Problem exporting object to 3ds format
tdrd
Posts: 0
I have been requested from someone off ShareCG to export my cottages as 3ds.
I have tried with and without LAA and I have 4Gb Ram on WinXP Pro but every time I export, Bryce freezes up completely.
Please could anyone tell me why this is the case.
I am still building the other PC with Windows7 on it, Not sure if that would resolve the issue, but in any case it should not be doing this on the existing PC anyhow.
Thanks in advance for any feedback.
Terry
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Comments
Not a big Bryce user myself but have you by any chance got some Booleens in the modelling. From memeory you have to set them solid before exporting.
I know combined objects will not export. Don't know how to set them as solids anyhow...
No, these objects are in their original states and will export to OBP, OBJ... but not 3ds.
Terry
I think what Szark is saying is that you need to convert all boolean (combined) components into meshes.
You have done this in the past if you didn't realise, it's the little 'C' (collapse) button in the object's little side menu.
Doing this may affect your textures again so it isn't necessarily an easy task, but it's the only way to save as 3Ds as from memory, that format doesn't support or recognise boolean objects.
I just tested both a booleen and a single primative and tried to export both as 3ds and Bryce 7.1 froze each time.
For future reference when you have a booleen you will get a C added to the small side menu when the Booleen Group is select. Click the C to set the Booleen. Sometimes they will export and sometimes they don't.
I also just tried a single primitive and a boolean.
The single primitive exported fine and imported fine into Poser.
When I created the boolean, Bryce wouldn't even let me chose to export it (that option was greyed out).
Then I converted it to a mesh and it exported fine and imported in to Poser fine.
I'm on a Mac so I don't know if that makes any difference.
Another thing that may be causing problems for you tdrd is the textures you have applied.
I believe you are using picture based textures? maybe the size/resolution of the picture is causing or adding to the export problem?
PS: And will someone please fix this forum software!!!!!
I just tried it also on the Windows7 PC and I got bad I/O error.
I'm too tired tonight to do any more on it. Will investigate this tomorrow...
Terry
Because of the answers my curiosity was peaked so I loaded an object I created and looked to see how it could be saved. Save, Save As, and Export Image were active. I could Export Image but 3ds was not one of the extensions available. Export Object was grayed, not working. After clicking on 'C' Export Image was active and 3ds was the default extension that came up.
And all this got me wondering. The objects I created using Boolean operations were added to the Object Library without converting. That means I'll need to open them, convert them and add them again to the Object Library. There aren't that many objects, so it won't take long. But learning this may have saved me hours of bang my head against the wall later on. Another good question Terry. Thanks for asking it, I learned something important.
The best way is to put the booleaned and "materialised" object into the objects library. It can be exported but only be used in Bryce. The problem with exporting as 3DS or OBJ is that the material is converted to an image and bump is lost.
Any object put into the object library is converted to a Bryce specific format (Axiom). When it is loaded from the library, it is already in the correct format and needs not be converted again (loads faster). It is usually also possible to get the object from the library and export it as 3DS or OBJ or whatever. But only if a booleaned object was [C]ollapsed. It can only be collapsed if the group is set to positive, if I remember correctly.
Also one should consider why the person requesting the model wants it in .3ds? I mean if you promote it as an object made for Bryce then there should be no need to convert it to 3DS. If the person downloading it plans to use it in Bryce then there is no benefit to it being turned into a 3DS format. In fact since the material setting might be altered or lost you could argue it makes things worse.
There are or at least seem to be alot of people who just like collecting 3D models with their only real criteria that it look reasonably decent and true to life. 3DS is a popular format that's been around a long time and as such virtually every 3D program can import it and virtually every converter program can convert it to other formats.
Now if this person who mades the request absolutely, positively needs your model because he's been trying to find a model that matches his vision of a cottage and yours fits it to a tee then so be it. However I can pretty much guarentee you there are a ton of both free and paid for models in .3DS or similar format already that are made for other 3D programs already and look as good if not better then yours. I'd be very skeptical this person really needs your model and so you're likely putting yourself thru alot of frustration for nothing. If I were you I'd just explain that it was made for Bryce and as such if you convert it alot of the detail would be lost and so you'd rather leave it as a Bryce only resource.
I agree that if the person wanting to use it is using Bryce then why bother to go for a 3ds format, but supposing they are not using Bryce ;-)
None of the replies so far as I can see explain why I get a Bad IO error when saving it on my brand new Windows7 PC.
It crashes on the 32 bit OS so ot could even be the same bug in another disguise of course...
Daz studio writes fine to it so why not Bryce??? COULD IT BE BECAUSE BRYCE can not write to a 64 bit filesystem??? One wonders if this is the case... Does anyone else run Bryce on a Windows64 bit system?
