With Showcase being discontinued more and more users are looking at using 3ds Max which is a fantastic rendering package that comes bundled in the Product Design and Manufacturing Collections.
3ds Max can link in Revit, AutoCAD and FBX files. For Inventor, you import the files.. If a change needs to be made then you would have to start the process all over again so make sure you get it right the first time.
To get started you would first need to import the Inventor file into Max. This is accomplished by selecting File at the top left-hand corner of your screen and navigating to Import and selecting Import.
Navigate to the file and select it to start the import process.
You have a few options to look at before importing the model. First you need to decide if you are going to import it as a body or a mesh.
The file you are using can either totally replace all objects in the scene or you can merge it into the current scene if you adding files from different Inventor files.T
The materials that you applied in Inventor can also be imported into Max. When importing you are able to assign different ID’s. What this means that if you have an object with 2 different materials applied (eg a shaft and a thread) then you are able to manipulate the shaft material and the thread look separately in Max.
When importing a file the most important thing to remember is which direction is UP in Inventor. It is normally the Y-axis so if you pick the Z axis then your model will be imported incorrectly. If you have changed it in Inventor, please take a note of that and select the correct UP direction when importing into 3ds Max.
