We do this quite a lot at work, and this is the best answer in the thread.
Max has no problem reading the STEP file format, and can import it in two ways: Either tesselate the object immediately (preferred), or import it as a “body object” and handle tesselation non-destructively (a more complicated approach, we only use when absolutely necessary).
I guess this thread is quite old, and Max wasn’t able to read STEP back in 2015? (The original post mentions Unreal Engine, which can also natively read STEP these days, using Datasmith.)
See MoI and learn how they do it.
I think there is a tunned to be made in export geometry department.
The best tests we can do is with chamfers and boolean operation - and then apply chamfer and booleans inside 3ds max.
Nurbs is another world of modeling…
I know, very old topic but still needed these days.This worked perfectly. (Using Moi 3D) If I might add that since Im using Rhino 6 now, my version of Moi 3D can only open Rhino 5 versions so I had to save the file as Rhino 5 first. This is the only way that worked perfectly especially with using Fstorm as the render engine. Fstorm is very finicky with imported surfaces for some reason.
After pulling hair out trying to get a complex, curvey architectural model from Rhino to Max I came across this thread.
So i tried exporting from Moi3D in all formats, the only one that worked perfectly was to export from Moi as a Sketchup file and it came into Max as a clean, non-triangulated edit mesh (grouped).
What’s worked best for me for years now for quick results, is to export a .3ds file from Rhino. I Import it in Max, then apply the Optimize modifier and then click “Auto Edge” inside the modifier. Rounded geometries always end up with a weird geometry but keep consistent in their look. The poly count lowers considerably and flat surfaces come out totally clean.
I’ve tried also exporting as a DWG or DXF file. What’s nice with the Dwg or Dxf approach is that it respects your layers, so you can group everything in layers beforehands inside Rhino. I usually make a layer for each material I’m going create (I use Vray for 3dsMax). That way I have everything already grouped when importing to Max. Now the problem with this approach is that all rounded surfaces look kind of jagged, I don’t like how Rhino computes meshes in these formats. Also the model looks completely black in 3ds max, although using clay mode or adding a material to the model solves it.
