What is the best UV mapping workflow for EIAS?

[AVTPro]

O2F does nothing any ill effects on UVs. Just click UV in the EIAS info tab.

Maybe you are losing them else where?

[Burney]

Hi Alonso,

I want to import Textured 3DS and Obj trees into EIAS. What is the best option to keep the original UV maps in tact as there are so many leaves? I have not purchase Object2fact yet.

Your advise appreciated.

Regards,

Burney

[AVTPro]

Even if you don't have O2F, you should be able export with FBX. EIAS will open it directly with UVs in tact as well.

Are you sure you have UVs? Post a pic of your UV layout if you can.

I don't use 3DS but make sure your UV export options are set correctly when you export (if there is one).

You shouldn't lose your UVs with Obj exports. Transporter or 3DS shouldn't affect your UV detrimentally.

[rtrowbridge]

I've had pretty good results using Autodesk's free FBX Converter to get obj files into EIAS. It will handle 3ds, collada (dae), dsf, and obj files and convert them to fbx while retaining the UV coordinates. I have had issues with 3ds files, but I use Accutrans3D to convert them to obj files and then bring it into FBX Converter. You can even combine different FBX files into one file with this program. It is available for windows and mac.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=10775855

You do have to go in and reapply the maps, but at least the UV coordinates are there.

Ross

[Burney]

Hi Alanzo and Ross,

Thank you for the replies.

My client uses Sketchup Pro 7 to model some buildings and landscape for an Archviz project and passed me the file to render. I am able to use Sketchup Pro 7 to export the files as 3DS or Fbx and import to EIAS but the plant textures map will not come in with the plant models. For the 3DS import I need to retexture each and every one of them and it will take forever as there are at least a thousand of them. So I am looking for a solution to bring in the plant model with the Texture map intact to skip the tedious process.

I have pull out a sample plant and export it to 3ds and fbx for you to investigate the best option(the sketchup file included). The file size is 1Mb and the link http://rapidshare.com/files/274752145/SKP_Plant.zip

Thank you

Regards,

Burney

[plehrack]

Burney,

I ran your sample obj through OBJ2FACT and was able to get everything working, there is an issue though. The textures do import, but they are set to tiling=none. Due to an issue that's been around for some time, the textures are offset and therefore don't show up.

The solution is to set OBJ2FACT to group objects by material. After importing the model, I globally set the objects to use UV space and set the 3 objects with textures to tiling=repeat and it's good to go.

If you want me to test the larger plant model, let me know.

Peter

[AVTPro]

Ahhh....Yeah. What Peter said. :)



It's a grouping issue, I don't know SKUp well enough to tell you how to group the leaves as one group and then the stems as another then center the UVs in the 0 to 1 UV space, but it would simplify everything. Maybe you can do it 3DS? If you can select and group all your leaves in the whole scene and group them then you can just map all the leaves one time since the UVs is the same and Same with the branches and the whole scene is done. I did it on the one plant.


Great thread by the way, I was looking for the converter. Thanks.

[AVTPro]

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f190/AVTPro/Screen.jpg

And if you centered the UVs in the O to 1 space (where the texture is) it would be snap in EI especially if all the leaves were grouped. You wouldn't have so much in the project window.

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f190/AVTPro/betterUV.jpg

[AVTPro]

Not in the habit of editing files but sometimes is fun.
http://files.me.com/avtpro5/ou6evj
And I was always curious about that group by material thing in O2F so I learned something
by examining the file.

http://files.me.com/avtpro5/ou6evj

[plehrack]

Alonzo,

Make sure to always set your 'Flip Z-Axis' in OBJ2FACT in order to make sure your models aren't stuck to the wall anymore.

Peter

[Burney]

Burney,

I ran your sample obj through OBJ2FACT and was able to get everything working, there is an issue though. The textures do import, but they are set to tiling=none. Due to an issue that's been around for some time, the textures are offset and therefore don't show up.

The solution is to set OBJ2FACT to group objects by material. After importing the model, I globally set the objects to use UV space and set the 3 objects with textures to tiling=repeat and it's good to go.

If you want me to test the larger plant model, let me know.

Peter

Hi Peter,

So you actually export the plant out of Sketch up and then use Object2fact to do it? And you mean if the leaves and branches are grouped separately in Sketchup you are able to get all the maps intact without reposition/retexture in EIAS?

If the answers are yes. Ramjac/EIAS owe you a sale incentive.

I will pick up another tree, shrub and ground cover model for you to investigate if you don't mind.

I just purchase Modo 401 upgrade to address the issue instead of V8 upgrade because of these UVmaps issues but I am actually more comfortable in EIAS if all these issue can be resolved. May be if all work well you should document them in EIAS Wiki or as an appendix in EIAS manual.

BTW have you try to import it via FBX in V8. Ian mentioned you can bring in OBJ directly via Open file?

Thank you again.

Burney

[Burney]

" And if you centered the UVs in the O to 1 space (where the texture is) it would be snap in EI especially if all the leaves were grouped. You wouldn't have so much in the project window."

Hi Alonso,

I am a 'UV Map nut in EIAS'(Newbie). Can you explain/illustrate a little more with regard to what you mean by 'centered the UVs in the O to 1 space (where the texture is) in EIAS'?

Thank you for your effort. Really appreciate.

Burney

[yhloon]

I always use Silo 2.1.1 to convert UV model (mostly Obj, 3ds) into EI's Fac format, I use PC, the process work flawlessly.

But some one reported there is a problem on the Mac version of silo to save in Fac, but I 'm not entirely sure.

[Burney]

I always use Silo 2.1.1 to convert UV model (mostly Obj, 3ds) into EI's Fac format, I use PC, the process work flawlessly.

