XSI Mod Tool to 3DS Max 7?

[archvilell]

I found that I can use a 3d printer to create my models in reality. But it needs to be STL checked and in STL format. The guy at the printing place said 3DS Max 7 has a built in STL check, so I could just use that. However, I built my models with SoftImage XSI Mod Tool. How do I get my model from Mod Tool to Max? The only thing XSI can export is a .vmf, .ase, or .xsi. 3DS Max can't import any of these. This has to be possible, somehow. I was thinking about buying XSI to get the full exporting priviledges, but then I read that I can't open Mod Tool files with the full version (probably to help limit pirating).

Can someone help me out? I'm dying to see my models come to life.

~Archvilell

 

[crackhead]

well you culd export to smd. or you can download software to convert files. deep exploration is one. so youd export to xsi. open in deep exploration and convert it to .3ds. there is a free trial version of this software available.

 

[archvilell]

How do I get SoftImage to export to .smd? I downloaded the HL2 plugin, but all it enables me to do is export weight maps and texture files (I think). It doesn't blatantly say "Export .SMD" in the Export list. I think exporting straight to .smd would be easier, so I don't have a third program in the way. But if I cant find a .smd exporter, I'll look into Deep Exploration.

Where could I find .smd exporter for XSI and an importer for Max? I can probably find Deep Exploration through Google, but I've had no luck with these plugins.

~Archvilell

 

[crackhead]

the exporter is on the softimage homepage but also in the sdk. in this folder:

c:\program files\valve\steam\steamapps\username\sourcesdk\xsi.

to install it in xsi go to addon>install. and select it from the directory above. then its a simple case of selecting the model and exporting smd. remember to give it a texture or it will export an empty smd file. it can jsut be one of xsi's textures.

as for the importing it into max find cannonfodders website. i cant find it.
also whats a 3d printer?

 

[archvilell]

Ooh, you've never heard of a 3D printer? They are bout the coolest things on the planet. Instead of a ink cartridge spraying ink on a page, they have a plastic tank the sprays plastic on to something the plastic doesn't stick to. Then the head moves up, and it sprays another layer. They essentially print cross section of 3d dimensional models that build up and make objects. Say you wanted to print a hollow sphere. Essentially the machine starts off with a dot, then makes a really small circle then a slightly bigger circle, etc. until it reaches the middle then it starts to make smaller circles until it eventually makes a dot.

These machines are way cool, and I'm excited to see some of my models in actual space. This way I can have a physical copy of my work as well, in case I ever lose my files or they're corrupted. And also because the mech I made would make the coolest action figure ever (to me anyway) simply because I made it.

Thanks for the tip. I emailed XSI as well, to see what kind of solution they recommend.

~Archvilell

 

[crackhead]

i still dont see how its different from a printer. is the result a 2d image on paper? also if the plastic doesnt stick then what happens it runs off the page? lol

 

[archvilell]

Oh, sorry. The plastic sticks to itself, but it doesn't stick to the sheet. The machine lets it dry then sprays another layer. So it builds up. The result is a three dimensional object made out of plastic. Think of it like a casting with a universal mold. The term "printer" is only a name. It doesn't print in the common sense. It "builds" really.

~Archvilell

 

[crackhead]

wow thats pretty cool. is it expensive to get this done. and where can you get it done?

 

[DarK_AssassiN]

Whoa! That is cool. I wanna look into that (hopefully it doesnt cost to much )

 

[crackhead]

probally does.

 

[archvilell]

The charge at my university is $3 per cubic inch of plastic. So, imagine a hollow 2 inch cube (about 5cm for those not in the US of A) with a wall thickness of about a quarter inch (about .8 or so cm). The block cost $15 to make. If it were solid it would be more. So, it is kind of expensive, but definitely worth it for some cool looking models.

I'm not sure where one can get it done. Like I said, the College of Design at Iowa State has one, but I don't know a commercial place where you could do this. I don't know if there even are commercial places. Think of a place that creates things and needs to see what they look like before they actually create them. That's the best tip I can give.

