Rendering Body Objects

If you are working with a program whose format 3ds Max can import but not export, you can still modify Body Objects and then render them.

1. Import an SAT or Inventor file as Body Objects.
2. Group the different Body Objects in the file according to material property using layers, named selection sets, groups, or Containers.
3. Inspect it visually for completeness. If there are holes in the surface, they're probably indicative of faces that need to be flipped.
4. To correct for any holes, select the object, go to the Modify panel, and on the Editable Body Object rollout, click Face Flip. This opens the Face Flipping/Visibility rollout.
5. On the Face Flipping/Visibility rollout, click Flip Faces Mode and then go around the model and click where the holes are. This reverses those faces so they're facing in the correct direction. When finished, click Face Flip again to close the rollout.
6. When you render the object, the software creates a mesh whose resolution depends on the Rendering Approximation rollout settings. Use these settings to adjust how the object renders, as follows:
   1. Start with the Production Render Mesh Quality Preset, which is the default setting, and render. If the rendering is satisfactory and completes in a reasonable amount of time, you're done.
   2. If the rendering takes too long, try the Draft or Good preset.
   3. If, on the other hand, further improvement in the rendering quality is necessary, adjust the settings. For example, try reducing the Face Approx Angle to 20, and the Chord setting to 0.25. Also try setting low values for Edge Chord and Max Edge (set the latter to about 20).
   4. If edges render where they shouldn't, turn on Weld And Smooth Mesh.
   5. If the render-mesh quality is satisfactory but it takes a long time to render, and you want to try rendering from different angles or with different lighting, turn on Save Render Mesh. This saves time by precalculating and caching the render mesh.
7. Render the model, make further adjustments as necessary, and re-render.
8. If you want to render an animation, you’ll get faster results by turning on Render Approximation rollout Use Viewport Mesh, and then adjusting the Viewport Display Settings rollout parameters accordingly.