17 September 2013

Tip of the month! September: Importing 3ds objects



The internet is a fantastic source for increasing your Palette CAD object library. Many manufactures offer free objects from their lines through downloads. These can simply be saved on your computer and then imported into Palette CAD. Check out the Import option under the Insert tab to see which file extensions can be imported into Palette CAD.

For this example I have chosen to import a 3DS file. My first step was to download one such file and save it on my laptop (please notice at times you may need to unzip the files after downloading). To keep it simple I would suggest creating a folder named “3D Studio objects” or similar and saving it somewhere easy to remember for future use. 

Next step is to import the desired object with Palette CAD into my plan. Simply go to the “Insert” tab, “Import” and select “3D Studio” from the menu.


Your explorer will now open and here you just need to locate and open the 3DS file you saved after downloading.


After selecting “Open” another window will appear. This is a scale/sizing option screen. Very important to notice which measurement units are used in order to better decide on size required. Simply edit the options as desired and select “OK”. In my example below I edited the original 100% scale down to 10% as I guess the manufacturers sizes were made in millimeters.


Now just position and use the object as all others from your Palette CAD library. Have fun with it and check back in a month for another useful tip.



Greetings from Stuttgart,
Your Palette CAD-Blog Team