United3dArtists Archive

Import mesh,.. how? Such a simple thing, but in tS it is NOT apparent!

Looked in the help, and the only thing I can find is in the 'file formats' section where it states "In the Load Object dialog, click the..." so where the BLOODY HELL IS THIS DIALOG?

The menu bar is exceptionally SPARSE to an almost useless degree, and the 'Load' function is apparently incapable of loading any of the mesh formats I have [stl, x, dxf, dwg].

Looked through as much of the course videos as I care to for such a simple thing [and the titles are most times not well chosen for the content], but it seems that EVERYONE is under the assumption that you never have to load a simple mesh and will only ever use either built in [supplied] items or items you made your self only in tS [at least in the couple dozen vids I ate my data quota up with].

Searched this forum, and each of the items that came up only mention some kind of loader plugin that someone came up with [and wants $ for that I don't have] that only seems to load two formats that I am not using.

So what gives? Was this program designed to hide everything in obscure locations just to frustrate programmers like me? So I am not an artist that works with clay or paint, if any kind of artist I would be considered a technical artist [electronics, physics, mechanical, programming] but for the life of me I cannot discern why the interface is made in such an obscured manner. I don't just mean this particular dialog, I mean as a whole... this interface is opposed to the common interface practices that have proven to be intuitive for general users, even the menu system does not operate normally [hold the mouse until over the item,.. then release.] Honestly, you shouldn't have to "switch gears" every time to you use a different program, it makes the learning curve that much steeper,.. and for this program that is already an issue! I have had it with people [mostly programmers] that like to make things 'exclusive' so they can feel 'elevated' from others by making things more different/difficult by design. Oh, and I just love how the program hijacks the xp taskbar!

Anyway, sorry for the rant, but my frustration has been building for a couple of weeks now. Hopefully that will be soon alleviated to some degree.

I would guess that someone would have a notion off the top of their head where this dialog can be accessed, I would appreciate any help in this.

Thank you,
-Jill-

P.S. Also, in case it is not in the same location, where might the export dialog be [if different]?

I'm guessing you are using the standalone version of truespace. The full version displays "Beta 7.6" on the load up splash and has a tab for switching to model side. The link to the full version can be found in this thread:
vi ... f=39&t=297"

Jill the quick summary is that TS was half way through a transition from one environment to another (model side to workspace) when the company was acquired by microsoft.

The workspace side can import .x via the library system. to see this open the library browser and you will see a library set up with dx meshes .... right click on the list item and you will see an option to insert into library

The model side is better equipped to import meshes... most of us use the luuv plugin to import .obj. Go to the model side and at the bottom right hand corner of the bottom icon bar and you will see a button with an electrical plug heading toward a socket. Click on that and it will open up the list of tsx in the tsx directory or a subdirectory... look for luuv and install the plug in.

Click on that button with obj and you can then follow on screen instructions to import mesh.

The file load dialog on the modelside has other file formats available.

More questions ask away.

1. In trueSpace 7.61 beta 8 (not rosseta/standalone) switch to Modelside. (trueSpace 6.6 integrated as a huge plugin)

Alternative Download: http://www.soft82.com/download/Windows/TrueSpace 126mb



2. Once in Modelside, the TS6.6 file menu will pop up. There you can find the Load Object in the file menu.



3. Once the load dialogue loads, you can select the file you need. Example files are *.cobs *.3ds *.obj *.x *.lwo among others. It will give you a number of options according to the file type filter you use. Importing *.x, I recommend to activate healing repeated vertices option.



4. Alternatively, as mentioned, you can install the LUUV obj plugin included with TS on the Model side. This has a stronger *.obj importer and exporter. Below is an image of which is the plugin install button and which is the LUUV plugin once installed.



5. Once your object is imported, feel free to switch back to the Workspaceside and enjoy your object with directX realtime illumination and shaders.


