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Old 20th August 2009, 12:30 PM   #1
coldby
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Default naming the materials

Hi all, long time no see... but even though my work coopted the best part of my time, I never actually stopped updating and using AC3D.

Now I'm facing a minor but annoying problem: as I export in .obj format the materials are named "acmat0", 'acmat1', 'acmat2' and so on, 1-to-1 with the standard mats as long as no textures are involved and no new mats were defined, apparently at random as soon as things start to grow more complicated.
Then in the final application I still have to find out what is what (by selectively hiding each part), pencil-write down a correspondence table, run a dumb program I contrived to rename the mats, and eventually reload it all.
Neither difficult nor challenging but undeniably boring and time-consuming.

It would be so much easier to have the possibility of calling each mat, say, "brass", "light wood", "dial", "you name it" directly within AC3D, and then having them exported with the proper names, which would make any further retouching or retexturing a walk on the beach.

Is there any hope?
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Old 21st August 2009, 05:07 PM   #2
lisa
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Default Re: naming the materials

If you go into the settings, on the advanced tab there's a checkbox "enable material name editing". This adds a name field to the material properties dialog.

I don't think all of the exporters will obey this, but many of them will.
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Old 24th August 2009, 03:33 AM   #3
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Smile Re: naming the materials

WOW, thanks!!!

Going to try it out here and now...
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Old 24th August 2009, 04:48 AM   #4
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Default Re: naming the materials

Alas, it works, but within AC3D only!
In the exported files (all formats I tried so far) the materials were still named "acmat0, 1, 2...".

Still worse, once materials are renamed those nefarious "acmatX" disappear entirely from the .ac file, thus there seems to be no easy way to build a cross-reference table automatically - unless the exporters number the mats progressively after their order in the .ac file; in that case contriving a simple prog to build the x-ref table and rename them in the .obj shouldn't really take long.

As soon as I can (right now I'm expected to take care of my boring Monday stuff) I'm going to check that last possibility and let you know.
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Old 24th August 2009, 05:21 AM   #5
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Default Re: naming the materials

Another solution here : import your ac file into blender and then export to OBJ from there ... works well
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Old 24th August 2009, 07:56 AM   #6
coldby
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Default Re: naming the materials

Thanks luuckyy, I'll try that. Dont have Blender but I hear it's shareware - hope I got it right else my wife would kill me

Luuckyy, your bloody avatar... three times I tried to wipe that stupid fly off my monitor before realising what it actually was :-[)))
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Old 24th August 2009, 03:04 PM   #7
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Default Re: naming the materials

Blender is free / open source.

Just curious--what file format are you trying to export to?
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Old 25th August 2009, 05:10 AM   #8
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Default Re: naming the materials

In .obj, Lisa - the one and only format DS can import directly, though most of the times disregarding the materials - it's so nice when a software stops behaving deterministically, isn't it?

That's why reassigning materials and textures in DS takes so long: no way to know what is what, other than making the single parts transparent one at a time and writing down what has disappeared - nearly as fun as waiting for the outcome of an exam, but less rewarding

I've downloaded and installed Blender but still have to try it out. Is it at least a little user-friendly?
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Old 25th August 2009, 02:48 PM   #9
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Default Re: naming the materials

Quote:
Originally Posted by coldby View Post
I've downloaded and installed Blender but still have to try it out. Is it at least a little user-friendly?
Good question , Blender's GUI is a little bit ... special.
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Old 26th August 2009, 01:45 PM   #10
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Default Re: naming the materials

Heh, heh. Lucky, you are soooo right.

For OBJs though, there's an easier solution. You can use my "Poser" export plugin for AC3D. You can download it here: http://www.independentdeveloper.com/...oserexport.zip

All a Poser file is is an OBJ plus a PZ3 for the scene file. You can use the OBJ and throw the PZ3 away.

The OBJ exporter with the plugin supports material names as Poser needed them too, so hopefully it should do what you need.

Last edited by lisa; 26th August 2009 at 01:47 PM. Reason: try to be nice, being sleepy, felt like editing, doh
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