I've just begun experimenting with importing 3ds files, and the results are mixed. Birdman's 3ds car models from sharecg come in with opaque windows, and the initial size is enormous. Adjusting the size after importing is easy, of course, but I haven't figured out what to do about the opaque windows. Any suggestions?

If there are material groupings set for the model, you will need to go into the Material Room and modify the transparencies or replace the glass with actual glass shaders.

Agree with above,you will need to replace or modify shader for windows,usually turn transparency to 1 and depends if you are want to have reflections then this can be achieved through few ways and depends if its Firefly or Superfly shader etc

Hope this helps

Thanks,Jura

hborre and jura11, thanks for the pointers. It looks like there's a problem with the way Birdman does things, because I saw another poster mention that elsewhere and when I look at the files in the material room, I can't identify the windows.

Birdman does not give his materials logical names. Trial and Error are your only friends here. I choose a really obnoxious and bright color (Think Hi Vis Orange) for the diffuse color and see where it shows up. Eventually, I find the windows.

Excellent tip! I'll try it soon.