lightwave export to blender but preserving textures

#1

i asked a friend of mine who has lightwave to export some lightwave files i downloaded as .obj s(and mtl files accompanying them) so i could import them to blender but i have found that when i import them the texturing is seriously messed up and the uv maps are not preserved. my friend tried importing the obj files he exported back into lightwave and says that even then the textures had still gone. on your site it says lightwave can export .lwo models to obj format but there appears to be a problem as the obj s have lost texturing, perhaps due to something i have heard about lightwave using “nodal textures”. can you please suggest how i should advise my friend to export the lwo models so i can import them to blender with texturing intact.
thanks, rob

p.s. my friend says that when lightwave exports lwo models to .dae(collada format) the files which are 2 or 3 megabyte lwo s and produce 10-15 Megabyte obj s are around 500 megabytes in size when exported as dae s.

#2

Why wouldn’t you import the *.lwo files directly in Blender?

(you have to activate the lwo import addon first)

#3

unfortunately the .lwo import to blender function causes the textures and uv maps to be lost. that is why i cannot use that method, i need soemthing that leaves the textures, uv maps and positioning of texture images intact. thanks.

#4

First em all why not to import the original OBJ in to the Blender …

Second, after importing OBJ to Lightwave - Lightwave preserve UV but not necessary mapping them in to the texturing channels, that’s why after saving these models there is no UV. In order to preserve UV’s you need to map them (use) in any texture channel (like color or diffuse) even without image map - only layer with UV name.

Third - Blender can use some old (pre LW6.0) LWO importer - this old format simply not supporting UV’s.

#5

unfortunately i do not have the original obj file because i downloaded the model as a .lwo file. could you explain the rest in clearer detail, thanks.

#6

In your first post you said what you have the OBJ and MTL files, so if you have now only LWO and they converted without UV’s there is nothing to do.
Anyway step by step exporting from LW to any format (non animation) with UV preserving:

  1. Make sure your model have only one UV map or at last if you have few UV’s use only one in the steps bellow - OBJ and other formats not supporting multiple UV’s.
  2. Open Surface editor and hit “T” button for the “Color” channel.
  3. Choose “Image map” in the layer type drop down menu (it’s actually should be Image map since the new texture layer by default is always “Image map”).
  4. In the “Projection” drop down menu choose UV map.
  5. In the “UVmap” drop down menu choose your UV map name.
  6. Do the same steps (from 2 to 5) for all surfaces of the object (if your UV covers all surfaces)
  7. Now you can export
#7

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