File menu > Import > Select File To Import dialog > Files Of Type > Autodesk Inventor (*.IPT, *.IAM)
IPT and IAM are the native Autodesk Inventor® file formats for parts (IPT) and assemblies (IAM). You can now import both file formats into 3ds Max without having to copy scripts from the install CD.
The components of models that you import into 3ds Max retain their object naming as assigned in Autodesk Inventor and appear as editable meshes. Once imported, you can edit the model just as you would any other type of object that you construct. You can apply modifiers, alter materials, add lighting and cameras, create animations, etc.
In order to be able to import models that originate from Autodesk Inventor, Inventor 8, or later, is required to be installed along with 3ds Max on the system.
At this time, there are some limitations to the Inventor Importer. They are as follows:
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Camera animation paths are not converted to 3ds Max cameras so any animation you've set up in Inventor is lost during import.
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Any lighting from brightness and ambience settings created in the Inventor file are not imported. You will have to relight the scene once the import is complete.
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A model that is set up with constraints to limit the movement of parts will lose those constraints upon import. You will need to use inverse kinematics (IK) to restore the constraints.
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Dragging and dropping an Inventor file into 3ds Max uses the settings last set on the Inventor File Import dialog with the except for Mesh Resolution, which always resets to 0.
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3ds Max uses the last version of Inventor that was opened to set the Import version. For instance, let's say you have both Inventor 8 and Inventor 10 on your system. If the last version of Inventor you ran was Inventor 8, you cannot import Inventor 10 files. Inventor 8 must be closed and Inventor 10 opened, at least once, in order for you to successfully import Inventor 10 files.
Materials and material assignments made to the original Inventor model are retained and imported along with the geometry. Materials are imported as Architectural materials or if a single object has several materials assigned to it, they are imported as a Multi/Sub-Object material.
Merge With Current Scene—Incoming geometry is merged with any existing geometry that is already present in the scene. This setting is useful if you have several separate files that contains components that you want to combine into a single model.
Completely Replace Current Scene—The file you're importing will completely replace any existing geometry that is in the current scene. If your current scene has not been saved, you are given the opportunity to save your changes to the current scene before the import process continues. Default=on.
Import Inventor Materials—When turned on, all Inventor materials and texture maps are translated and imported into the scene. If turned off, no materials are imported with the model.
Assign Material IDs—Lets you control whether material IDs are assigned to objects that are imported from Inventor. You can assign different materials to different surfaces of the same object while working in Inventor. When these objects are imported to 3ds Max, material IDs are assigned to the faces of single objects to which multiple materials are applied.
For example, you've created a single object that represents a knob that has a threaded shaft and you've applied a black, plastic material to the knob and a silver, metal material to the threaded shaft. If Assign Material IDs is turned on when you import the model into 3ds Max, the faces of the object that have the plastic material are assigned material ID #1 and the faces that have the metal material are assigned material ID #2. If you choose to try different materials while working in 3ds Max, you can quickly make sub-object selections based on the material IDs or apply a Multi/Sub-Object material that contains materials that correspond to the IDs assigned to the faces.
Mesh Resolution—This slider lets you determine the degree of refinement applied to mesh objects by the importation process. When set to 0 (zero), the geometry is imported as it appears in Autodesk Inventor. When set less than zero, the mesh is optimized with fewer faces thus reducing detail. If the mesh resolution is set higher than zero, the mesh is tessellated with more faces, giving you greater detail.
The mesh resolution slider is always set to 0 when you initiate an import.
Note: The option to adjust mesh resolution is available only for models imported from Autodesk Inventor 10 or later.
This option determines the model's orientation upon import. You can choose which axis of the Inventor model is vertical.
X Axis—The X axis of the model, as seen in Inventor, is rotated so it is vertical when the model is imported.
Y Axis—The model is imported with the Y axis oriented as the vertical axis.
Z Axis—The imported model is rotated so its Z axis is the vertical axis.
