You have the choice of using the current DWG importer, which gives you more detailed control, or the legacy DWG importer, which has certain features the are useful in some modeling situations.
Features Unique to the current DWG Import System
- Support for AutoCAD, AutoCAD Architecture and Revit Sun and Shadows information.
- Support for AutoCAD Architecture mapped UV textures on objects.
- Support of multiple materials on ACIS solids from files imported or linked from Revit Architecture 2008 or AutoCAD Architecture (formerly Architectural Desktop or ADT) 2007 and later.
- Support for all ObjectARX custom objects (ignored by the Legacy importer).
- Specialized support for AutoCAD Architecture and Revit objects, including style/component grouping and naming, style associations for material and modifier propagation, and material translation and assignment.
- Specialized support for AEC Civil contour objects (translated into a Terrain object).
- Support for Raster objects.
- Support for axonometric named views (translated into cameras with the Orthogonal toggle turned on). Both importers can translate perspective views.
- Support for attached drawing xrefs.
- Support for DXF files.
- Rescaling to imported drawings created with units that differ from the 3ds Max system units.
- Ability to skip frozen layers, or to select specific layers to import (or exclude) from a list.
- Ability to set shape rendering parameters before importing to 3ds Max.
- Ability to maintain layer assignments from the drawing file.
Legacy DWG Importer
The current DWG import utility contains many improvements, including enhanced DWG compatibility and greater user control and customizability; however, some features were lost from the DWG Importer found in versions of 3ds Max prior to 3ds Max 7. For this reason, 3ds Max retains the legacy DWG Import functionality.