File menu > Import > IGES (*.IGE, *.IGS, *.IGES)
IGES files are used to import and export NURBS objects to and from 3ds Max (and other programs that support this file format). For more information, see Overview of IGES in 3ds Max.
In some cases, when you import an IGES file, the translation doesn't produce exact replicas. To understand what happens to each entity when it's translated, review the IGES import table.
3ds Max imports an object containing multiple surfaces as a single NURBS object. To work with a single surface of the object, detach it in sub-object NURBS and work with only that object. This releases the rest of the object from memory. For more information, see NURBS.
When you import IGES files, 3ds Max creates a log file containing detailed information about the processing of the model. The name of the file has the form of filename.xli. For more information, see IGES Log files.
Note: 3ds Max creates and uses a few temporary files during translation. Temporary files can be large. If there has been a computer or IGES translation failure and temporary files remain on your system, they might need to be removed to free up disk space. For storage of these temporary files in Windows, 3ds Max uses the directory specified by the TEMP environment variable, or the current directory if TEMP is not set.
To import an IGES file:
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Specify the IGES file to import from the file selector dialog.
You can choose IGES (*.IGE, *.IGS, *.IGES) from the Files Of Type list to display only IGES files.
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From the IGES Import dialog, select Merge Objects With Current Scene or Completely Replace Scene.
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To review the translation process, read the .xli log file with your preferred text editor.