I found importing *.obj files to not keep UV's, but exporting them yes. But I have not fully experimented with all the options. But I did find *.x files to preserve UV's, you just need to flip them horizontally once imported. If you just want a mesh, *.obj's is the way to go. I have not tried other file formats and/or their UV imports.

These are what the Modelside can import (I recommend keeping the exported file version to 2010 if possible or you may crash TS):
*.cob;
*.asc;
*.3ds;
*.x;
*.prj;
*.dxf;
*.dwg;
*.lwb;
*.lwo;
*.geo;
*.obj;
*.iob;
*.sob;
*.ai;
*.ps;
*.eps;
*.stl;
*.sel;
*.sat;
*.sab;
*.igs;

Exporting can be done to fewer filetypes, but I recommend using Workspaceside *.x exporter, as it has a series of options to help you. Most UV's and even textures are preserved.

I completely understand your frustration, being a small time hobbie programmer and all. But I do have an artistic knack and prefer this interface over maya/3dmax/blender any day! Would be cool to reprogram a new and similar software for sure tho, I'd be on that band wagon, if not there to (oneday) finance that software development. But the concepts of TS are great and tho old, still somewhat ahead of it's game in some basic elements! =) Unfortunately TS 7.61 is a beta..... Have fun!

Thank you! This at least alleviates the frustration with that, although I did find that for each of these files after setting tS as the default to open them I can close tS, double click the file and it will then open it, then I can add it to a library [rgt click, insert as, RsObj] then I can access it in that library, but that is a really goofy, cumbersome, and time consuming way to import!

By the way, the version I have downloaded and am using is 7.61 Beta 8, which has both work and model sides. Funny, the work side shows tool tips but the model side does not.

There are clearly some bugs in, the worst so far is the wireframe is all screwed up on orientation with the solid model so you don't know exactly where the lines are on the 3D model, and the next is when I select points [not faces as that seems ok] it changes the model orientation angles to some oddball values depending which angle I am viewing it from and so if I scale those points they skew in an odd way... I think I will post about that elsewhere. Anyway, the point is that is has some issues, which is too bad as it obviously has a lot of desirable features, albeit difficult to find.

Again, Thank you.
-Jill-

Jill wrote: There are clearly some bugs in, the worst so far is the wireframe is all screwed up on orientation with the solid model so you don't know exactly where the lines are on the 3D model, and the next is when I select points [not faces as that seems ok] it changes the model orientation angles to some oddball values depending which angle I am viewing it from and so if I scale those points they skew in an odd way... I think I will post about that elsewhere.

There are 4 different orientation types, which overall is quite handy. You can move/scale/rotate a point to the world, to the object axis, to the normal or to the screen. The orientation changes according to which orientation you choose. Most mainstream software either move vertices or faces to the screen or to the normal. They also move object mainly to the screen, or via a widget to the world or to the object. The two extra orientations for point editing can get confusing sometimes, but really greatly enhance the 3D space manipulation.

Not sure what you are on about with the wireframe.. but in workspace side, you can set the wireframe to hidden-line to hide the back faces and show the wireframe only to front of the view. You can even make the surface transparent to varying degrees according to desire instead of just relying on wireframes on the front and back. You also can set the solid object to show the wireframe + transparency + nobackfaces. (setting tab - object render attributes, and there is another plugin for object render setting) If the nearclipping plane of the wireframe goes weird, it's handy to reset the view and move the viewport in and out by dolly and track instead of zoom back to where you need it.
Clinton made these plugins for maya style view navigation and a plugin with near clipping plane changer which helps. (located about... just past half way down the page.)
http://www.clintons3d.com/plugins/trues ... index.html

Hope that helps =)

Hi Jill. Not meaning to discourage you from learning TS but if you plan to use it for your 3D printer project wouldn't some CAD program be better suited to that?

