Blender to 3dc with multiple UV maps/sets

[Hammers]

Just wondering if anyone knows of a way to achieve this.

 

I've tried exporting from Blender as .obj, .fbx, .ply, but none seem to work well for muliple uv sets. (fbx came close in at least recognising the sets on import dialog, but didn't actually import them all)

 

Also tried with the applink of course.

 

I thought 3dc v4 supported collada import, which I thought might do the trick, but .dae files will not import into 3dc for me. (Mac 4.0.0.9).

 

It'll be great when this works

[Carlosan]

mmm... try to assign different materials to same uvset polygons

 

uvset A - assign material A

uvset B - assign material B

and so on

[Hammers]

Do you mean in Blender? I tried both ways of exporting - One object with one material, with 3 different textures mapped to 3 different UV maps/sets in Blender, as well as making 3 separate materials on the object, each with one texture/UVset.

 

Is 3dcoat supposed to be able to import .dae collada objects? I saw that on the list of version 4 features, but the import dialog has .dae files greyed out for me. As far as I can tell .dae supports multiple UV maps, while .obj doesn't.

Edited December 1, 2013 by Hammers

[Carlosan]

mmm

 

are you exporting BI or cycles material ?

 

try BI materials

[Hammers]

Just using BI.

 

I've just tried an experiment. When I select a UV map in the list in the object data panel, and then export as obj or use the applink, that is the uv map that becomes the uv set in 3dc.

 

But still only one UV map at a time...

 

Is .dae-collada importing possible in 3d coat?

[Carlosan]

in blender i add 2 objects

 

an sphere

a cube

 

with 2 uvset anmed

sphere

cube

 

and materials

sphere

cube

 

obj export

Objects as OBJ objects = ON

 

in 3DC import model for per pixel painting

 

import menu show 2 UVsets names... select the texture size

 

now at paint room there is 2 object, 2 materials

in UV room there is 2 uvsets

 

-------------------------------------------------

may be Digman or Michalis are more experienced user in this area to help you

[digman]

You did not say if you are exporting one model or more than one... Again please give all workflow information, it really helps in answering your questions...

 

Blender will export one model with multiple uv sets and materials using the obj file format. Setting up multiple uv sets plus materials in Blender is a little confusing at first. It took me about an hour to figure out plus I watched a tutorial that gave some help.

 

Here is an example of a obj's mtl file that correctly imports into 3DC with 2 uv sets and 2 materials. Obj was exported from Blender...

 

If your obj's mtl file does not look similar, you are doing something wrong in Blender with setting up your uv sets and materials. Check your obj export settings also.

 

Collada import for the Mac and Linux is still not completed yet...

Edited December 1, 2013 by digman

[Hammers]

Thanks for the responses. I started documenting what I am trying to do to make things clearer, but I'm starting to wonder if this is a Blender bug/'feature-I-don't-understand'

 

Here's my test object. It has 3 UV maps, one for just the front face, one for the other 5 faces, and one that is just a partial section of the front face (imagine a mouth decal over a high-res face texture, and a low res body texture. That's my ultimate aim btw)

 

 

The 3 textures are mapped to the object within the same material in Blender, each assigned to the appropriate UVmap

 

 

Here's what happens when I export to .obj

 

e.g.1

 

 

Here I've selected the 5 face UV map in the object data panel.

 

 

And here are the export options I'll use (don't understand all of this..)

 

Import for ppp - only one UVset - 'material'

 

 

If I select a different UV Map from the list in Blender before exporting, that seems to be the one that comes over to 3dc.

 

 

I've tried various options including splitting the blender material into three, with one texture and UV map each, but I can't get that to behave even within blender. Here only the UV set that has the 'active for render' camera icon will show up (+ the topmost UV), and I can't select more than one UV map's camera button.

 

 

Exporting from this state only included the one Uv map again—the highlighted on in the UV map list (single face).

 

 

As I said my thinking is that this is a Blender issue (I'm using 2.69 btw). I'd be happy if someone has a suggestion though

 

Thanks for your time.

 

 

 

[digman]

It is not a Blender bug but Blender's convoluted way of handling the creation of multiple uv sets and materials for one model... I find it not very user friendly...

Since this is a blender issue and not 3DC this would be better to post at blenderartist for help... Like I said, I was able to export an obj file correctly and import into 3DC with more than one uv set and materials though it took about an hour to wrap my brain around it...

 

http://www.blenderartists.org/forum/

Edited December 2, 2013 by digman

[Hammers]

Yeah I'll give blenderartists a go. I've got no problem getting the uv sets happening in Blender, though for this example they need to be used within the same material, as they overlap, and maybe that is the issue somehow.

 

If I ever figure it out I'll report back in case anyone else ever comes across this hurdle. Thanks for the time.

[Hammers]

A short followup in case anyone else is looking for answers. I did some tests with Blender, as follows:

 

1. Exported .obj with 1 material, 3 textures and 3 UV maps/sets. Reimporting .obj into Blender, now only has one UV map. I.e. doesn't export multiple UV sets to .obj, at least with a single material.

2. Same deal, .fbx this time. Blender didn't even reimport it's own exported fbx, except as a single origin point...

3. Exported .dae, reimported, and all UV sets/maps correct (though may have to tweak material/textures, not sure)

 

So I'm hoping that Collada import/export will be in Mac 3d Coat soon . this will solve the Blender pipeline difficulty I've had with different UV sets.

 

Thanks again for the responses.

Edited December 14, 2013 by Hammers