On other matters - I will mail the person back and ask why they want 3ds specifically... will another format be netter or what package they are using.... and so on...
Thanks for the comment.
After reading this twice, I'm understanding I don't need to [C[ollapse the object before adding it to the Object Library as long as I plan to use it only within Bryce. But if I'm going to Export the object then it needs to be [C]ollapsed before saving as whichever file extension I choose. Especially if the object will be exported with the 3ds or obj file extensions. Do I have this right Horo?
Something in the back of my mind tells me when I was sharing images on ShareCG I included both jpg and png files. That way the person wanting the image could decide which format they wanted. And with using GIMP, saving multiple file extensions is simply a matter of changing the file extension before saving the image.
I'm using Bryce on Win7 Pro and most others here are also using it on 64 bit OS's even Pam now, well once she gets it installed. I don't think it's that. I myself do get some odd errors importing to Bryce, haven't tried exporting from it though. I'm inclined to believe that if anything there is some missing .dll file responsible for the problem seeing as how windows 7 already lacks at least one .dll file which causes that side by side error when trying to install bryce 7 pro on a windows 7 machine.
As for the scenario of what if they don't want it for Bryce. Well there is no way around the fact that you'll lose the bump, and the texture mapping may be changed so if you convert your model to .3ds it's not going to look anywhere near as good as it does now and there is now way around that. The person expressing interest probably doesn't know that and is likely not going to be interested in it once it's altered. Or they may even expect you to make it right for them in the .3ds format. If you're ready willing and able to do that then fine but if not your best off just saying it's for Bryce only and leave it at that. As I said there are plenty of 3d cottages out there likely already in .3DS format or another format that will convert to .3DS with less problems. Here's some examples:
http://www.gfx-3d-model.com/2008/06/house-04/
http://www.gfx-3d-model.com/2008/06/house-3d-model/
http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/paper-english-thatched-house-3ds-free/612282
http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/maya-cottage/420104
http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/free-medieval-house-3d-model/557527
http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/house-polygons-3d-max/499048
Point being there are plenty of free options out there already in the desired format or that won't be affected the same converting to .3ds as your Bryce model would be. So unless there is something extremely unique about your model then I doubt this person really needs it more likely is just collecting models and he wants it in .3DS format because he has no intention of ever using Bryce. So my advice stands that you'd be better off just leaving it as a Bryce only model.
I am inclined to agree with you @LordHardDriven. It actually did not crash the windows XP computer but took over 45 minutes to export it to a 3ds file with the meshes.
I've done it for cottage 1 to prove it can be done, but in future it's a Bryce file - take it or leave it!
As for the Windows7 PC - no go it will not export to 3ds at all and it remains to be seen if it can export to other formats also.
I must admit I do collect clothing and figures for Daz Studio if I think they'll come in useful too - also textures for Bryce.
Terry
Well the problem I mentioned I experience is on the import side. Every time I try to import an .obj directly into Bryce I get this error that says "An Unexpected Error has occured (failed creation)" but I can bring the same .obj in just fine thru Studio. Now I did test importing a .3DS model of an airplane and it went fine but then I tried exporting a simple sphere as a .3ds and got an input/output error and something about bad media. So it's still looking to me like some issue within windows 7 because I've had others say they're able to import .obj's and export .3ds files fine on their Windows 7 system. Now alot of folks copy things over when they upgrade their computers and so maybe in so doing they transfered a necessary .dll that isn't in Windows 7? That's the only way I can think of it working on some windows 7 systems and not working on others. To date nobody I have asked has had a clue as to why this problem happens. They all just say things like "Works fine on my computer" which while I'm happy for them that their's works it does nothing to help me to fix mine that doesn't.
Oh one other thing in talking back and forth with Horo about converting models to use in Bryce I remember him mentioning something about going to .3ds on some files because he couldn't get .obj to work and I notiged the file sizes he said they became as .3ds was way bigger then they were as .obj like 100's of megabytes bigger which is another reason not to mess with converting to 3DS and is probably why the one computer took so long, I bet if you check the file size it's a pretty big file.
I'm working with Win 7 64-bit and Bryce has no problems with it. I imported a OBJ file of 615 MB a fortnight ago and could neither save the Bryce scene with it nor put the object into the library. Always Out of Memory. What I could do, though, is export it as 3DS (which surprised me considerably). I could also load the 3DS file after quitting and restarting Bryce. The object had no material and was default grey.
Have you tried to send the cottage over the bridge to Studio and export it from there?
Yes. Booleaned objects could be saved to the objects library before we got the Collapse option. In fact, it's better to save as uncollapsed because you can easily access any sub-object and give it a new material.