Going from FormZ 7 to EI v9 with texture maps

[S. Houtzager]

Hey folks,

Trying to get to the bottom of this. With FZ V7, when exporting to fact "with" a texture map and importing into EI V9, it does not work. The material changes to a purple (always) and the map is not viewable in Electric Image. I tested it so that the map starts as a jpeg so no conversion has to happen. Tried this with FormZ V6.7 and it is the same.

Here is a simple test. http://intuitionusa.com/1/formz.png

Wondering if it is Electric Image's issue or FormZ?

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Steven!

I heard from another use about this problem on new FormZ export, please, contact formZ Support <support@formz.com>

And send me the project too.

Thanks

Tom

[S. Houtzager]

This was FZ's reply as I posted in FZ at the same time.

Steven,

We have not changed the behavior of this export in years, and it has always worked, so I suspect that this is an Electric Image v9 issue. Import the FACT file back into formZ. If the texture shows there -- then report this to EIAS...

Well I imported the fact back into FZ 7 and the maps were there although flipped. Here is the fact and map ready to place into EI. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5048027/Archive.zip

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Steven!

Same problem in EIAS 8 and EIAS 9, in the Material window of each group, you need to use the replace button, but the textures are not coming correct placed, How are they placed in FormZ?

As soon I have time, I will try EIAS 7 or EIAS 6.6

Thanks

Tom

[S. Houtzager]

Cubic mapped.

[Tomas Egger]

Ola S,

Same problem with EIAS 7, I will add in our list here, lets see whats wrong, if its a FormZ export problem or not.

Thanks

Tom

[S. Houtzager]

Hey Tomas,

I took the fact that FZ exported and reimported that into FZ to test. It worked fine so it could be an EI issue. Thanks.

[Gigayoda]

Hi Steven,

A screenshot of your fact export settings might help. I just had some trouble this past weekend just getting the geometry to come through. FormZ changed some settings in the "Decomposition" triangulation options that I found helped me resolve some of the issue I had. I'm not in front of my workstation right now but I'll try to get some of my settings that have worked.

I believe Form-Z hasn't changed their export methods but they've changed the way models are built and triangulated. Some are 4 sided some are deconstructed as 3 sided polys. If I recall correctly EI liked 4 sided faces. Tom I recall there was a link in the forum that showed some base settings out of FormZ to EI. Maybe a new EI9 FormZ workflow thread may be needed.

[S. Houtzager]

Hey Gigayoda,

I haven't been having any issues with geometry coming into EI. I even got a FZ7 smooth model into EI without an issue just from the standard fact export. Just the maps. Will test that out.

[meester smeeth]

Hello there

 

Could you try exporting from FormZ as an OBJ and see how that goes?  That has usually worked for me.

[S. Houtzager]

I have tried that.  I lose the layers. I could group items but I have so many that it takes a bunch of time.