poly data, DXF or OBJ (DXF supports layer information I believe but am not sure about OBJ).
For a full list of file formats directly supported by Maya, go Alias Software | Get Prices & Buy Alias 2023 | Autodesk
i’ve rendered both iges and polymesh. not one for one comparison but polymesh data usually renders faster - no need to tesselate during render. also on close inspection the iges data sometimes drops small surfaces during translation. and you have to search out overlapping dup surfaces which sometimes causes z-fighting issues. and eats render times. big pain.
iges data also is rumored to not play nice w Mental Ray Maya. maybe whatever problems people were having are corrected now. just what i’ve seen posted.
another thing is that iges is pain to work w on the screen. big assembly can take forever to shade. you want to modify iges surfaces render parameters? get used to going through the Attribute Spreadsheet for everything. polymesh you just click on the part you want. no subsurfaces, right click and open Attribute window for that object. done.
maybe there’s good things to iges. i just dont really see it for most renderings.