Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 Posted by Jim Thacker

Luxion releases 3ds Max import plugin for KeyShot


Although primarily an industrial design app, KeyShot is making inroads into entertainment, as this 3D-Palace tutorial indicates. Developer Luxion’s new plugin smoothes the process of importing models from 3ds Max.

Luxion has released a free plugin enabling 3ds Max users to import models or scenes into its KeyShot real-time raytracing engine. Import is now a one-click operation from the File menu within KeyShot 3.

The announcement makes 3ds Max the first DCC application Luxion supported in this way, having previously released KeyShot import plugins for a range of CAD and industrial design packages.

The plugin supports scene hierarchies and layers, and requires KeyShot 3 and 3ds Max 2012 or above.

PRESS RELEASE (Excerpts)
Luxion, a leading developer of advanced 3D rendering and lighting technology and makers of KeyShot®, the first real time ray tracing and global illumination program for 3D rendering and animation, has released an all new KeyShot plugin for Autodesk 3ds Max. This plugin is free of charge for all 3ds Max users.

As a member of the Autodesk Developer Network, Luxion has developed a plugin for 3ds Max that automatically loads the model into KeyShot with all parts, groups and layers intact. From the file menu, the export is a one-click process that instantly opens the model in KeyShot. 3ds Max users now have the fastest way to bring their models into KeyShot, creating a cleaner workflow through the entire design process. With the speed of creating material and lighting variations in KeyShot, 3D artists have an increasingly efficient pipeline for rendering and animation.

Basic usage of the plugin is as follows:

  • Access the plugin through the File, Export menu
  • Export the entire scene or a only a selection
  • A KeyShot .bip file is saved out on export
  • KeyShot is automatically opened with the .bip file loaded

The 3ds plugin supports the following for parts:

Individual objects
Parts are imported independently with materials and layers.

Groups of objects
Creates a new level in the scene tree hierarchy with individual objects within.

Materials on objects
Two unique objects sharing one material are imported linked by material, but can still be unlinked.

Layers
Layers do not influence the grouping of objects, but are utilized for operations like hiding parts. Hidden layer will not be imported.

The user will need to have KeyShot 3 installed. 3ds Max versions currently supported by the plugin are 3ds Max 2012 and 2013.

Download the 3ds Max import plugin

Visit the KeyShot website