OBJ imports not showing up on Mac DAZ Studio Pro 4.8.0.59

dramenon

I have recently come across when importing an OBJ file that there is no representation in the scene panel. This becomes a problem if the model does not come in correctly whether it's scale or some other malady.

Has anyone experienced this behavior and if you have is there a workaround?​

 

fixmypcmike

Is this happening with lots of .obj files, or are there particular models giving this problem?

dramenon

Seems to be any 3D file format that is Imported > so far > 3DS, OBJ, DAE 

Richard Haseltine

DS doesn't import .3ds as far as I know - are you sure the import is not erroring out?

dramenon

Sorry, exclude 3DS, I was thinking of Ps.

But yes its actaully there, I have used them frequently.

Just not line item in Scene Panel. In one case I LOCKED it to keep it place but no ther eis no way to unlock it.... havent found the UnLock all button yet :)

Richard Haseltine

What happens if you save the scene and reload it?

dramenon

It's stil not there. I am betting this is unique to Mac builds.

In cases where I see the imported OBJ, and use it. I save the Daz 3D file and then when I reopen the daz 3d file the camera is always off from where it was saved. I think its clear that there is room for improvement on these types of workflows.

 

sriesch

For the camera not staying where you saved it, a workaround that works well for me is to always create and use a camera (I call it "final render camera") so that when DS changes the camera view as the file is opened, I can simply change it right back.  Minor annoyance, but no big deal and no lost camera positions.

SpottedKitty

dramenon said:

I save the Daz 3D file and then when I reopen the daz 3d file the camera is always off from where it was saved.

A couple of possible things that could be happening here...

Are you just saving the imported .obj as a scene or scene subset, or are you saving it as a proper Support Asset into your content folder? Saving as an asset creates all the proper data files and the .duf file you can see in your content library that pulls all the bits of the prop together to go into your scene. Saving directly as a scene doesn't do this, everything is saved as temp files which have the possibility of glitching and losing the saved prop. You should always save as a support asset.

As for the wandering camera, the most likely cause is you're looking through the Perspective View. This is exactly what it says on the tin, it's a view, not a camera. Unlike any cameras you add to your scene, the Perspective View is not saved when you save a scene — when you re-load the scene later, the View goes back to its default settings. It also doesn't have the same controls as a real camera. The Views have their uses, but being used as a rendering camera generally isn't one of them.

dramenon

Awesome info here!

Thank you > I will create a new Camera for my shots as uyou suggested Sriesch and thanks SpottedKitty, I did not realize that!

I saved the OBJ as a Scene > so I will follow your lead here and see what happens.

 

dramenon

Thanks for the help and ideas I have it working thanks to your assistance(s) :)

SpottedKitty

dramenon said:

I saved the OBJ as a Scene > so I will follow your lead here and see what happens.

FWIW, here's the procedure I use — I'm in the process of resaving a bunch of older Poser-compatible stuff into proper native D|S files.

• Before you do anything else, make sure the .obj and all textures you're going to use on it are in their proper places in a folder in one of your content locations. This is important, as it means you can more easily find all the bits of your saved object later, pack them up for distributing as a freebie, and reinstall later on if you need to. It also means your item can be installed on anyone else's computer no matter how complicated their content setup might be. Get this wrong, and it'll only work on your computer, because the folders it's stored in only exist on your computer.
• Import the .obj and make sure it's at the proper scale and orientation (depending on the import preset you use, it might import tiny, huge, or upside-down).
• Make sure all the textures are properly applied; try a test render and see what it looks like.
• In the Content Library tab, create a folder to put your .duf file into. If you have texture variations, you might wat to create a MATs folder inside this folder.
• Select the imported item in your scene.
• From the File menu, select File>Save As>Support Asset>Figure/Prop Asset
• In the Filtered Save dialog that opens, navigate to your content location and select the folder you just created. Name the file and click the Save button.
• In the Save Options dialog that opens, make sure you have the proper content folder location in the Asset Directory slot, your account name in Vendor Name, and the new file name you just saved as in Item Name. Also put a name into Product Name; this can be the sane as Item Name, or if you're creating a group of items, make a name for them.
• I don't use the content database, so I'm not sure what to do with the Metadata section.
• Click Accept and the whole thing will be saved properly into your content folders.

A bit complicated, I know, but it does save a lot of problems later with glitchy file saves. Note that this only saves things into your Content Library tab; the Smart Content set up is more complicated and I don't use it anyway.

scorpio66

Not sure if this is relevant, but since my last reinstall of DAZ4.8 64 BIT, I have no selectable menu item for obj import in the FILE IMPORT MENU.

Only options are.dae and .fbx.

Anyone else see this problem?

Richard Haseltine

scorpio66 said:

Not sure if this is relevant, but since my last reinstall of DAZ4.8 64 BIT, I have no selectable menu item for obj import in the FILE IMPORT MENU.

Only options are.dae and .fbx.

Anyone else see this problem?

Go to help>About Installed Plug-ins. Is Poser Importers enabled? That's what provides the OBJ import too.

scorpio66

Hi Richard.

Many thanks, that was the problem.

Odd that it just 'turned itself off' though. I have never used that menu before. Thanks again, much appreciated. Saved me going through the reinstall process time and time again.

Richard Haseltine

May have been a glitch during install, perhaps the old version was not properly overwritten and the plug-in was disabled due to a version mismatch (that's a wild guess, of course). Anyway, I'm glad that pointed you in a productive direction..

TangoAlpha

I import obj files on  a more-or-less daily basis with no problem at all. 2012 i5 iMac, OSX 10.10.5, DS 4.8.0.59

The thing I've noticed about obj files is that how well they behave seems to depend on where they came from. I build my models in Carrara, so that's what creates the obj. DS detects that it's from Carrara (I guess there's something written in the header) and converts the units perfectly. There's nothing inherently  in an obj to say how big a unit is, and every program seems to interpret it differently (Carrara 1 unit = 1 inch, DS 1 unit = 1cm etc.). So it's very important to know that the scale is right. I've found for instance that Carrara export to Poser produced unsatisfactory results, but import to DS first and then re-export to Poser works great.

I don't include materials in my objs - the surfaces almost always need tweaking to some extent and I find it generally better to set them up from scratch. Whether this makes a difference to them importing properly, I don't know.

I'm sure I'm preaching to the converted here. I don't know what program created your obj files, but it might be worth importing them to somethine else (which will validate the obj file), and possibly an export from some other program will import better to DS.

Regardless, I don't think it's inherently a Mac problem.

Richard Haseltine

DS has presets in the OBJ import options dialogue controlling scale and axis orientation - presumably you have the Carrara preset selected.

TangoAlpha

It's a preset? I thought it was somehow detecting.  I must have selected it yonks ago and forgot about it. Haha, silly me!

SpottedKitty

The import function doesn't auto-detect, it remembers whatever setting you used the last time. As for the presets, look at the wide box at the top of the import dialog. It doesn't look like a button, but it is one.

Note that after you select a preset, you can still change the settings if your object imports at a weird scale or orientation.