Makerbot does not recognize 3ds Max smoothing?

[kdryan]

Making a model from 3ds Max and printing on a library Replicator 2... The model is smoothed using Meshsmooth in 3ds Max but when it opens in Makerbot and prints, the smoothing is gone and you can see the polys. Is there a fix for this? I really want this model to come out good... See images below.



Untitled-1.jpgUntitled-2.jpg

[Nihonddd]

Have you tried applying a higher level of subdivision to the object before exporting the model.

[kdryan]

Yeah I'm just now figuring out that to Makerbot program is not smart enough to understand smoothing. That means high poly modeling which is normally exactly the opposite of what you want to do in computer animation because it hogs resources. You're taught from the start uses few poly's as possible. To suddenly add more is counter-intuitive...

[Geoff]

Yeah I'm just now figuring out that to Makerbot program is not smart enough to understand smoothing. That means high poly modeling which is normally exactly the opposite of what you want to do in computer animation because it hogs resources. You're taught from the start uses few poly's as possible. To suddenly add more is counter-intuitive...

It's not a matter of not being smart enough - there is not one printing program that will print something smooth because it has a smooth shader on it. The problem you are having is not related to the printing program more the model that was exported.

The "Smooth" you are using is a SHADER not a modifier. I.e it's a graphical trick that makes low poly objects looks smooth - without sacrificing memory or framerates too much (as opposed to using a very hi-res model in a game)

Nihondd is right, you will need to increase the subdivision on the model until it is smooth enough for your liking, just ensure it's a modifier component and not a shader.

Here, I made a small graphic for you to explain:
help.jpg

[JacobVR]

You need to select the object in max to see the actual polygons. Although you did meshsmooth, it doesnt mean a high poly count, just higher than the original mesh. Second, as others point out, 3ds max can visually smooth objects in the viewport, which is different than geometry smoothing. If the polycount is actually higher and not being transferred, although i dont know why this would happen, you could try converting the objecting to a new editable poly and try exporting again.

[Ak Eric]

I use Maya (and I have a Makerbot), but the principal is the same, like others have stated. You actually need to do the reverse of what you've done (smoothing the normals in your 3d app), to preview in Max what the final output will be in your print. You're trying to apply the concepts of rendering to a physical object, they are very different.
In Maya, I 'set normals to face': This makes the mesh look 'faceted', which is exactly how it'll look when it prints. Applying a smooth to the vertext normals is purely visual, it doesn't change the underlying mesh in any way. Your printer is printing exactly the data you sent it, exactly as it should.
Basically you need to 'harden' all your normals: How it looks on screen at that point will be how it looks when it prints.
The solution (like others have said) is to apply some 'poly smooth' operation, which physically creates new faces following the tangency of the existing mesh, and just crank of that value until you can't see your 'hard edged faces' any more. For me this starts to get until the 100k-> 1million+ face territory, just like what you'd get out of something like ZBrush.