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Rhino NURBS to Maya
Posted on Friday the 2nd of December, 2005
www.thedigitalfeed.co.uk/graphics/2005/12/02/rhino-nurbs-to-maya
If I'm NURBS modeling I'll use Rhino 3D because I find it incredibly quick and simple to make complex structures. But I render in Maya, which won't read Rhino files natively. Here's one way to bridge the gap.
Rhino will import and export an incredibly extensive list of file formats and subtle variations; however, Maya's native .ma and .mb formats are not among them. The best one to choose for import into Maya is IGES (Initial Graphics Exchange Specification). This is a neutral file format for sets of 3D objects and has everything we need to import directly in to Maya, retaining trimmed NURBS surfaces and XYZ location.
The only quarrel I have with the IGES format is that if you build a polysurface in Rhino, it's a single entity. However, when you export to IGES, you end up with a series of trimmed NURBS surfaces, just as if you had used the Explode command on the polysurface in Rhino. But that's not a problem - we can sort it out in two ways.
One way or another, we're going to end up with all of the object's sub-surfaces on seperate layers in Maya. If you're a traditional CAD modeler, you probably keep seperate objects on their own layers anyway. If this is the case, all of these layers will come through in the IGES file, and be retained by Maya, although layer names won't be kept. Unfortunately, there's not a lot you can do about that!
Rhino 3D's Layer Manager
The second way is to edit Rhino 3D's IGES:Maya settings. When you export, click the Edit Types button in the IGES Export settings. Select Maya in the list and click Edit. Click on the Surfaces tab and enter the following settings:
All other settings can be left blank for now. Click OK, Close, and OK again. Now we have an IGES file with all the information we'll need.
Time to fire up Maya. The IGES import is not loaded by default, so if you try to import the file now, you'll be told that it's an unrecognised file type. Go to Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager. Look for Iges.mll and check the boxes for loaded and auto-loaded. The plugin takes up a negligable amount of overhead so it may as well be left on. With this, you'll also be able to export back out to IGES should you need to.
Because we've done all of the hard work in Rhino3D, we can import the file straight in to Maya with default options. After it's imported, open the Layer Manager. Depending on how many objects you exported from Rhino 3D, you'll have a number of generically-named layers, each holding all of the trimmed NURBS surfaces constituting each Rhino3D object. Simply select each layer's objects to find out which objects they hold, and rename them from there.
Maya's Layer Manager
Granted, it's a bit of legwork, but, once the Rhino 3D IGES type for Maya has been changed, you shouldn't have to do it again. You'll be able to export from Rhino 3D and Import in to Maya using default settings on either side.
Rhino will import and export an incredibly extensive list of file formats and subtle variations; however, Maya's native .ma and .mb formats are not among them. The best one to choose for import into Maya is IGES (Initial Graphics Exchange Specification). This is a neutral file format for sets of 3D objects and has everything we need to import directly in to Maya, retaining trimmed NURBS surfaces and XYZ location.
The only quarrel I have with the IGES format is that if you build a polysurface in Rhino, it's a single entity. However, when you export to IGES, you end up with a series of trimmed NURBS surfaces, just as if you had used the Explode command on the polysurface in Rhino. But that's not a problem - we can sort it out in two ways.
One way or another, we're going to end up with all of the object's sub-surfaces on seperate layers in Maya. If you're a traditional CAD modeler, you probably keep seperate objects on their own layers anyway. If this is the case, all of these layers will come through in the IGES file, and be retained by Maya, although layer names won't be kept. Unfortunately, there's not a lot you can do about that!
Rhino 3D's Layer Manager
The second way is to edit Rhino 3D's IGES:Maya settings. When you export, click the Edit Types button in the IGES Export settings. Select Maya in the list and click Edit. Click on the Surfaces tab and enter the following settings:
Surfaces: 402-7 (Unordered Group)
Polysurfaces: 402-7 (Unordered Group)
Surfaces: 144All other settings can be left blank for now. Click OK, Close, and OK again. Now we have an IGES file with all the information we'll need.
Time to fire up Maya. The IGES import is not loaded by default, so if you try to import the file now, you'll be told that it's an unrecognised file type. Go to Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager. Look for Iges.mll and check the boxes for loaded and auto-loaded. The plugin takes up a negligable amount of overhead so it may as well be left on. With this, you'll also be able to export back out to IGES should you need to.
Because we've done all of the hard work in Rhino3D, we can import the file straight in to Maya with default options. After it's imported, open the Layer Manager. Depending on how many objects you exported from Rhino 3D, you'll have a number of generically-named layers, each holding all of the trimmed NURBS surfaces constituting each Rhino3D object. Simply select each layer's objects to find out which objects they hold, and rename them from there.
Maya's Layer Manager
Granted, it's a bit of legwork, but, once the Rhino 3D IGES type for Maya has been changed, you shouldn't have to do it again. You'll be able to export from Rhino 3D and Import in to Maya using default settings on either side.