How well does Modo work with LightWave?

[WoodyLWG]

Well, modo uses LWO2 as its "native" file format, so the hiccups are relatively minor.
My personal experience has shown that it's better to model and assign generic surfaces
in modo, then refine in LightWave. modo has some way to go yet with surfacing, which
will be well addressed in the new 201 update. :)
Since modo doesn't have bones, your skelegons are loaded into modo as 2 point polys,
so be careful not to delete them if you're doing quick mesh clean-up and aren't paying
close attention. As far as scale and object continuity go, I've experienced no problems at all.
Another area to be aware of is that until LW[9] is out, n-gons and edge weighting will not
be supported - so you've gotta either squash your n-gons to quads and not use edge weights,
or freeze and optimize your mesh. modo gives you the ability to check your work prior to
using it in LightWave, as both Subdivision Surfaces and SubPatches are supported by the application.

So, I suppose I'd give an outrageous 9 out of 10 on the compatibility scale.

[Cosmo]

modo 103 has an export option for .lwo format.

i use both modo and modeler for modeling never had any serious problems.

[minus23]

It was touched on above already. But the N-Gons and Edge weighting are for me... the biggest hurdles. Of course you CAN get around this by freezing everything in Modo. This can make for dense meshes of course but you do get out what you see. I'm not sure Lightwave 9 will even support the edge weights here. Luxology is a bit out on this one. Using the edge weights in Modo is a dream and can REALLY make for having very little geometry makes modeling a lot of things very fast too. Maya for a bit only allowed edge weights of 0 or 100% and while they now allow everything in between... I'm not sure if the Modo export in Maya format is translating correctly for this. (I simply dont' know)

Lightwave of course allows weight maps for edgeweighting ... and this is variable. It uncertain I think if the new LW9 will use the same way of storing edgeweights in the .lwo format that Modo is using. That would be GREAT.

In the meantime though... if I'm rendering / animating in LW... I just model in Modo like you do in Lightwave. Adding edges to sharpen your subdivides and sticking to quads if possible. Even using modo in this way though... there are numberous things that make for modeling in Modo a lot quicker in my experience. These include the basic ease of selecting your geometry... to the great macro recorder in Modo that can make a lot of detail quickly if you find yourself doing a lot of the same actions over and over. If you are mainly familiar with Lightwave.... the hotkeys will allow you to jump right in with Modo set to use the LW style. It still uses "U" for undo and couple other things that have been changed in Lightwave however since hmmm, LW 8.

[Phil Lawson]

Hi Mike

It might be safer if you give the trial a whirl and see how it fits your lw pipeline. What works for some might not work for you. http://www.luxology.com/user/secure/eval/survey.aspx

I find that modo-lw works just fine though and havent had any problems apart from the ngons/edge weights but this is not really modo's fault. As I said before, best to use your own work, and see how the exporting process fits you. :)

Cheers.

[Mike Pauza]

If 201 gets good reviews I'll make the switch.
Thanks a ton guys!
-Mike

Hi Phil. :)

[MadMax]

I purchased Modo shortly after it first came out, and it sat for a couple of months because I was busy ands didn't have time to get into it.

One day after numerous LW crash to desktops and a lot of swearing on my part, I opened Modo.

4 days later I quit using Modeler completely.

That's been well over a year now and I haven't regretted it for a second.

[Insider]

Hi Mike -
I'm in agreement with minus - the edge weights and n-gons are the biggest issues. Beyond that, they do play nicely together.

It's difficult to get into, and too me a long time. But at some point it just clicks, and the workflow - works.

[Mike Pauza]

Thanks Dan & MadMax. -Mike

[behindfaces]

that kind of problem for me as i have done simple shape with modo and the only format save file is lightwave :banghead: and i do not have that lightwave :D .... so the work went out unknown file ........ :cry:

[dablan]

Until LW9 ships, just Freeze the geometry in modo before you save it out to LWO. Then you'll be able to load it right into LW. Otherwise, make sure you're working in all quads, and don't use any edge weighting, try beveling instead.

[behindfaces]

Until LW9 ships, just Freeze the geometry in modo before you save it out to LWO. Then you'll be able to load it right into LW. Otherwise, make sure you're working in all quads, and don't use any edge weighting, try beveling instead.

thanks alot dablan ... too much for my crawling steps through modo but i took it for consedration :bounce:

[monovich]

what happens when your surface something in LW and then need to re-tweak it in Modo? do your settings stay put?

[dablan]

It would depend on the way you textured it I'm sure - but modo will recognize the textures from LW.

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