Hi all,
Freshman Flame user in the Automotive space here with what I hope isn’t a rookie question - does anybody have experience working with AutoCAD files and Flame? I searched the web and also the forums here, but didn’t see anything.
A request from my friends in engineering popped up this morning and I’ll probably have CAD files before EOD to play with. I’m just looking for insight or tips on what’s possible, what’s not and maybe to trigger a discussion that isn’t here yet
Thanks!
Ron
Hey @rroth42086
There is no direct way to work with them unfortunately.
Autocad files are huge 3D files with a lot of detail. Best way would be to work with a 3D artist who can import Autocad files, simplify them, add some UV and textures and export them as fbx files that Flame can read.
This usually is an ardous process which requires very specific Acad->Maya->Flame workflows. I can put you in contact with some colleagues of mine if you need.
@Sinan thank you, this is very much appreciated. I’ll graciously accept any contacts who you think I should keep top of mind and will also post any learnings here as I progress
DM’ed you…
Hey Ron! Not a rookie question at all! I’ve worked with AutoCAD files in Flame a few times. You can import them as OBJ or FBX, but be prepared for some potential issues with scale and geometry. Have you considered using a plugin like CAD Importer or Transmutr to help with the import process? Would love to hear more about your project and offer any help I can!
Doesn’t AutoCAD make .svg files?
Autocad can export 3ds files maybe obj as well. Thing is, since it is not a 3D modelling tool surface or edge connuity is not always what you expect. So surfaces sometime shows holes or edges might be broken. It’s best to do a 3d round about through Maya or Max.
For now I have a .stl file which I took into Cinema 4D and can export as .obj. I’m tempering stakeholders’ expectations on this one, but deadline is end of September so there should be room to play. Thanks a lot for the tips here - CAD Importer doesn’t have a macOS release, but Transmutr looks promising. More to come!
what is it your are trying to do?
We deal a lot with CAD files from cars and the regular process is something like this->
Case : we need to replace a actual car that was shot with a newer model , or parts of it;
take CAD data and convert it to sone useable format, usually fbx/obj whatever, usually autocad just exports that.
Retopo the model, clean it up and simplify, often every screwhead is included with high poly count, remove everything you dont need , seperate it into useable groups, fix UVs so you can actually work with it. Bascially prepping the CG data to be renderable and animatable usually you do this in 3dsmax, blender, maya or c4d , bascially any 3D DCC , houdini is not really used for this step .
Shading, apply materials to everything , do whatever you need to, for the given render engine, again 3D DCC, now more often houdini/solaris in the old days maya/arnold 3dsmax/vray blender… c4d/octane/redshift - all depends
if you need to you can Rig the asset to , you know , make it move , like a rigged suspension or a wheel turning or whatever.
Matchmove the shot using 3dequalizer/pftrack/geotracker
put cg car in the shot, match the lighting (you are still in a 3d dcc at the moment) and hit render
now we are finally in flame - comping the cg render ontop of the plate, matching Depth of field, roto foreground elements back in, the usual!
As you can see flame has nothing to do in this pipeline apart from merging a over b , the 3D engine in flame is extremely old, it looks like what you get in the c4d /maya viewport. it does not support global illumination or raytracing or wnything like that,m.
So you generally do not use 3D geometry in flame to generate a final image output in a classical CG - VFX pipeline - however
there are a few other cases where you might want to have 3D data in your compositing app , could be for projections or maybe you want to render a wireframe and then apply a bunch of 2D operations on top for someyhing stylized, but yea its usually simplified objs or fbx as it cant even handle heavy geometry that well.
So depending on what you do, flame isnt a replacement for a 3D app, houdini is adding a bunch of comp features to the newer versions now so that will geninteresing
@finnjaeger this is deep my friend and fills in a lot of blanks, thank you for putting this together. I’ve also been taking slow sips of the CG Car Replacement course you published on Logik Academy Pro. Great information
so glad it can be of use!