What if you have another format, such as the popular Wavefront OBJ format, or Direct X files? Is there a way to import these into Amapi without shelling out too many additional $$$ ?

Well, I don't have a universal answer to this question, but at least for the PC/Windows platform, I've found a few programs recently which I like, so I'd like to share this with you. The goal was to find a program which is a 3D file format converter, and which reads and writes many of the formats that Amapi can handle, such as 3D Studio (*.3ds), VRML 1.0 (*.wrl) or DXF (*.dxf) files. In addition, such file converter would have to be freeware or very affordable shareware, and it must import and export Wavefront OBJ files. Native Lightwave would also be cool, and some game formats like Direct X.

You may find that in this way, you can indirectly  import your OBJ files into Amapi (at least the geometry part of it). You can also convert an Amapi model from one of the many formats which Amapi offers to OBJ. 

Here's the programs I've found so far. I've tested them for the OBJ import/export and saved to .3ds, .wrl and/or .dxf and been able to get the data into Amapi. Feel free to contact me if you know of others which can be used in this context, especially for the MacOS.

3D Converters for the PC:

• Crossroads 3D  by Keith Rule (free) - it's gone?! anyone knows where it is now?
  
• 3DWin by Thomas Baier - (29 Euros - still one of the best!)
• AccuTrans 3D by MicroMouse Productions (very affordable - just $20)

• Infographic's MYRIAD imports IGES and other CAD formats and exports 3DS - interesting
• HiJaak Wow! 115 File formats, including IGES, SAT and other CAD formats. Lots of image formats too  (not free, but perhaps worth the money when you need SAT or IGES) - TBD
• Here's a long list of CAD converters (tenlinks.com)
• Transmagic, Inc.'s converter - new, need some feedback

• 3D Exploration very cool! A Great product, now owned  by Right Hemisphere

• Zoltan Karpati's 3D Object Converter - Wow! $40 shareware has 273 file formats

here's the latest:  ftp://ftp.elf.stuba.sk/pub/pc/graph/3dc32144.zip
(Release date: Nov 3, 2002)
(Supported file formats: 273)
(File size: 1.358.201 bytes) 
• Okino's PolyTrans  (not free, and in fact a little bit pricey, but it does the job)
• quick3d also with a nice tool to regenerate normals or invert them
• 3dreducer - VRML 1 + 2, with emphasis on decimation(polygon reduction). This really is a decimator with a few file formats supported, not really a converter. But you never know what the future may bring. It's free at the time of this writing (version 1.2 - Oct 2001). Note that Amapi 5 and 6 also have a decimation built in.

New: 3dreducer has moved to http://www.VIZup.com
• Milkshape 3D - a 3D modeler targeted at game and low-poly modeling, very affordable (free? almost. It's shareware: free for 30 days and $20 thereafter) and with extensive texturing support, as well as many many file formats, of course many for the game industry (Quake, Unreal, .x, etc...). The only limitation of importance I've noticed so far in my limited tests is that it doesn't appear to handle 'large' models. It is really designed for low-polygon model creation  the way they want them in games. For example I couldn't get to see all the polygons of the famous elephant tutorial with strong  smoothing (over 16,000 polygons). In another test with only minimal smoothing the model of the body had about 700+ polygons, and exports from Amapi into Milkshape work very well. Even more so, several exports from Milkshape import nicely back into Amapi. While DXF and OBJ appeared to put all objects (body and two eyes) into a single object ID when re-importing into Amapi, I don't know if it's in the export from Milkshape or in the import into Amapi that it did this. The 3DS (Autodesk 3D Studio) and VRML 1.0 exports from Milkshape worked best in that each part was still recognized as its own part, i.e. not grouped or welded with the rest. And in the 3DS case it even still had the original part names which I had applied to them (body, left and right) in Amapi at the start before exporting from it with the 3DS format. In my opinion this is a very promising converter if you have to get your models from game engine's formats such as Quake, Half-Life, Unreal, Serious Sam, Gamestudio, The Sims, Max Payne and many others... into Amapi. (or Carrara). Thanks Mete, and Gruetzi!
• Wings3D, a free (and open source) 3D modeler written in a programming language called Erlang by Björn Gustavsson of Stockholm and a number of other contributors mostly in Sweden also. Inspired by Nendo, this is an interesting modeler in a number of ways, and it exports and imports 3DS as well as OBJ so you can use it as a converter to exports 3DS from Amapi and then convert to OBJ. Wings also exports to Hash AnimationMaster and VRML 2 so again if you have Amapi 4 or 5 and need VRML 2 or any version of Amapi and need export to A.M. here's a way to do it. For MacOS X and Windows (and more, Linux I think, as it's openSource...)

3D Converters for the MAC:

• Keep looking here http://www.macweb3d.org/
• http://www.vargr.com/imagery/imagery3d.html Yes, there's now an OBJ option there too!
• uvmapper from Steve Cox, the free version (uvmapper Classic) does OBJ and is for Mac and PC, there is a pro version ($50). 
• The 3dgraphics page at about.com can also list some more.
• Wings3D is for Windows and MacOS X - read this

Looking for more? I will occasionally search the web for new converters like these mentioned here.  Time to  Goooooooooooooooooogle!

Here's one example I found through Google: a great starting point: http://dmoz.org/Computers/CAD/Viewers/