[Juxen]

Does anyone know of a reliable way to transfer from CAD (I use Fusion 360, Inventor, and Solidworks) to a file format acceptable to MSTS or Open Rails? I've got some scenery and railcars I'm interested in modeling.

[Hamza97]

Hi ., You can export from CAD software to either 3DS Max or Blender ., And export from there to Open Rails compatible .S file .., As AFAIK , none of CAD software mentioned above don't have a direct exporter to Open Rails .. :)

[superheatedsteam]

MSTS shipped with a .3DS to .S conversion program called conv3ds.exe

It should be in the UTILS folder along with the release notes.

[SP 0-6-0]

superheatedsteam, on 15 January 2020 - 02:44 AM, said:

MSTS shipped with a .3DS to .S conversion program called conv3ds.exe

It should be in the UTILS folder along with the release notes.

There's a little GUI interface for the MSTSConv3ds utility.

At www.trainsim.com

Microsoft Train Simulator - Utilities

MSTS Conv3ds Interface


[ Download | View ]


Name: mstsc3di.zip
Size: 107,625 Date: 08-16-2001 Downloads: 2,865


MSTS Conv3ds Interface. A Windows GUI for conv3ds.exe. Includes a readme.txt file with usage instructions. By Glenn D. LeCroy.

Then there is Shape Maker,

Shape Maker


Robert

[Juxen]

Thanks for the help!

[jonas]

Hi,

I have uploaded a new version 5.0.0 of Shape-Maker. It has some minor improvements, should now find conv3ds.exe on the computer by itself and generates bounding boxes. Please refer to the manual for more details.

Best regards
jonas

[Aldarion]

Wow. I didnt know abut this Shape-Maker software. I'm gonna give it a try.
Jones, is it you who develop it?

[jonas]

Aldarion, on 24 March 2020 - 11:23 AM, said:

...
Jones, is it you who develop it?

Yes, I hope it works for you.

[UranGS]

Hello everyone.! Question. In ORTS I use locomotive models of 100 - 150 thousand polygons, which I create in 3DS Max. There was a problem of creating an LOD for them. The conversion mechanism through Conv3ds.exe is not entirely clear. What are the restrictions on the number of materials in the Main Model, then LOD 2, 3, and so on.? By the number of polygons per wireframe or object.? If you make one wireframe (object) of no more than 2300 polygons in total, then in ORTS it looks normal, if more, then distortions appear.? Is it possible to increase the rate to 5 thousand, instead of 2300 .. ?? On average, for one locomotive weighing 120 thousand polygons, 70 - 75 frames (objects) of 1,500 - 2,000 polygons and the same number of materials by ID go out and how many can be in LOD 2, 3, 4 ..? It seems to me Conv3ds.exe. not intended to handle large locomotive files. What advise guys ..?

[Goku]

Don't use Conv3ds.exe for such big models. It is outdated software.
Use blender.