3DS Export for Inventor is a 3D Studio 3DS file export add-in for Inventor®. This add-in gives Inventor the ability to export 3D solid and surface data from a Inventor geometry to meshes in a 3DS file.
3DS Export for Inventor tessellates the solid bodies in an Inventor part or assembly into individual triangular meshes. These meshes are then exported to 3DS file as mesh objects. The 3DS file can then be imported into a variety of CAD applications.
3DS Export for Inventor is very easy to use. Once installed, it automatically loads itself into Inventor and adds a new menu called "3DSExport" to the Inventor menu.
The '3DSExport' submenu consists of the following commands:
Export - Exports an 3DS file
Help - Displays the 3DS Export for Inventor help file
Register - Registers your copy of 3DS Export for Inventor
About - Displays the 3DS Export for Inventor About box
The 3DS File Format
The 3DS file format is the native file format of 3D Studio. 3D Studio has now been replaced by 3ds Max whose native file format has a .max file extension. However, 3ds Max is still able to read and write .3ds files. 3ds Max is one of the most widely-used off the shelf 3D animation programs. It has strong modeling capabilities, a flexible plug-in architecture and a long heritage on the Microsoft Windows platform. It is mostly used by video game developers, TV commercial studios and architectural visualization studios. It is also used for movie effects and movie pre-visualization.