3DS conversion options

The following are the options for converting files to and from the 3DS file format.

3DS to FBX Source File options

The following options are available if you are converting 3ds Max 3DS files to the FBX format:

Option	Behavior
Textures	Activate this option to include texture mapping with the file conversion.
Materials	Activate this option to include materials with the file conversion. If you disable this option, the texture option is ignored.
Animation	Activate this option to include animation with the file conversion.
Mesh	Activate this option to include geometry with the file conversion. If you disable this option, mesh geometry is converted into Null or dummy objects, but the animation and hierarchy are preserved.
Lights	Activate this option to include lights with the file conversion.
Cameras	Activate this option to include cameras with the file conversion.
Convert Units	Activate this option to convert file units to centimeters. If you disable this option, the source application scale might not match once it is converted to or from the FBX file format.
Ambient Light	Activate this option to retain Ambient light settings with the file conversion.
Split Normals	Activate this option to split geometry Normals based on their edge continuity. This option splits per-vertex Normals and should be used only in specific workflows where you want to ensure visual fidelity of surface continuity in applications that do not support Smoothing Group conversion.
Apply Constant Key Reducer	Activate this option to apply the Constant Key Reducer filter to animation curves. This reduces the number of redundant keyframes.
Add Root Node	Activate this option to add a root node to all elements of your scene in the file conversion. Doing this adds a null or dummy object at the top of the hierarchy.

3DS to FBX Destination file options

The following options are available if you are converting 3ds Max 3DS files to the FBX format:

Option	Behavior
FBX Save Mode	Select Binary to save the FBX file in the standard format. Select ASCII to save the FBX file in ASCII format.

FBX to 3DS

The following options are available in the Destination file options if you are converting FBX files to the 3ds Max 3DS format:

Option	Purpose
Texture	Activate this option to include texture mapping with the file conversion.
Material	Activate this option to include materials with the file conversion. If you disable this option, the texture option is ignored.
Animation	Activate this option to include animation with the file conversion.
Mesh	Activate this option to include geometry with the file conversion. If you disable this option, mesh geometry is converted into Null or dummy objects, but the animation and hierarchy are preserved.
Lights	Activate this option to include lights with the file conversion.
Cameras	Activate this option to include cameras with the file conversion.
Convert Units	Activate this option to convert file units to centimeters. If you disable this option, the source application scale might not match once it is converted to or from the FBX file format.
Ambient light	Activate this option to retain Ambient light settings with the file conversion.
Split Normals	Activate this option to split geometry Normals based on their edge continuity. This option splits per-vertex Normals and should be used only in specific workflows where you want to ensure visual fidelity of surface continuity in applications that do not support Smoothing Group conversion.
Add Root Node	Activate this option to add a root node to all elements of your scene in the file conversion. Doing this adds a null or dummy object at the top of the hierarchy.
UV by Poly	Activate this option to retain the exact UV texture coordinates of the model if your UV textured models are defined by polygon vertices. If you activate this option, Smoothing groups are lost. If you disable this option when UV texture of a model is defined by polygon vertices, the Smoothing groups are retained.