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How to convert OBJ (Wavefront .obj,.mtl) to 3ds Max (.max)?

PolyTrans|CAD+DCC performs mathematically precise CAD, DCC/Animation, GIS and BIM 3D file conversions into all key downstream 3D packages and file formats. Okino software is used and trusted throughout the world by many tens of thousands of 3D professionals in mission & production critical environments, backed by respectable personal support directly from our core development team.

OBJ

Wavefront OBJ is a little understood but highly used and prevalent 3D "polygonal mesh" file format used throughout the 3D graphics world. Okino, Alias Research and McNeel made it popular in the early to mid 1990s as a general purpose, simple-to-read, storage and transmission 3D file format, especially for the then-new companies who began to sell 3D mesh models via the Internet.

Relatively speaking, OBJ is a rather simple file format but a bit better than STL although similar to the more modern 3MF format.The OBJ format allows for 1 or more unique polygonal mesh objects to be defined, each with optional UV texture coordinates and vertex colors. Material definitions can be linked to the mesh geometry as defined in the separate 'MTL' file. The material definitions are rather simple (ie. no PBR material support) but acceptable, and with varied levels of texture mapping support. OBJ format does not provide support for object hierarchy, local transformations, meta data, lights, cameras, skinning or animation. Most notably, OBJ does not allow for 'object instancing' and hence 1000 copies of a screw would be saved to OBJ as 1000 explicit copies, rather than 1000 references to one master object.

A short history: In the 1980s there was a program called Wavefront Visualizer which ran on UNIX and ran its early rendering pipeline as a series of tee'd command line 'applets'. The data flowed from one applet to another via various ASCII based files - OBJ for geometry, MTL for materials and other ASCII files for animation, skinning, deformation, etc.

Okino knows of the Wavefront OBJ file very well as it provides the one and only full implementation of the OBJ file format and with the ability to consume exceedingly large OBJ files quickly and efficiently. This includes the only known implementation of OBJ-centric 'NURBS geometry' (surfaces and curves) within the OBJ file format (which is little or not used) other than that from the McNeel Rhino-3D software.

3ds Max

3ds Max has been the flagship DCC/Animation system of Autodesk since its introduction in 1996. It replaced 3D Studio R1-R4 which was a DOS based variation. Both were developed by the Yost Group and licensed to Autodesk.

As is very little understood, no program on this planet can read or write 3ds Max ".max" files because the full geometry modifier stack of the 3ds Max software, and its various plugin modules, are needed in order to properly evaluate the file before it can be rendered. This is what forced Okino to write its PolyTrans-for-3dsMax system, which allows for all Okino 3D converters to run within 3ds Max itself. For example, if you want to convert to/from CINEMA 4D (.c4d files) then you would do so entirely inside of 3ds Max.

Okino has a very long history with 3ds Max as it got on board in 1986 when Tom Hudson (of the Yost Group) first released "CAD-3D" on the Atari|ST computer. That program morphed into 3D Studio on DOS (.3ds file format) and then into 3ds Max (.max file format).

Note: Please do not confuse the 3D Studio's .3ds format with the 3ds Max .max format. You will find throughout the 3D industry that some companies refer to .3ds as the "3ds Max file format" but this is not true. The native file format of 3ds Max is the .max format, whereas .3ds is just a legacy import/export file format ported over to 3ds Max by Tom Hudson during the transition from 3D Studio R4 back in the early 1990s. DO NOT use the .3ds file format to convert to/from 3ds Max but rather use Okino's dedicated PolyTrans-for-3dsMax plug-in system for 3ds Max.

OBJ import converter's overview

3ds Max export converter's overview