Import Rhino/ProE Date with normals

[dettty]

Is there a way to import Rhino or other 3D CAD data into Blender with correct vertex normals? Blender ignores completely the imported normals and also with setting the files to smooth mode they look awefull when rendered. We want to implement Blender more into our Render Pipeline but with rebuilding the normals its too much of a hassle.

[debris]

This is a very hot topic for me as well.
All the answers I googled are negative as Blender just doesn't seem to recognize / use vertex normals.
This feature is absolutely crucial when it comes to rendering CAD and other hard surface objects.
It really is a shame, as there are so many extremely nice and powerful renderers (Yafaray, Lux, Cycles, ...) available for product visualization in Blender but the polymeshes are unusable.
And no, pressing "Recalculate Normals" or "Smooth" is not an option...

[debris]

I can't believe that this seems to be no problem for most people... How are you guys doing serious product shots or architectural visualization without proper vertex normal support in Blender?

[stiv]

There are people using blender for architectural visualization, but you are more likely to find them at the user forums on blenderartists.org rather than here, on the developer forums.

From what little I know of the domain, they tend to use external renderers.

[debris]

Thanks for the hint. I'll check over there.
I also plan to use external renderers (namely Yafaray and Luxrender), but these also rely on vertex normals which Blender simply cannot pass through to them.