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There are a number of components of 3D Studio that can work with SGI tools
(and unfortunately some that can't).

Among the ones that work are:

	3DS mesh files converted to Inventor/VRML
	TGA/TIF/GIF texture map files convert to RGB
	FLI movie files (320x200-256c) view and convert to SGI movies
	FLC movie files view with Xamin (public domain s/w)
	
Among the ones that don't work are:
	
	CEL texture map files (proprietary format)
	FLI/FLC texture map animations
	?XP (external plug-in rendering applications).
	
Of course, all of the above work with the 3D Studio network renderer
which is an excellent tool for the serious 3D Studio shop.

Anyway there are several tools that exist to handle these conversions:

	3dsToIv (in beta) that handles the raw 3DS->IV file converion.
	ivToVRML that handles the IV->VRML conversion (webspace.sw.tools)
	imgcopy for TIFF->RGB conversion (imgtools.sw.tools)
	fromgif/fromtarga for TGA/GIF->RGB conversion (eoe2.sw.imagetools)
	3ds2iv is a shell script to convert files with textures
	3dsview is a shell script for viewing 3DS files w/o textures
	Dxfview is a shell script for viewing DXF files
	searchenv is a utility to search a list of paths for textures
	blank.rgb is a grey texture map file for missing textures
	
SEARCHENV:

	Usage: searchenv base_file_name [env_str <./>] [delim <;>]

	As used in 3ds2iv, the environment string name is "AVEMAPS",
	the string is delimited the ";".  A typical setting might be:
	
	setenv AVEMAPS "/usr/3ds4/maps;\
	/CDROM/maps/refmaps;\
	/CDROM/maps/architex;\
	/CDROM/maps/backgrnd;\
	/CDROM/maps/clouds;\
	/CDROM/maps/lights;\
	/CDROM/maps/marbles;\
	/CDROM/maps/meshmap1;\
	/CDROM/maps/meshmap2;\
	/CDROM/maps/metals;\
	/CDROM/maps/patterns;\
	/CDROM/maps/patterns/blues;\
	/CDROM/maps/patterns/browns;\
	/CDROM/maps/patterns/greens;\
	/CDROM/maps/patterns/greys;\
	/CDROM/maps/patterns/groovy;\
	/CDROM/maps/patterns/prints;\
	/CDROM/maps/patterns/purples;\
	/CDROM/maps/patterns/reds;\
	/CDROM/maps/patterns/yellows;\
	/CDROM/maps/topical;\
	/CDROM/maps/wipes;\
	/CDROM/maps/woods"

	where /usr/3ds4/maps is the 3DS renderer texture map directory
	and /CDROM/... paths point to the 3DS World Creating Toolkit CD
	(500MB of texture files).

3DS2IV:

	Usage:	3ds2iv path/file.3ds
	
	Will grab the file (and any textures found) and place the
	resulting IV file (and RGB texture maps) in the current
	directory.  Any texture map files not found (or not convertable)
	will be saved as links to the file "blank.rgb".  After the
	conversion is done, use the command "file *.rgb" and look for
	any symbolic links (these represent missing texture files).  To
	replace the missing file, remove the link and replace it with an
	RGB texture map image.
	

FILE TYPE RULES:

	For the swank Gooey user, you can drag and drop to your heart's
	content, by installing the Indigo Magic support for 3DS:
	
	> su
	# cp *.ft? /usr/lib/filetype/local
	# cd /usr/lib/filetype
	# make


WEB BROWSING:

	To peruse 3DS and DXF files from the comfort of you Web browser,
	just add the magic bits in AddTo.mime.types and AddTo.mailcap to
	your personal Mime files and reload the definitions with
	Netscape.
	

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