Hard edge modeling in 3D Coat

[Dreamcube017]

Hi guys. As some of you know, I've been having some issues modeling in Sketchup... so I tried Lightwave... but that still doesn't work. I have a model with some booleans in it for arches or windows... but when I bring it in, there are still extra unknown faces or some odd things going on.

is there a way for me just to take cubes and cut holes and stuff in them IN 3D coat? That's all this basically is.

[Dreamcube017]

Here's the model I tried bringing in.

arch.obj

[Grandmaster B]

I dont know Lightwave, but you should convert the n-gons to triangles for 3D-Coat. The problem is that 3D-Coat does not handle n-gons and has problems converting them to triangles.

Then after importing the model into 3D-Coat again go to the UV mode and add some seams at edges that dont have seams. (Set mode to "Mark seams" and left-click the edges.)

Now press the unwrap button. You'll now see that some faces have awkward disortion.

On the top select "Island" and select the island with the disorted faces. On the left click "To Planar". Do this for both two disorted islands.

Finally click "Pack UV" and then "Apply UV-set." and you're fine with this model.

EDIT: You have to select the uv-islands in the "UV Preview" panel - not in the viewport itself!

[spacepainter]

Make voxel-primitives in different layers. Subtract the cylinder from the cube. That's all. Or cut out using ctrl + spline ( E panel ( press E ) )

Please post your model again.

[Dreamcube017]

Hm I tried doing subtact and it didn't seem to work quite right It didn't cut all the way through the cube like I wanted.

Here's the other model again.

EDIT: I can't figure out how to triangulate these polies in Lightwave. Can this be done in 3DC?

arch.obj

[Greg]

Also, in Lightwave be sure to Merge points after any boolean. May help. Yes, then convert n-gons to tris as mentioned.

[Psmith]

Dreamcube:

Since it is impractical to import a large architectural model from Sketchup to 3D-Coat - all at once - and since Sketchup exports non-closed geometry, you can achieve, at least in part, what you want without involving another application:

1) Create your architectural parts in Sketchup, isolating different types of geometries in different layers.

2) Export each layer as a separate .obj file.

3) "Merge" each layer item into 3D-Coat, making sure to check the "Make mesh closed" option in the "Merge" panel.

4) Use the "Transform" option in the "Merge" panel to position and scale each object, adding each item as an additive "boolean" object by pressing enter, negative by holding down "Ctrl" and pressing enter.

I'm afraid that is the best you can hope for, without an external Sketchup plug-in that does some kind of auto triangulate or "quadrangulate" routine - skinning your existing Sketchup surfaces with equidistantly spaced triangles or quads, before their export as an .obj file.

Greg Smith

[spacepainter]

The depth of the cut is editable.

[Dreamcube017]

I tried importing a small sketchup model but I didn't try closing it. I did flip it around and notice that there are some odd triangle things in the back of it.

I'll try that sketchup model fix app again.

Also... I don't really know how to triangulate or do that in Lightwave. I'll check over the documentation and try again.

[Grandmaster B]

He used Lightwave. His problem is that the exported OBJ had n-gons which werent correctly triangulated by 3D-Coat. Isnt there a option to convert n-gons to triangles in LW?

[The Candy-floss Kid]

He used Lightwave. His problem is that the exported OBJ had n-gons which werent correctly triangulated by 3D-Coat. Isnt there a option to convert n-gons to triangles in LW?

There is. The quick dirty way is select > ngons > Multiply > Subdivide > Triple

[staazfaind]

imported your obj into sketchup -> export as .fbx -> 3dcoat

my result:

looks ok to me or did i get something wrong ?

[Dreamcube017]

That looks fine.

I actually made another one in Blender which seems to have worked wonderfully. Even got a good UV map... I painted on it with voxels and surfaecs, and then went to back the normal map... then when I went to the normal Paint room, I couldn't see the normal map at all. I think I made a post on this though.

The object is suppose to be a lowpoly model so I imported that and snapped it to the voxel version (or whatever that snap thing does, I did it) but after baking the normal map, I just see an altered version of my lowpoly mesh in the Paint tab... no normal map.

[Leo Chen]

Test for the arch.obj which Dreamcube017 created using LightWave.

The model is supposed to look like this  



DAZ Studio display it wrong too.





After using triple command before exporting from LightWave 3D 2015
arch trpled.obj

DAZ Studio display like this:



But 3D-Coat still get it wrong:











 

[AbnRanger]

I can't see the VoxTree layer panel to see if your object is committed to a layer or not. Looks like it isn't. This video might help explain the process.

 

[Percevan]

I would uncheck "Import with Thickness, in the tool option panel.