 

[archvilell]

How do I give my model a simple texture? You are right that it exports an empty .smd. It took me a few minutes to realize that.

~Archvilell

 

[crackhead]

press 3 to go into render mode. then with your object selected click get texture>image and click yes on the box. now you could keep the noicon_pic then where it says texture projection click new and select unique uvs. now export. you could uncheck import textures when you load it into max.

p.s i think the inch is universal. and im pretty sure its not the equivelant to exactly 5cm.

 

[archvilell]

Okay, that sounds good. I'll work on it when I get time.

Thanks, crackhead.

If you guys ever find a 3D printer outside of a college, pm me. I'd like to know of commercial places that may have them.

Also, one inch is about 2.54 cm so two inches would be about 5.08 cm. I think the inch is only really used in England and US. Everywhere else is metric. That's just my thought from a completely biased perspective.

~Archvilell

 

[crackhead]

hehe. yeah ill let you know if i can find one. that would be so awesome.

 

[archvilell]

I got a test object through the system and it passed the STL check (making sure the object is all one piece and has no double edges or face, "water-tight" as the guy at the printer store called it). Now I've just got to play with the size. I don't know if the printer decides how big to make it or if Max does. Once I get the grid to inches and scale it, I'll try to get it printed. When it comes back (there's about a week back up ), I'll take a picture and post it.

~Archvilell

 

[crackhead]

cool. can we see a screen shot of the model your getting printed.

 

[archvilell]

Hmm, I don't know. Maybe. Like I said, there is a week backlog, so maybe I can get them to call me if I'm not in class. If they can do that, I'll take some pictures. I know I can take pictures of the machine printing A model. The machine runs non-stop. Wait, it might not have a see-through door. Hmm. I'll look in to that for you guys.

~Archvilell

 

[crackhead]

that would be cool. what i had actualy meant though was can we see a screen shot of the 3d model that you have made. the one that you are getting turned into a real life model.

 

[Retrocide]

I have a question though, that printer, how large can a model be out of it?

 

[archvilell]

Yeah, I'll get an image posted.



and




This particular printer will print up to an 8inch cube. For cost though, I plan on mkaing the model about a 4inch cube, but making it solid so it wont break as easily. I will have to reinforce some of the linking spots so the weight of the plastic won't break off the object, but I can do it simply enough.

~Archvilell

 

[crackhead]

how much exactly is this costing you?

 

[archvilell]

I don't know what it will cost. It all depends on the size. I plan on making it solid so it is more durable. I'll post a price when I get one.

~Archvilell

What did you think on the model?

 

[crackhead]

yeah thats pretty sweet. are you gona paint it?

 

[archvilell]

Yeah, I had thought of that too. I'll see. If it looks cool plain, I mioght leave it. But painting it may make it look cooler.

~Archvilell

 

[archvilell]

Oops. i ran into a problem. It won't let me export my smd due to too many tirangles. What is the max triangle count for exporting an smd with the Valve addon?

~Archvilell

 

[crackhead]

umm isnt it like 60,000?!

 

[archvilell]

I would think it would be something crazy as well, but apparently it won't let me export a model with 5600 triangles.



See? It's weird. I can't find any documentation for the ValveSource addon yet. I'm still looking, though. If anyone has an idea, that be great.

~Archvilell

(The black bar is a photshopped underline.)

 

[crackhead]

oh your using mod tool i forgot. well your capped to 4000. so your gona have to do some optimising. otherwise split it into two objects export each one and then connect them in 3dsmax.

 

[archvilell]

Good call, crackhead. I never would have thought of that. Thanks.

I plan on buying the student's version of XSI soon, but I need some cash. The student version is $300. College takes priority fianancially, so I have to wait a few weeks.

~Archvilell

 

[crackhead]

yeah i want to buy it too its just a little more than i would usually spend on software.

 

[mindless_moder]

why dont u just export it to obj and then import it in max :S ? .

