Improved OBJ import

[Dann-O]

Well I have been using AH3D for a bit and find it handy but there are a few thigns I do not like. The OBJ import is a big one. I get the mesh in as only 1 piece not as seperate parts. Also it does nto recognise color regions either. The UV maps works but importing a head you made in another app the eyes are part of the head mesh when you exported. I sit in the works to improve this. I can import a 3DS and it reconises individual parts and colors but it triangualtes the mesh.

[Dennis]

It does look like colored surfaces aren't imported correctly into AC3D from OBJ files (just tested this). This looks like something that definitely needs to be addressed.

The problem with "breaking up" objects in the OBJ importer is due to the way geometry is stored in an OBJ file versus the way AC3D handles geometry.

The "parts" in an OBJ file may point to vertices that belong to different "parts". In AC3D, a vertex can only belong to one object. So, the "parts" have to be merged into a single object in order for shared vertices to be recognized. Without this, you'd end up with vertices being duplicated, and smoothing across different parts would no longer work (you'd end up with seams).

Assuming you're using AC3D 6:

In your example of importing a head and the eyes being all part of the same object, there is a workaround. Select one of the surfaces in the eye and perform an : Edit -> Select Surfaces -> Connected. Unless the eye is split for some reason, this will select all of the surfaces in the eye, and you can then do a : Surface -> Cut Away Object.

If you're on version 5, try this plugin:

http://supercoldmilk.com/ac3dplug/selconn.html

Good luck

[Dann-O]

Thanks Dennis I hope this can be resoved in the future. Maybe a dialog when you import. (do you want to bring in teh colrs as seperate groups?) I have version 6 so I will try the trick you mentioned in the future. It is your hair plug in that did this. I like yoru hair plug in and was importing a model I made In wings to add hair and the eyes were not seperated and I made different texture zones for the iris pupil etc.

I like a lot of your plug ins and use the greeble and hair a lot Also like the twist one too. I am enjoying thsi software I think one thing that can be improved also is edge handling selecting edge loops and rings. I still use Wings for a lto of my organic stuff but most of the mechanical models I have moved over to AC3D.

[latego]

I have noticed a bug on export: you assign custom named materials and save. The .ac file contains the names you gave but if you try to export it into .OBJ, you are back to acmat_xxx.