It has been tested on many 3ds files supplied from many customers and has been improved so that it can read 3D objects from all common 3ds file and even from some partially broken 3ds files (some of that files cannot be read by 3D Studio Max).
After the models are read, they can be easily shown in any WPF application.
If you are working for some other platform, you can use Reader3ds to read the data from 3ds file and then read the data from easy to use WPF 3D objects.
Reader3ds also comes with Viewer3ds that can be used to convert 3ds files into XAML.
Features of Reader3ds:
Read Positions, TriangleIndices, TextureCoordinates and Normals.
Read object hierarchy and object names.
Read Smoothing Groups - data that define which edges are sharp and which are smooth.
Read animations from keyframes data.
Read all lights and cameras.
Read solid color materials, texture materials and specular materials (specular materials are adjusted to be correctly displayed in WPF).
Read multi-sub materials (breaks objects into more if one object contains more than one material).
Included simple transparency sorting.
Integrated tga image reader.
Get formated XAML with GetXaml method.
Simplified transforming of objects with Transformer3ds class.
Simplified playing animations with Animator3ds class.
Reporting progress while reading 3ds files.
Fully managed code.
Tested with thousands of 3ds files.
Can run in WPF Browser (partially trusted) applications.
Diagram how to get 3D models from 3D modelling application to WPF application:
Screenshots of some 3D models read from 3ds files:
