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I created a landscape full size in Autodesk Inventor from shapes I traced using AutoCAD. I made it from a chart of Charleston Harbor that was created in 1861. It is about 8 x 10 nautical miles square. I made extruded shapes and brought the file into 3DS Max so that I could export an FBX file that I brought into Blender. The shapes seem to have come in fine, but they drift in and out of the visible space as I rotate the view. It appears that I have exceeded the size of mesh that I can use. enter image description here

Can you tell me what the limits are for importing meshes into Blender?enter image description here

How would you approach this?

I intend to use in my Blender class it to get my students to recreate the "Race to Freedom" of a steamship that was commandeered by Robert Smalls a slave and turned over to the Union Blockade of Ft. Sumter in 1862.

Can you place an image into Blender that is that large? I mean a full scale chart of Charleston Harbor.

Is it possible to scale a reference image that big and accurately inside Blender?

Bithur
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Randy Van Nostrand
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    AFAIK there is no limit (only your hardware) , for the view limit you are facing there is an clipping option 3D_view->right side panel ->view->clipping_end change this value – Chebhou Mar 10 '15 at 20:03
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    This one is inspiring on how to import cities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ROxTnD3E0, the area you're trying to cover is way too large to be more than cubes with roofs (IMHO). – stacker Mar 10 '15 at 21:52
  • somehow related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/23787/need-advice-for-creating-a-simple-scene-with-very-large-dimensions –  Mar 11 '15 at 14:58

1 Answers1

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You need to set clipping limits for 3D view and for camera:

enter image description here enter image description here

kilbee
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    Please don't highlight the images like that, in the future - it's kinda annoying to lot at... Please use just an outline, instead of a filled rectangular-ish shape – someonewithpc Mar 10 '15 at 21:05
  • Clipping limits is exactly what I needed. Thanks. As far as the highlights, they don't bother me but I don't think they were needed. The screen captures said it all. – Randy Van Nostrand Mar 11 '15 at 16:41
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    I've used this several times in class now. Thanks again! – Randy Van Nostrand Mar 31 '15 at 18:42
  • Does the clipping apply to the 3D view window even if there is no camera, or does it only apply to a camera? – uhoh Nov 28 '16 at 04:28
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    @uhoh it does indeed apply to 3D view even if a camera is absent. It is also worth noting that having too small a Start value relative to your model size will cause drawing issues - for instance if your part is 10,000 units wide and your Start value is 0.001 it will not display properly. – splic May 08 '17 at 23:41