3DS Export for Solid Edge is a 3D Studio (.3ds) file export add-in for Solid Edge®. This add-in gives Solid Edge the ability to export 3D solid and surface data from a Solid Edge part or assembly document to 3d polygon meshes in a 3DS file.

3DS Export for Solid Edge tessellates solid bodies in a Solid Edge document into a set of triangular meshes. These meshes are then exported to a 3DS file as mesh objects. The 3DS file can then be imported into a variety of CAD applications.

3DS Export for Solid Edge is very easy to use. Once installed, it automatically loads itself into Solid Edge and adds a new submenu called "3DS Export for Solid Edge" to the Solid Edge Applications menu.

The '3DS Export for Solid Edge' menu consists of the following commands:
# Export - Export meshes to a 3DS file
# Help - Display the 3DS Export for Solid Edge help file
# Register - Register your copy of 3DS Export for Solid Edge
# About - Display the 3DS Export for Solid Edge About box

3DS Export for Solid Edge comes with detailed documentation for each command as well as a tutorial to get you started in the shortest possible time.


The 3DS File Format

The 3DS file format is the native file format of 3D Studio. 3D Studio has now been replaced by 3ds Max whose native file format has a .max file extension. However, 3ds Max is still able to read and write .3ds files. 3ds Max is one of the most widely-used off the shelf 3D animation programs. It has strong modeling capabilities, a flexible plug-in architecture and a long heritage on the Microsoft Windows platform. It is mostly used by video game developers, TV commercial studios and architectural visualization studios. It is also used for movie effects and movie pre-visualization.