.3ds to .obj converter?

Is there a common opensource/gnu program that everyone is using to convert 3ds file types over to .obj files? I ask because a lot of 3ds files I get from the web do not get imported correctly, or as I would like them to be! :confused:

Seems they are badly scrambled or missing parts.

Thanks in advance for any help!

It would seem after this amount of time that there are no programs being used for this so I am hoping that someone can point me to a tread that will help me to solve my problem?

Thanks again!

If you are using Blender 2.44 then there is confirmed bug in .3ds import script, read more from here: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=98434

Edit: Is there a chance I could get a copy of the import script that worked for you? I haven’t a clue where to look for it.

Thank you for your reply S-T-S,

Seems I might have to wait for the next release to fix my problem, I already have python 2.5 and tried the fixed script but I still get garbled imports :frowning:

Its ok for me though… I only wanted to see how a few other objects where made by more advanced modelers.

Thanks again!

I got a copy of the older script from here…

http://download.blender.org/release/Blender2.43/

Cheers it works’

Hi S-M,

Have you tried SourceForge - i was looking for a dxf coverter and I came across


blurb sounds like it might be a start - there are others in there too.

Although it’s not free, you can get a very inexpensive 3d model converter from www.kalsaya.com called Pipeline3D. To directly download go to http://www.kalsaya.com/downloads.htm

This is quite old thread, but the issue is still relevant as Blender 2.45 has problems with .3ds importing. Quick fix for Blender 2.45 is to replace the script called 3ds_import.py with the one that came with Blender 2.43. You can download that scrip from here:

http://uploader.polorix.net//files/393/Misc/3ds_import.zip

Unzip it to Blender scripts folder (Folder can be found from here: blender_base_dir.blender\scripts). After that Blender 2.45 can correctly import .3ds files again.

About the file conversion. There is also excellent modeling program, Silo 2 that you can download and try out. After the trial period it can still be used as a free 3D file conversion program (although it doesn’t support that many file formats, it can import 6 formats and export to 9 formats). You can read about & download it from their homepage: http://www.nevercenter.com/

Also Wings 3D (the free modeling program) is able to import / export some file formats.