Import object with multiple "individual parts" from Blender to Daz3D...?

Mephisto3

Dear all,

The question has been asked a few times, but none of the solutions work for me unfortunately... whenerver I export an object (.OBJ) from Blender and then import it into Daz3D, it is converted into one single solid shape, and all individual components are lost.

As a super-simply example: I have a room with two pillars holding the ceiling. In a scene in Daz3D, I want those pillars removed. In Blender, those are three different objects ("room", "pillar 1"
 and "pillar 2".) I export as .OBJ with various different settings (I tried "Polygroups", "Objects as OBJ Objects", "Objectsd as OBJ Groups" and various other combinations of those as suggested by others - none work, the result is always the same).

Would somebody be able to explain this step by step for a (blender-) beginner (i.e., really covering the steps, lets say "1. create one cube, 2. create a second cube, 3. do XYZ , 4. ... 5. Export with settings XYZ)? Do I need to add vertex groups or something? Do I need to "do anything" with the components, say, the pillars, in the Blender settings before trying to export?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Best,

M.

Richard Haseltine

Either export each as a separate OBJ, or turn the grouped OBJ into a figure in DS:

1. Window>Panes(Tabs)>Figure Setup
2. Right-click in the Geometry List area on the left and select Add Geometry, setting the preset you need in the options dialogue.
3. Drag the new entry into the Relationships area on the right. For this all you'd need to do there is drag the two pillars onto the room.
4. Click Create.
5. With Tools>Geometry Editor active go to Winow>Panes(Tabs)>Tool Settings
6. Select each bone in turn and make sure that its Selection Group, at top-right, is set to the correct group from the OBJ.

 

Mephisto3

Hi Richard,

First of all, thank you very much indeed for your (super-quick!!) help - very much appreciated!

Now, I do struggle with the answer... let me try to explain where:

1) I understand that I could export THREE different objects from Blender ("room", "pillar 1" and "pillar 2"), and then "re-create" the figure in Daz3D - however, this process (while it works well for my simple example, of course) can get very tedious if you have, say, 50 different objects in a (larger / more complex) room

-> therefore, is there any way to "just" export a "big set of components" from Blender and have Daz3D recognize on import that the objects are to be imported separately? Or do I just HAVE to export / import each individual component separately?

I am asking because, for example, in Hexagon, it works flawlessly (but I cannot use Hexagon because it runs extremely unstable and crashes every 5 minutes...) - I have an object made up of multiple subojects and Daz3D recognizes them as such

 

2) as for your alternative proposal, I don't think I understand (sorry for that!) - how can I "import a grouped object" from Blender? Whenever I export something from Blender that is a combination of multiple Meshes / Primitives (even "just two cubes" or something), they will end up in Daz3D as ONE single object... I cannot ungroup / expand / anything... they are as solid as a single cube would be... 

 

Sorry if I am a bit slow here!!!

And thank you again for your help!

 

Best, 

M.

 

See below for images: 1) blender object, 2) blender hierarchie, 3) daz object, 4) daz hierarchie

Richard Haseltine

Export the OBJ from Blender with groups, DS will recognise them and let you assign them to bones in a figure - it won't treat them as separate props, however, on a simple OBJ import.

Mephisto3

Hi Richard - again, thank you very much!

However, as you can see in my pictures above, that is just not what is happening, unfortunately... with or without groups, it is always one solid object in DS... any idea what I might be doing wrong?

 

Best,

M.

Syrus_Dante

I think there is no other way than getting a single solid object into DazStudio with the OBJ import process.

The hirarchy you have in the blender outliner can't be imported to the DazStudio Scene pane - at least not with a single OBJ file.

You could use the Geometry Editor [select one part]* - hide unselected and then delete hidden - can all be accesed with the right-click menu on the viewport. Then import the 'all in one' OBJ again and repeat this process with the other parts. With this you get seperated props that you can reparent in the Scene pane to recreate the hirarchy like in blender. They all will have the origin or so called pivot point that the individual props will rotate around in the same spot but this can be changed with the Joint Editor.

You can also convert the all in one object to a figure like Richard suggested. Once done you can hide and manipulate the individual parts within the Scene pane hirarchy that are assigned to different bones.

 

[select one part]* having Face Groups for the different parts can be handy but isn't neccesary - you could also select some polygons (with drag selection mode see right-click menu) then right-click at the viewport and choose Select Connected or press Ctrl+* to create a Face Group or delete individual parts. To create a Face Group just right-click on the Geometry Editor ToolSettings pane where it says Face Group and choose "Create Face Group From Selected".

You have to understand that the vertex groups in blender can be exported in the OBJ file if you select the Polygroups setting in the export. Once imported into DazStudio open the Geometry Editor Tools Settings pane and you can see your vertex groups are now called Face Groups. Also Surface Groups can be imported with the OBJ that are also called Matreial Zones that can be created in Blender or DazStudio.

For example to create Vertex Groups in Blender select the object Bottom Cube press tab to go to edit mode, press A to select all or press L with the mouse over the object to select connected (linked). Then on the right side of Vertex Groups hit the plus sign, select and rename the new "Group" and then press the button Assign to create the vertex group. Repeat this process with the Lid Cube and another name for the vertex group.

CGI3DM

try Collada (dae)

or Scripts
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5382/export-multiple-objects-to-obj
https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts4/mcjloadmanyobj

Mephisto3

Hi all - in a nutshell: thank you all for your help, greatly appreciated! Especially Syrus_Dante (but Richard too of course! Just not yet advanced enough to fully understand it :)) and thanks CGI3DM for the links as well), who broke it down to my (very low) level of experience. This is exactly what I was looking for, i.e. first the information that it is not WORKING to import the hierarchie by just selecting the right stuff, and then how I can do it.

I am impressed that it took less than a day for you guys to jump in and help me out. That is great and I am very very glad that I chose to "work" (hobby!) with Daz :)

I hope I can create nice things eventually that benefit the community... will do my best.

Thank you again!

Talk soon & have a very nice day!

M.

Richard Haseltine

mephistooewi_0d678bdb90 said:

Hi Richard - again, thank you very much!

However, as you can see in my pictures above, that is just not what is happening, unfortunately... with or without groups, it is always one solid object in DS... any idea what I might be doing wrong?

 

Best,

M.

No, it won't import as separate parts - but it will let you create a figure with separate bones for the OBJ groups through the Figure Setup pane.

hansolocambo

I export objects as FBX from 3DS Max. And when I import them in DAZ, all the different parts are there. 

Just avoid obj. It lacks tons of informations. The FBX I use for compatibility purposes is from 2006 and still : it works.