 

[crackhead]

max and xsi dont seem to be very compatable by obj. ive had many people try to send me .obj files and i load it up and its empty. i load it up in deep exploration and its there. its weird.

anyway its not the smd exporter thats capped to 4000 polys its xsi in general.

 

[archvilell]

I've made models that came close to 10,000 polygons before. Granted I've never done anything to them except have them there for screenshots. I haven't figured out how to texture yet. Can't find decent tutorials. That's a differnt story.

Also, the Mod Tool can't export to .obj files. The only thing it can export is .xsi. If I had the student version (which I plan on getting shortly), I could export to .obj, then I wouldn't have this problem. Either way, I think Crackhead had a good idea. Just export it in pieces then weld them back together in Max.

~Archvilell

 

[crackhead]

i made a texturing tutorial its on incoming source but i think the website is down at the moment.

 

[archvilell]

Can you post a link when the site's back up? Every other tutorial I've found is either hard to follow or incomplete.

Update on model: I successfully imported everything in to Max, but I accidently deleted some faces between the vertices I kept, and don't know how to put them back. I haven't used Max in a long time, so I forgot. I know I go to Editable Mesh in the modifier stack, then go to Create Face, but I can't figure out how to get that to work. I'll look in the Help files in a little bit. I'm swamped in homework from the weekend (I blew it all off), so I'll work on it later.

~Archvilell

 

[crackhead]

check out the list of hotkeys for max. (Scroll down a bit the first is for xsi.)

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=97676&highlight=hotkeys

that might help.

heres the tutorial but without the pics:

In this short tutorial I will cover exporting a uv map in softimage xsi. A uv map is a flattened image of the surface of your model which you can paint over to create your texture.

Before working on the uvs we need to set the model up for uv mapping. To do this we select edges and click cluster and disconnect components. If I were uv mapping the human head that you can automatically generate from the get>primitive>model menu I would first select the lines around the face and between the neck splitting it into three parts.
note that i added some edges between the polygons.

Pic

Now click cluster and disconnect components.

Now to test what I have done I press 3 to launch the render mode and go to get>texture>image. I load this black image and choose explicit uvs for the texture projection. Now with the model selected I go into application>views>texture editor and my model is now flattened on the image. However the uvs are all over the place. So go into file>edit>uvpropeties. Now move the slider next to angle grouping to 90. now it should change the uv map and look something like this.

Pic

now crab the front of the face by selecting the vertices and using v like if you were moving them in the normal viewpoint. move this to the left and position the two sides of the head either side. you can rotate something 90 degreese by selecting it and pressing R.

pic

now select the line of vertices on the left side of the face and the row to the left of that. press x and hold the right mousebutton to align these vertices in a straight line by moving the mouse. do the same for the other side.

pic

now when you select the two parts of the neck which arnt attached they show a green and blue line.

pic

notice that it also shows a blue and green line on each side of the neck. move the one with the green line next to the face and rotate it to have the two green lines next to each other. now select the row on the part and the head which has the green line next to it and press heal which is the button with a black cross on it. THIS STICKS THEM TOGETHER.

pic

keep in mind that when you see a polygon which looks like it is filled in red this meens that there are two polygons over lapping in that area.

----------------
luke smith

 

[mindless_moder]

to use create u need to click on each vertice sequentially i.e
if ur gap was square then you would go into editable poly > face > create then click on each of the verts that creates the gap one after the other so you go vert 1 , vert2 , vert3 ,vert 4 and then back to vert 1 to close it.

 

[archvilell]

Thanks for the tips, guys. My next model will one of a pirate for a game we're making in Game Dev Club. I'll use your tutorial when trying to texture him (since you are texturing a head). And Mindless_Moder, that's what I needed to know. I didn't click on the first vertex to end it. I always clicked the four in order, then didn't know what to do.

I'll let you guys know how the model turns out when I get it done and printed.

~Archvilell

Max Question: why does my viewport turn to wireframe when I move my mouse into a differnt viewport? Also, why does my model disappear when I middle click to pan the camera?