Dealing with autocad objects in Unity

Question

I am new in Unity development and I have good experience in Autocad development. Is it possible to use 3d solids & 3d mesh terrains created in autocad and display it in the

Answer 1

To export from AutoCad, use the OBJ format, or FBX. The Unity "what files can I import" page is misleading because exported file formats differ with each new year and new versions of the exporting programs are often not compatible with Unity. It takes Unity devs a few years to get around to updating the import process, unfortunately.

In regards to optimizing your models, "cleaning them up" in Maya is a joke because Maya will also export "heavy" models depending on the format you use. There is a precedence for cleaning a model up, but AutoCad products are the best in the industry, and if you clean them up in a CAD program and then export in OBJ or FBX, it should be fine. Maya is also an AutoCad product, I'm just saying that you don't have to juggle a file around in different programs. If you use the OBJ or FBX export format and if your file is mostly a CG model, then it will work fine going straight from a CAD program into Unity, usually. CAD programs have utilities to clean up models, as do programs like Sketchup, DAZ3D and others. You don't need to triangulate faces, and usually OBJ will work great.

Your best option for importing to Unity is to use OBJ if possible, from any source program. Most models will sustain this if you don't have animations or "bones". If you export to OBJ and choose the option to NOT triangulate all the faces, and DO include the textures, you should be fine. If your model includes animations then you should use FBX format which will have a considerably higher file size cost.

In addition, it works better to drag-and-drop the .obj file, .mtl file and textures folder into the Unity Asset folder where you want it (better than trying the "import asset" native Unity feature).

Be advised that many of the formats that Unity claims to import on its "what files can I import" page are invalid based on the version of the exporting program. For example, DXF files must be an earlier version, not the most recent. Programs like Sketchup and .skp will only import into Unity if you use an earlier version, as far back as 2013, at this time, as of Unity 5.6.0f3.

Usually, if you are aware of these issues and you are willing to try a few methods of CG model exporting/importing, you will find success. Obviously, game devs keep using Unity because they value the engine enough to tolerate these kind of imperfections.