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Do you guy's have a video showing how to work in real world scale?


polynut
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 I just recently start to work with my 3d coat license and i have difficulty setting a proper import/export pipeline between blender and 3d coat.

In Blender i work in cm since meter is too big and you get annoying issues while working on tiny object. So if i set Blender units to metric and unit scale to 0.010000 and then set 3d coat scale to cm will it be OK?

Also what about voxel scaling since it is very confusing reading various posts where people constantly contradict themselves or posts are so old that change could make post irrelevant.

Do i just have to set 3d coat to cm and i can go at will from voxel to surface to paint room to uv or retopo and then back to blender with maintaining the correct scale?

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I think it'd be worthwhile for someone who knows to post very specific instructions for setting the scale in 3D coat to be compatible with Blender, or make a preset for it.  I tried to figure it out a while ago, and followed the post that was here about it, but it never seemed to work out right.

The applink is great but it doesn't address the scaling issue.

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I usually, at the start of the project, import a reference box of 1m x 1m x 1m for calibration measures. In the import tool I reset scale and axis and observe if my mesh is to small or too large to work with. If one of these are true, in my DCC program I multiply the scale of the object in increments of 10 or 100 or 1000, whatever brings best results in 3D Coat, and export it again.

3D Coat does offer us a chance to remember transforms we did to the imported mesh and allows to specify a precise scale of the imported object in percents (why not -0..1+?) and reverts them on export (that is, if we clicked "Yes" to the "This is the first time you have tried to import and object..." modal window) Scaling is stored in Geometry->Edit Scene Scale, but somehow I always found it too cumbersome to work with.

On object reimport I divide the mesh by the same factor. I use Houdini 90% of the time, so rescaling before export and after import is merely a matter of configuring xform nodes with appropriate scale values in order for rescaling to happen automatically. This effectively brings it to a one-click operation - "reload file".

PS. Offtopic stuff, but if someone of Blender Gurus knows a way to reload a geo file that is already loaded in .blend file, please do let me know. Many times I had everything set up for EEVEE rendering, with just a single mesh passing through multiple iterations, and all of the data bound to it was lost upon reimport. Shaders, modifiers, transforms, etc. while I'd only like to update its geometry.

Edited by ajz3d
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4 hours ago, Carlosan said:

Why not to use Blender applink ?

 

Thank Carlo i was planning to use the app link but like the other poster in the thread mention it doesn't address the scale procedure so a video showing this would be in my opinion very valuable to newcomers.

Edited by polynut
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4 hours ago, Falconius said:

I think it'd be worthwhile for someone who knows to post very specific instructions for setting the scale in 3D coat to be compatible with Blender, or make a preset for it.  I tried to figure it out a while ago, and followed the post that was here about it, but it never seemed to work out right.

The applink is great but it doesn't address the scaling issue.

I saw those posts and some are really adding even more confusion or made it look like an Einstein equation! Each time i start a project setting matching scale in all applications is my very first priority.

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17 minutes ago, ajz3d said:

I usually, at the start of the project, import a reference box of 1m x 1m x 1m for calibration measures. In the import tool I reset scale and axis and observe if my mesh is to small or too large to work with. If one of these are true, in my DCC program I multiply the scale of the object in increments of 10 or 100 or 1000, whatever brings best results in 3D Coat, and export it again.

3D Coat does offer us a chance to remember transforms we did to the imported mesh and allows to specify a precise scale of the imported object in percents (why not -0..1+?) and reverts them on export (that is, if we clicked "Yes" to the "This is the first time you have tried to import and object..." modal window) Scaling is stored in Geometry->Edit Scene Scale, but somehow I always found it too cumbersome to work with.

On object reimport I divide the mesh by the same factor. I use Houdini 90% of the time, so rescaling before export and after import is merely a matter of configuring xform nodes with appropriate scale values in order for rescaling to happen automatically. This effectively brings it to a one-click operation - "reload file".

PS. Offtopic stuff, but if someone of Blender Gurus knows a way to reload a geo file that is already loaded in .blend file, please do let me know. Many times I had everything set up for EEVEE rendering, with just a single mesh passing through multiple iterations, and all of the data bound to it was lost upon reimport. Shaders, modifiers, transforms, etc. while I'd only like to update its geometry.

I also use a character as overall size but i don't want to start scaling everything back when they were first built at the exact scale since it is really counter productive and often lead to a lot of mistake along the pipeline and don't get me start on rigging that lolll

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I find that if I uncheck EXPORT CONSTRUCTOR...you have to check the relevant maps (color, roughness, metalness, normal), manually instead of using a Preset.....you can check ADJUST SCALE > more the 1 over 2 decimals to the right (.01), you'll get a matching scale. I don't know why, but it's like Blender converts millimeters to Meters or something and it makes the scale 100x too large.

We need to have that ADJUST SCALE option in the EXPORT CONSTRUCTOR, so each time the Blender Cycles preset is chosen, it automatically adjusts the scale accordingly.

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12 hours ago, AbnRanger said:

I find that if I uncheck EXPORT CONSTRUCTOR...you have to check the relevant maps (color, roughness, metalness, normal), manually instead of using a Preset.....you can check ADJUST SCALE > more the 1 over 2 decimals to the right (.01), you'll get a matching scale. I don't know why, but it's like Blender converts millimeters to Meters or something and it makes the scale 100x too large.

We need to have that ADJUST SCALE option in the EXPORT CONSTRUCTOR, so each time the Blender Cycles preset is chosen, it automatically adjusts the scale accordingly.

I am a 150% with you for this since this would make our life easier! I work 17 years with 3ds max and everything was always set so scale was not an issue in any other software in the pipeline.

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Here is a 3DC file set for Blender's metric scale. Should work in other apps as well. 

Now this does not mean it is an all inclusive method of creating real world scale but it gives a base to start with.

I am now looking at the tools inside 3DC to make it easier to build real world objects.  In other words to see what is possible with 3DC.

Edit:

Here is an example. One method.

Created a simple primitive. 

Customized the 3D grid. 

One meter main division and 100 cm inside.  Of course you can set the cm inside to larger divisions. Example. Depends on how precise you need to be.

Snap to 3D grid turned on.

Used a combination of measure tool and cut off tool. 

3DC will also show the angle of the measuring lines.

Imports into Blender at the correct dimensions.

Simple model not shown for quality.

Note: Under the view menu look at all the tools for your 3D grids setup.

Real_World_Scale.3b

object.jpg

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