From Several Objects Down to One

Db3d

To set the stage for my question, I created three in Hexagon and imported them to DAZ3D.  For the purpose of my question, let's call them Head, Handle and Grip (imagine a hammer).

Once in DAZ, I have three items in my scene - Head, Handle and Grip.

I've parented head to handle, and handle+head to grip.  So, in the scene I can collapse grip and whereever I move grip, or rotate it, resize it, etc., the other two follow.  And, if I go to surfaces I can select each one and change the texture on each one.

What I WANT to do is turn these three in to one item in the scene, but if I select that item in the surfaces tab, I see all three surfaces.  Thus, in the Scene tab I do not want the user to be able to expand it.  It will simply be ONE object, but with three textures.

How do I do this?

JonnyRay

You can do that in Hexagon itself. It's a common misconception with new modelers that an OBJ file has to be a single mesh. It doesn't. You can model all those parts individually and put them together and export as a single object.

I would do this...

1. Start a new Hexagon project
2. Import each of the three pieces from your individual .hxn files
3. Position them how you'd like the pieces to fit together
4. Save yourself a bit of hassle by considering where you wan the origin to be (for a hammer you might want it in the middle of the grip) and position the pieces so that spot is at 0,0,0
5. Export it as "hammer.obj" or file of your choosing
6. Import that into Studio
7. Setup the surface settings and you should be able to work with it as a single object.

 

Db3d

JonnyRay said:

You can do that in Hexagon itself. It's a common misconception with new modelers that an OBJ file has to be a single mesh. It doesn't. You can model all those parts individually and put them together and export as a single object.

I would do this...

1. Start a new Hexagon project
2. Import each of the three pieces from your individual .hxn files
3. Position them how you'd like the pieces to fit together
4. Save yourself a bit of hassle by considering where you wan the origin to be (for a hammer you might want it in the middle of the grip) and position the pieces so that spot is at 0,0,0
5. Export it as "hammer.obj" or file of your choosing
6. Import that into Studio
7. Setup the surface settings and you should be able to work with it as a single object.

 

Hi JonnyRay,

I must be missing something.  When I do that, I end up with three items in my scene tab in DAZ, and that's what I'm trying to get away from.

Is there another step in Hexagon that I'm missing?  Or, is there an option I'm missing when I export the .obj?

Brent

jestmart

Simply export from Stuio as wavefront object then import back in.

Db3d

jestmart said:

Simply export from Stuio as wavefront object then import back in.

That doesn't accomplish what I'm looking for.

Richard Haseltine

You need to use the Geometry Editor tool to rename the surfaces, then export to OBJ and erimport as jestmart described.