I found the older versions of TS (3 and 5 and 7.6 model side) to be kind of like Paint Shop. I use model side's icons and menus and not the 3D widgets so that probably increases the "Paint Shop-iness". The icon fly-outs or mini-menus take a little getting used to. Remember the position of the fly-outs. That way even if the icon is not the one showing you know where to find it.

Also, on model side interface, there are bars along the sections of menus with pluses or minuses. Clicking them changes the menu between minimized to a small square, bar, and fly-outs expanded. Expanded is useful for finding an icon.

Also, right clicking on things (again model side) often enters a useful mode or shows a panel for numeric/precise controls.

I don't use workspace since it is unfinished but many here have done good things with it. It seems good for character models. It's strength is primarily the DX real time render.

Finis wrote:Hi Jill. Not meaning to discourage you from learning TS but if you plan to use it for your 3D printer project wouldn't some CAD program be better suited to that?

I found the older versions of TS (3 and 5 and 7.6 model side) to be kind of like Paint Shop. I use model side's icons and menus and not the 3D widgets so that probably increases the "Paint Shop-iness". The icon fly-outs or mini-menus take a little getting used to. Remember the position of the fly-outs. That way even if the icon is not the one showing you know where to find it.

Also, on model side interface, there are bars along the sections of menus with pluses or minuses. Clicking them changes the menu between minimized to a small square, bar, and fly-outs expanded. Expanded is useful for finding an icon.

Also, right clicking on things (again model side) often enters a useful mode or shows a panel for numeric/precise controls.

I don't use workspace since it is unfinished but many here have done good things with it. It seems good for character models. It's strength is primarily the DX real time render.

Thank you for the tips, I will have to check them out.

Actually I have been using the work side [mostly] and since I have moved it to my desktop computer it doesn't have any of the other issues [desktop has nvidia card, laptop has an ati card which are notorious for not being fully compatible and having issues] and I have been able to work on my mechanical design just fine.

Although it would be nice to know how to keep the extra tool bars I make for the buttons I use the most. I copy several of the buttons to a new tool bar so I don't have to wait for the standard bars menu pop out wait period, I just hit the one button I want. But if I change view mode [or other certain actions] they go away,.. how can I keep them from going away? Or at least save them and recall them so I don't have to constantly rebuild them?

Left click in the upper left corner of the 3D view, choose Save Layout, and save it in the following path, using a unique name for the first time. Later you can overwrite your existing layout:

C:\trueSpace761\tS\Rs Main Libraries\Layouts - Configurations

Next time you open up trueSpace you will find a new tab at the top, which is your layout with your customized toolbar. And don`t forget to save your layout when you make changings at it.

Tiles wrote:Left click in the upper left corner of the 3D view, choose Save Layout, and save it in the following path, using a unique name for the first time. Later you can overwrite your existing layout:

C:\trueSpace761\tS\Rs Main Libraries\Layouts - Configurations

Next time you open up trueSpace you will find a new tab at the top, which is your layout with your customized toolbar. And don`t forget to save your layout when you make changings at it.

Thank you!

Another way to skin that cat is to adjust toolbars to your liking and then utilize the 'Layout-Config' Library.
If it's not already open in the Stack view, Open the Library Browser, then double click Layouts-Configurations in the list.
Right click in Library and Insert As: Layout.

Exit/restart tS (don't crash!) to ensure Library is saved.
In the future you can then restore toolbars and layout by double-clicking item in Layout Library.

Very cool, and thanks to all who posted these tips. It seems that TS has many tools to make modeling a bit less frustrating.

Tiles wrote:Left click in the upper left corner of the 3D view, choose Save Layout, and save it in the following path, using a unique name for the first time. Later you can overwrite your existing layout:

C:\trueSpace761\tS\Rs Main Libraries\Layouts - Configurations

Next time you open up trueSpace you will find a new tab at the top, which is your layout with your customized toolbar. And don`t forget to save your layout when you make changings at it.

Apparently, you can save the modelside layout by left clicking the upper left corner in TS to do the same thing.