topic Re: Maya to CityEngine in ArcGIS CityEngine Questions

Maya to CityEngine

IonutAlixandroae — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 09:48:37 GMT

Hello,

I have a question: what format should I use to export from Autodesk Maya and import to CE. FBX is not supported, and if I export .DAE, then the import result will be a cube without texture.

What format is supported by CE to render the same model as in Maya?

Thanks !

Re: Maya to CityEngine

henkkramer — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 10:56:59 GMT

Hi,

I'm not familiar with Maya but from other software I've used obj format to get 3d models (trees) in CE. This usually works good. The obj format is also readable in a texteditor so you can check the material and texture settings.

I also use fbxconverter from autodesk to convert between fbx, obj, dae and 3ds.

hope this helps,

Henk

Re: Maya to CityEngine

IonutAlixandroae — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 11:01:51 GMT

Hello,

I exported the Model from Maya as .obj (see Picture 1) and imported in CE (see Picture 2).

There are some textures that are missing and I need a solution....

Thank you !!

Picture 1

Picture 2

Re: Maya to CityEngine

henkkramer — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 11:24:31 GMT

I'm no 3D modeling expert but I've also had disappearing textures. Seems like it has something to do with uv-maps and/or normals. Does maya have tools to inspect/correct these?

An internet search on uv-maps, normals, textures can provide some insight in these things.

For smaller objects I have used AssimpView to inspect the obj file, this gives some insight in your model.

However, obj output from Assimpview cannot be read by CE, you'll lose all textures so only use it for viewing (seems like the obj standard is treated diffrently by Assimpview and CE)

Also MeshLab and Sketchup can be helpfull but of coures you'll have to learn the ins and outs of the software.

Henk

Re: Maya to CityEngine

MatthiasBuehler — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 14:12:07 GMT

Hi ..

sorry for the late reply ..

I usually use the obj file format and rather rarely dae. Obj just seems more bullet proof in many situations.

An other factor there is to bringing meshes over is that it may be better if you have 1 'mesh group' per material and not 1 mesh with n materials assigned to different faces. Cleaning up the geometries in this regard may help getting rid of the issues.

For a model like this, it may take many approaches and a couple of hours of cleanup .. Sorry, that's the reality..

Matt

Matthias Buehler

Head of 3D Technologies

twitter: @MattB3D

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

Garsdale Design Limited
matthias.buehler@garsdaledesign.co.uk