Max->Blender->Ogre, preserving smoothing and normals?

[Martoon]

Is there a way to export from 3dsmax 3.1, import into Blender, and export to Ogre such that the normals and smoothing defined in Max are preserved? We have a contract artist creating models in Max 3.1. We don't have Max here, and I use Blender to tweak the models, add/modify properties etc. before exporting to Ogre. I had the artist try exporting to .3ds and I imported that, but all of the smoothing info he defined was gone.

I'm assuming there's some format he can export from Max that will have explicit normals, but can Blender import and work with explicit normals? Will they be exported to Ogre?

I know this would be more appropriate for the Blender forums, but I've already posted there and didn't get much help.

Thanks for any tips!

[jacmoe]

I doubt it would work in ancient max 3.1, but try make him use one of the max exporters first.
Then you can use the Blender importer from ogreaddons.

Or find a better format than .3ds - it is not that good.

[Martoon]

I doubt it would work in ancient max 3.1, but try make him use one of the max exporters first.
Then you can use the Blender importer from ogreaddons.

Or find a better format than .3ds - it is not that good.

That's what I meant. I would assume he would export from Max in some format or another, then I'd import into Blender. I'm just trying to find out what format would work, or if it's just not possible to import explicit normals into Blender.

[jacmoe]

I meant: use one of the Ogre max eporter scripts. If it works: great.
If not: use another format - maybe .obj?

[Martoon]

I meant: use one of the Ogre max eporter scripts. If it works: great.
If not: use another format - maybe .obj?

Ah, I see now. Yeah, I'm guessing there probably aren't any Max Ogre exporters that'll work with Max 3.1.

I'm having him try some other formats. Thanks!