But some one reported there is a problem on the Mac version of silo to save in Fac, but I 'm not entirely sure.

Hi Loon,

Does Silo 2.11 able to open the Obj with the texture map intact and bring in to EIAS without reposition/retexture?

Burney

[Burney]

Hi Peter and Alonzo,

Following is download link(3 Mb) for other plants in Sketchup, Obj and FBX for you to test.

http://rapidshare.com/files/275044579/Trees_Shrub_Flower_GroundCover.zip

Looking forward to the results of your tests.

Thank you.

Burney

[AVTPro]

" And if you centered the UVs in the O to 1 space (where the texture is) it would be snap in EI especially if all the leaves were grouped. You wouldn't have so much in the project window."

Hi Alonso,

I am a 'UV Map nut in EIAS'(Newbie). Can you explain/illustrate a little more with regard to what you mean by 'centered the UVs in the O to 1 space (where the texture is) in EIAS'?

Thank you for your effort. Really appreciate.

Burney

Putting the UVs in the appropriate tile area would only help with texture placement EI. It's your model grouping that's the main issue.


Take a look at the photo of the leaf I posted. It is the UV space of the leaf. You can see the leaf UV shape and the texture of the leaf which is in upper right quadrant of the UV tile space (0 to 1).

The UVs of the leaf should be where texture is. It's not. The UVs of the leaf should be moved there. The UVs of the leaf are all the same. So if you all the leaves and group them you can map your whole scene at one time. All the UVs for each plant would be on top of each other so when you map one they all would map because they have the same texture assignment information. It's very savvy, but I only did it with the one plant which I posted for you to DL.

Also, as Peter mention, O2F has a group by material option that set everything that has the same material information to one group, then export it into your fact. So if you have 10 leave in your obj and 5 branch with the same textures they will be one group of leaves and one group (object) of branches in EI. And again, since all the UV texture information is the same or designed all you need to to do is attach the texture for one and all the leaves for that group will be texture the same.

Jens wrote this feature in for Poser, but I never really got a chance to use it. That's why it was so interesting seeing this in action yesterday with your file. It's is the "EIAS way" to fix your so therefore savvy because it does not include a UV editor especially since EIAS doesn't have one.

Lastly, I did open SketchUpPro 7 yesterday and exported one of the mega millions of models for the model data base. Fascinating technology, but like said I don't know it well enough to export Obj ungrouped. All the UV textures came out the same meshmashed space and that's not good because EIAS only has one UV space per object.

[Burney]

Just tested Silo 2.11 on the Mac . Silo Mac 2.11 doesn't save fact file properly.

[Burney]

Hi Alonso,

Excellent explanation. Look like Object2fact 'Group by Material' is the best solution for this project.

Thank you everyone participating in this thread. It actually had helped to shape a texture workflow from Sketchup to EIAS.

Cheers,

Burney

[arketype]

Just tested Silo 2.11 on the Mac . Silo Mac 2.11 doesn't save fact file properly.

If you are on an Intel Mac get info on the Silo App and check the box "Open using Rosetta".
This should enable fact export (at the expense of a little performance);)

Dave

[Burney]

If you are on an Intel Mac get info on the Silo App and check the box "Open using Rosetta".
This should enable fact export (at the expense of a little performance);)

Dave

Hi Dave,

I did downloaded Silo 2.11 trial and get info but the Open with Rosetta is dimmed. Which version are you using? I am on a Pre 2008 8-cores MacPro.

Burney

[Burney]

Does Form Z export Fact file with UV map intact? I manage to import the Sketch up obj file into Form Z. When I rendered preview with renderzone, all the texture are intact but when I export to fact with textures map, Form Z 6.62 keep hanging.

Burney

[arketype]

Does Form Z export Fact file with UV map intact? I manage to import the Sketch up obj file into Form Z. When I rendered preview with renderzone, all the texture are intact but when I export to fact with textures map, Form Z 6.62 keep hanging.

Burney

Hi Burney- I don't know why you can't open Silo in Rosetta. I am on a 2008 Mac Pro.

I did a tutorial on converting OBJ to Fact using formZ.
There is a bug in the export...The tutorial has the workaround.
It's a PDF here...
OBJ to Fact with formZ (http://www.eitechnologygroup.com/wiki/File:OBJtoEIASwithUV.pdf/)

[plehrack]

Burney,

I ran all of the models through OBJ2FACT, there were a few issues... nothing that wasn't fairly simple to fix.

Some of the textures just would not scale and line up correctly, the fix was to just re-add the texture. I have Repeat Tiling set as a default, so no further action was required.

Some textures required clip maps, I just copied the re-added texture to the clip channel and set it for alpha only. Same thing with a bump map.

The resolution of some of the parts was quite low and the shading was odd, I had OBJ2FACT recalculate the normals and it helped quite a bit... not as much as having more resolution though.

I made a project file for each of the samples and zipped them all with the fact files. All in all, it took me about 2 minutes per file, pretty simple.

The files are in EI8 format, I dunno if you have 8 or if they will load into EI7. I'd have saved them as EI7, but I took that off of my machine some time ago.

Here they are, enjoy!

Peter

http://files.me.com/plehrack/vlf8kd

[AVTPro]

Alonzo,

Make sure to always set your 'Flip Z-Axis' in OBJ2FACT in order to make sure your models aren't stuck to the wall anymore.

Peter

Yezzer. Thanks. O2F tends to throw me every now and then, so I tend to opt for FBX since the smoothing is good.

Be nice if we had a stack for presets for 02F

You know,

Maya OBJ to EIAS
ZB OBJ to EIAS.

Etc. I never seem to come up with anything consistent with it.

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