3ds Max Product Manager Ken Pimentel wrote a good blog post covering 3ds Max Design and AutoCAD 2010 DWG interoperability. The new subdivision meshes move easily between the two applications allowing greater collaboration with conceptual design and visualization team members.
Ken’s Blog Post: 3ds Max Design 2010: improved DWG interop
In addition to Ken’s post I created a quick AutoCAD 2010 new mesh object and subdivided it easily into an organic shape, then saved it as a DWG file. I was then able to import it into 3ds Max Design 2010 as a Subdivision Surface object. I can also use DWG to export back and forth and even to Revit as a Massing object.
There is also the new AutoCAD Visualization Suite which combines AutoCAD, 3ds Max Design, and Autodesk Showcase.
Now you can tickle vectors and excite pixels in your design flow!
Cheers,
Shaan
I have yet to try out 3D MAX, from what I have heard it is just another way of rendering .DWG files.
Does it really render that more well than AutoCAD by itself?
James,
AutoCAD has a great mental ray rendering engine but 3ds Max is way much more than a rendering software. You can perform many visualizations and complicated high end animations.
Have a peek at http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmaxdesign
Best Regards,
Shaan