Objects do not export to .3DS correctly...

[dr21702]

TFP does not export all objects correctly to .3DS. The problem seems to mainly with complex objects such as furniture. Attached is a rendering by 3DS Max 6 of a exported project containing just a grill. The vertexes are correct but the normals and textures are not being exported correctly. Is there any patch or other fix for this?

  Also, are there plans to support newer formats for export? 3DS and VRML are obsolete and have been replaced by MAX and X3D respectively.

Thanks

[Doug.S]

I'm not a programmer, just a common TFP user...and I don't represent IMSI in any way...

I have not run into this yet but if you tell us what file exactly, maybe I'll give it a try...I use TCAD, Carrara, and Hexagon.

But my usual approach is to reset/check normals in the importing program...3dsmax for you

That said, there are different versions of .3ds file format and some programs do not export exactly correct for other programs or other programs do not read the file correctly....sometime even within the same software company.

Another approach is to open the exported file to 3D program and re-save it as .3ds and/or use a file converter program to re-save or save to another format...all in an attempt to "fix" the file....sometimes works, sometimes not.

Also recommend you post your request for other file formats in the "feature requests" category

[dr21702]

Basically for the above test, I simply created a new TFP project, removed all the walls/roof, placed that BBQ grill down, and then exported to .3DS. The same thing happens for most furniture as well. I tried 2 other .3DS viewer programs, same result, I also have have a .3DS viewer I coded myself, same result. The exported .3DS file from TFP is the most basic .3DS format, it doesn't do anything unusual. The .3DS file contains a list of "faces", which are sets 3 vertexes defining the triangular solid or "normal" and it seems that some sets are either missing or backwards which causes the "gaps" in the mesh such as the lid of the grill being missing in the picture. Lanscaping does not export correctly also, the material/texture settings are bad so the trees and bushes appear as solid blocks.

If 3D Studio itself can't even read the file right there really isn't much point in trying other pograms. There is no way to for identify the incorrect data automatically, it would have to hand corrected after import. My primary use of TFP is for quickly re-creating a 3D virtual version of homes for a home automation system I'm developing which uses an animated 3D model of the home. It will take too much effort to manually repair all the meshes.

Fortunately the VRML export is appears to be clean, I have only 1 viewer for that format but it everything appears correctly. If there is no fix for this I'll have to code an importer for VRML or try another product.

[Doug.S]

Just for kicks I exported the bbq as .3ds and it seems OK.  I did nothing with textures or normals or anything. see attached.

I did "hide" the terrain before exporting and inserted the lone bbq on the terrain, no other items inserted or deleted

I imported the .3ds into Carrara (another general purpose 3D prog) and rendered the .jpg
My 3D Quick View viewer also showed .3ds file as OK.

[dr21702]

Interesting...which version of TFP are you using?

I've attached a .ZIP containing the .3DS file and .JPG exported from TFP here. Can you view it ok?

[dr21702]

Well this isn't good, I'm getting the same results with your .3DS file. This would mean 3D Studio Max isn't importing its own legacy format right. I'm going to have to dig up the older version of 3D Studio and see what results I get. I'm also going to have to figure out why these 3 viewer programs can't render it correctly either.

[dr21702]

I modified my viewer to double side the vertex faces and the result is much better, there are no more gaps in the mesh. The textures are off in the picture because I haven't adjusted to code for them yet. I'm going to have to study this more. Thanks for your help.

[Doug.S]

Interesting...which version of TFP are you using?

There is only one version of TFP to date...TFP12  (12.00.C1.551) except there is a metric and an imperial version