If you are familiar with other programs for Microsoft Windows or the X Window system, you should have no trouble using Interchange.

This chapter describes the conversion of a 3D Studio model to a Wavefront model. From the Start menus, select the Interchange menu item. The Interchange window opens.

First choose the file to convert. The left side of the Interchange window performs all the actions possible in any Microsoft Windows file dialog. With it, you select files to convert.

The left side of the window holds the Source Directory list box that shows all the directories in the current directory, the Source Drives combo box that shows all the disk drives on your system, the Source File Name edit control containing a wildcard specification such as "*.3DS" and below that, the Source File Name list box showing all the files in the current directory that match that wildcard specification, if any.

Select source directory
Now choose the 3D model file to convert. Using the Source Directory list box and the Source Drive combo box, move to the directory where your 3D Studio files are stored.

You can easily see all "*.3DS" files in the current Source directory by choosing the "3D Studio mesh .3DS;.PRJ" entry in the Import Format combo box on the lower left of the Interchange window. Selecting this changes the Source File Name edit control to the wildcard "*.3DS;*.PRJ", so only files with these extensions are shown in the list box below.

Select file to convert
Double-click on a file name in the Source File Name list box. The file name is copied to the Selected Files list box. Note that the Selected Files list shows the full path name, not just the filename shown in the Source File Name list box. If you want to convert more than one file, you can select them at this time, too. Interchange makes it easy to convert more than one file at a time.

Choose destination file format
Next choose the destination file format for the converted object. Make your selection in the Export Format combo box on the lower right of the Interchange window. "Wavefront .obj" should be an entry in this list.

Select destination directory
Finally, choose the directory where the converted file will be created. Like the left side, the right side of the Interchange window acts like any other Microsoft Windows file dialog. Use the Destination Directory list box and the Destination Drive combo box to set the place where you'd like to store the Wavefront file.

Begin the conversion
Interchange has all the information it needs to convert this 3D Studio file to Wavefront format. Click the Convert button to begin the conversion.

Conversion complete
A status dialog appears, showing the progress of the conversion. When it goes away, the conversion is complete. The new Wavefront file appears in the Destination Files list box.

Conversion options
Most Interchange Converters have an Option dialog that controls how objects are imported or exported from that format.

If you wanted to change the options used in the next conversion, click the Options button next to the Import Format or the Export Format combo boxes.

For example, click the Option button next to the Export Format combo box. The Wavefront Converter's Option dialog appears.

For example, one option controls the type of text line endings in the file that Interchange creates. By default, the Wavefront Converter creates files with Unix-style line endings, which is very handy if you are writing directly to a shared network drive on a Silicon Graphics machine. If you want to create files with DOS line endings, click the DOS (CR/LF) button in the Line ending group. The next time you convert to Wavefront format, the resulting files will have DOS-style line endings.

Click OK to continue. Interchange will store these settings on disk and use them for all future conversions. If you click Cancel, no changes will be made to the Converter's settings.