Every copy of Okino's NuGraf & PolyTrans software come bundled with a special plug-in system for 3DS MAX. These plug-ins allow 3DS MAX to import and export all of the supported Okino 3D file formats from within the 3DS MAX user interface.
Rest assured that the PolyTrans-for-MAX plug-in system always works. The problems come down to installation issues. This FAQ will outline all possible problems.
Version 4 and newer of Okino software uses the "Okino Plug-Ins Super Installer" to have the 3DS MAX, Maya, XSI and Director plug-ins automatically installed. Keep in mind that you must install v4 or newer of Okino's stand-alone PolyTrans or NuGraf products first before running the super installer.
If the PolyTrans-for-MAX plug-in system fails to initialize and show up in the 3DS MAX "Utility" panel then the cause is always due to one of the following cases:
Your global "PATH" environment variable is most probably too long. This is often the problem to most plug-in installations failures. The "Okino Plug-Ins Super Installer" appends the directory path of the main PolyTrans or NuGraf program to the end of this PATH environment variable. However, Microsoft Windows will ignore some of these entries if it is too long (this is a bug in all current versions of Windows). Please edit the current PATH string and remove all redundant entries. This can be edited by going into the "System" control panel applet in Windows (START menu, Settings, Control Panel) and modifying the "Advanced/Environment Variables" section. Please reboot if you make any changes to this PATH variable. You need to ensure this variable is set because 3DS MAX needs to know where the main Okino DLLs are located (the vc4_*.dlls located in the main PolyTrans or NuGraf home directories).
Your global "PATH" environment variable does not have any entry which points to the main PolyTrans or NuGraf home directories. See the previous paragraph about how to edit this environment variable. You need to ensure this variable is set because 3DS MAX needs to know where the main Okino DLLs are located (the vc4_*.dlls located in the main PolyTrans or NuGraf home directories). The Okino plug-ins super installer will automatically add this entry in all cases. Please reboot if you make any changes to it.
You have not rebooted your computer since you updated the global PATH environment variable or since you installed the PolyTrans-for-MAX system (common problem). Using the "Okino Plug-Ins Super Installer" you will normally not have to reboot your computer.
You are using the wrong version of the PolyTrans-for-MAX plug-in module (ptio.dlu) for MAX or 3DS VIZ. Every version of 3DS MAX and 3DS VIZ requires a different version of PolyTrans-for-MAX.
You have mixed up a newer version of the stand-alone PolyTrans software with an older version of the MAX plug-in module (ptio.dlu in the MAX "plugins" directory). If you had recently installed an update from Okino then please ensure that you updated the PolyTrans or NuGraf main installation as well as the MAX plug-in and optionally the PolyTrans-for-Maya plug-in system as well.
For 3DS MAX 6.0 and newer you may be missing either one of the following two Microsoft DLLs. Please right click on these links and "Save to" to your "windows\system32" directory on your machine: msvcp71.dll msvcr71.dll
After installation you may want to review the "ptio.hlp" file which is installed into the 3DS MAX "plugins" directory. This is the complete online help system for PolyTrans-for-MAX. It also contains information on how to access the PolyTrans-for-MAX plug-in system from the Utility panel of MAX.
You may also want to review the "ptio_max_install.txt" file which is installed into the "plugins" directory as well. This contains all possible information about getting PolyTrans-for-MAX installed and running (which otherwise should be automated by the Okino super installer).
Send email to support@okino.com if you need further clarifications. - Updated: November 16, 2007
Yes. 3DS MAX and 3DS VIZ are essentially the same programs. The current version of the MAX plug-in should be used for the current version of 3DS VIZ. - Updated: October 19, 2007
Yes. We have spent several years cloning the best aspects of the animation engines from 3ds max, Maya, XSI, Softimage-3D and Lightwave so that our core software can import, retain and export the native animation data of these 3d packages. Our core software handles Bezier/TCB/Linear keyframe interpolators, and quaternion/Euler/Angle-Axis rotation types. Cross conversion between all these animation methods is transparently handled by the core software.
For 3ds max and Maya, our most popular conversion path for animation professionals, we have developed our "Artic" toolkit that intelligently handles the plethora of 3ds max's procedural and keyframe animation controllers. If a controller is procedural then the Arctic toolkit will resample it frame by frame (using matrices), break down the matrices into SRT values (as well as adding new nodes to the hierarchy if off-axis scaling is present) and output keyframe lists compatible with the destination package. For animated skinned meshes, the Artic toolkit also has the unique feature of stripping off the off-axis scaling from Bipeds and propagating it to children nodes.
Yes, very much so. Several continuous years of working has been invested in our skinning support. We have very strong internal and 'smart' conversion of skeletons and skinning weights.
We support the export of Character Studio Bipeds and 'SkinMod' skinned meshes (meshes deformed by a control skeleton of bones). We support the import of skeletons and skinned meshes from other 3D packages such as Maya, XSI and DirectX, using the 3ds max SkinMod modifier.
Every time a new version of 3DS MAX is released it automatically obsoletes every plug-in module that was designed for that specific version of MAX. This includes Okino's PolyTrans-for-3DSMAX plug-in module system.
You will need to download the most recent version of PolyTrans or NuGraf, including the revised 3DS MAX plug-in system. Please send your registration number and full registration information to support@Okino.com to obtain upgrade instructions. - Updated: October 19, 2007
For some people there is much confusion here. First of all, if you do not own a copy of 3DS MAX then then best methods to move data from 3DS MAX (say, as given to you by a client who owns 3DS MAX) through to PolyTrans/NuGraf are: .3ds (3D Studio r4) and VRML2. Now to explain why Okino software does not read/write .max files directly:
The .max file format is proprietary to Discreet/Autodesk.
The .max file format is not a "pure" 3d scene/geometry file format as that of the more common .3ds file format (which itself is completely supported by Okino products). Instead, the ".max" file format describes the "state" of the 3DS MAX software and how all of its plug-in modules are connected together for a specific scene. For example, a .max file might describe how a "sphere" object can be exploded into a million pieces by a series of world space modifier plug-ins. The only way to evaluate such a file is to load it into 3DS MAX and have all the 3DS MAX plug-in modules execute on the original raw mesh data.
This is why Okino has developed special plug-in modules for 3DS MAX which allows all of the Okino import/export converters to be executed from within 3DS MAX itself; this allows the final evaluated scene data (after the 3DS MAX plug-in modules have modified the raw mesh data) to be imported/exported via the PolyTrans converters. - Updated: October 1, 2007
Texture mapping has always been a fundamental component of every PolyTrans import/export converter. For 3DS MAX we support channel # 1's uv texture coordinates and any face-mapped triangles.
However, we cannot handle the case where a MAX user has assigned multiple uvw modifiers to an object, each with a different texture map assigned. This results in multiple uv coordinate channels. To output to a typical 3D file format you will need just a single set of uv coordinates on each object (just one uvw modifier per object). - Updated: October 1, 2007
