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Issue with Instances to Objects

Doodle DesignsDoodle Designs Posts: 34
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

I'm trying to create a realistic bale of hay for DS. I wanted to make it more realistic by having hay sticking out of the sides so I first used UltraScatter to create the instances, and then Instances to Props to convert the hay stickie-outs to props so that I could import it back into Hexagon.

It worked just fine, but when I imported it into Hexagon I looked at the materials and discovered that for each blade of hay sticking out, there was a separate material. 

I had five different blades I'm using for the hay sticking out, each with a different material name (BladeA, BladeB, etc.). There should be only six materials (one for the bale) but what I2O seems to do as it's converting the to objects is to create a material for each instance/prop with the same name as the object name in the Scene panel. So the first prop and materials is named BladeA, the second BladeA (2), the third BladeA (3) etc.

So, since I had 2,038 individual blades, I now had 2,038 materials (plus one for the bale). frown

To change each in Hexagon would have been ridiculous. But I was able to rename all the blade materials to the original five material names by opening the exported OBJ in MS Word and doing a series of change-alls. The material names in the OBJ are like "usemtl BladeC_BladeC_(316)" so I changed, for instance, "usemtl BladeC*************^P" to "BladeC^P". I needed to do 15 of these (3 for each of the five blade names).

Shouldn't I2O use the original material names rather than creating a new one for each instance? Having thousands of different material names is burdensome.

 

Comments

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,537

    you can open windows tool settings and with the geometry editor selected, delete, create new surfaces then reassign the unassigned surfaces

  • Doodle DesignsDoodle Designs Posts: 34
    th3Digit said:

    you can open windows tool settings and with the geometry editor selected, delete, create new surfaces then reassign the unassigned surfaces

    For 2,038 materials? Usign 15 change-alls in Word has got to be easier and faster.frown

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,537

    hold shift

  • Doodle DesignsDoodle Designs Posts: 34

    Are you talking about tools in Word or Daz?

     

    Whchever it us, could you please show me how to find the proper menu? (Like Tools>Settings>....)

  • Doodle DesignsDoodle Designs Posts: 34

    I found it in DS. Thanks! smiley

    I've tried changing all the BladeA surfaces using the shift key to select all 1000+ sufaces, but nothing seems to be changing.

    Any idea what I may be doing wrong?

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,537

    you can only delete surfaces 

    but rightclicking in viewport can create a new surface then assign whats been added to default to it

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,537

    so can do in batches, creating surfaces, deleting some assigning  from default to then repeat next batch

  • TotteTotte Posts: 14,066
    Doodle Designs said:

    I'm trying to create a realistic bale of hay for DS. I wanted to make it more realistic by having hay sticking out of the sides so I first used UltraScatter to create the instances, and then Instances to Props to convert the hay stickie-outs to props so that I could import it back into Hexagon.

    It worked just fine, but when I imported it into Hexagon I looked at the materials and discovered that for each blade of hay sticking out, there was a separate material. 

    I had five different blades I'm using for the hay sticking out, each with a different material name (BladeA, BladeB, etc.). There should be only six materials (one for the bale) but what I2O seems to do as it's converting the to objects is to create a material for each instance/prop with the same name as the object name in the Scene panel. So the first prop and materials is named BladeA, the second BladeA (2), the third BladeA (3) etc.

    So, since I had 2,038 individual blades, I now had 2,038 materials (plus one for the bale). frown

    To change each in Hexagon would have been ridiculous. But I was able to rename all the blade materials to the original five material names by opening the exported OBJ in MS Word and doing a series of change-alls. The material names in the OBJ are like "usemtl BladeC_BladeC_(316)" so I changed, for instance, "usemtl BladeC*************^P" to "BladeC^P". I needed to do 15 of these (3 for each of the five blade names).

    Shouldn't I2O use the original material names rather than creating a new one for each instance? Having thousands of different material names is burdensome.

     

    The material zones are created by DAZ Studio itself, but I see your point, I will take a look if I can set the original material names back. Sorry I missed this thread too.

     

  • TotteTotte Posts: 14,066

    I did some tests, and the setting of material zone names seems to happen upon export to .obj, and when you look at the material name in DS before the export, all objectified instances has the original material name.

    grassinsdtance.jpg
    198 x 194 - 8K
  • TotteTotte Posts: 14,066

    So what you really need is an .obj exporter that doesn't set the material zone names for objects with different names but the same zone to the name + zone. Maybe that is doable, I do not currently now.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,537

    this no longer works on many newer products in store

    AFAIK it still works on instancing I do myself so something has changed in how some PA's are setting up their scenes maybe?

    I have not been able to work out why

    the Library by Stonemason was one, another was the Hog and Barrel Pub interior by Predatron

    yet others have worked fine

     

  • TotteTotte Posts: 14,066
    SadKitty_Carrara said:

    this no longer works on many newer products in store

    AFAIK it still works on instancing I do myself so something has changed in how some PA's are setting up their scenes maybe?

    I have not been able to work out why

    the Library by Stonemason was one, another was the Hog and Barrel Pub interior by Predatron

    yet others have worked fine

     

    I will check what have changed. I did testing with Ultra Scatter Pro and had no issues on the tests I did. I'll see what I can find. I'll be back :-)

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,537
    Totte said:
    SadKitty_Carrara said:

    this no longer works on many newer products in store

    AFAIK it still works on instancing I do myself so something has changed in how some PA's are setting up their scenes maybe?

    I have not been able to work out why

    the Library by Stonemason was one, another was the Hog and Barrel Pub interior by Predatron

    yet others have worked fine

     

    I will check what have changed. I did testing with Ultra Scatter Pro and had no issues on the tests I did. I'll see what I can find. I'll be back :-)

    yes all the scenes made using ultrascatter work fine too

    its just an odd set here and there something that hides the instances from the script

  • TotteTotte Posts: 14,066
    SadKitty_Carrara said:
    Totte said:
    SadKitty_Carrara said:

    this no longer works on many newer products in store

    AFAIK it still works on instancing I do myself so something has changed in how some PA's are setting up their scenes maybe?

    I have not been able to work out why

    the Library by Stonemason was one, another was the Hog and Barrel Pub interior by Predatron

    yet others have worked fine

     

    I will check what have changed. I did testing with Ultra Scatter Pro and had no issues on the tests I did. I'll see what I can find. I'll be back :-)

    yes all the scenes made using ultrascatter work fine too

    its just an odd set here and there something that hides the instances from the script

    OK, I'll get one of those and see what they have done ;)

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,537

    oh I hope you don't go and buy something you don't need, was hoping maybe you owned some already, there are likely others

  • TotteTotte Posts: 14,066
    SadKitty_Carrara said:

    oh I hope you don't go and buy something you don't need, was hoping maybe you owned some already, there are likely others

    Ah, I don't have the two you mentioned, but the Hog Internal is on my list so I will pick it up,

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,781
    What was the result of the tests on Hog and Barrel?
  • TotteTotte Posts: 14,066

    I finally got those (today) so I'm working on it right now.

  • TotteTotte Posts: 14,066

    OK, I see the issue, now I just need to figure out what causes it.

  • TotteTotte Posts: 14,066

    Issue fixed and update sent to DAZ!

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,537
    Totte said:

    Issue fixed and update sent to DAZ!

    yes

  • TotteTotte Posts: 14,066

    Check your DIM ;-)

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