Blender 2.63 imported mesh naming gotcha

[Drongle McMahon]

In case anyone else gtets into a mess with this ...

Th name of an imported mesh in SL is taken from the "name" attribute of the <geometry> tag defining the mesh. Im Blender 2.49b, the exporter took this attribute from the Blender object name. Unfortunately, in Blender 2.63 it is taken instead from the data block. This means that renaming your objects so that they have reasonable names sfter import is no longer effective. Instead you have to rename the data blocks. You can do that in Outline view or in the property editor for object data (the inverted triangle of vertices).

If you use the same datablock for multiple objects, the exporter uses instancing, with the geometry appearing only once in the collada file, referenced in multiple nodes of the scene, each with their own transformations. Unfortunately, the uploader does not use instancing (although it does reads it properly from the collada). Instead, it ulpoads separate meshes. Since only one of these can use the dtablock name, the others appear to be renamed to "Object".

[Gaia Clary]

Hi, Drongle.

Your comments help a lot

This issue has been "fixed" by adding a new select option.In fact i believe that the SL Importer takes the Object name from the wrong place. It should use the information provided in the visual scene description. But well...

The new option will be available in Blender 2.64. Here is a preview of the Collada exporter panel:

Note that most probably we can replace the "Export for Second Life" button label by something that explains better what really is going on. The function behind that button has most probably nothing to do with Second life at all, but with an alternative way to export armatures.

It is work in progress though. And if anybody likes to help a bit, then you can grab the current development version of Blender at graphicall.org around tomorrow night and see where the Collada exporter breaks. And report that of course

[Amphei Jierdon]

Hi Gaia, thanks for the information. 

If you are working on the exporter... would it be possible, that the checkbox-settings for the exporter get memorized?

[Gaia Clary]

Hi, Amphei,

What you request will be available for blender 2.64. As long as you keep blender open, it will memorize the previous settings. This has been implemented for all operators. Only when you restart blender the settings reset to the defaults.

BTW: there is also a gsoc user interface project. Discussion is here:

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?255753-GSoC-User-Interface-Tasklist/page7

[Ashasekayi Ra]

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Gaia Clary wrote:

 

It is work in progress though. And if anybody likes to help a bit, then you can grab the current development version of Blender at graphicall.org around tomorrow night and see where the Collada exporter breaks. And report that of course

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If we find any issues, should we report here or at Blender's site?

[Amphei Jierdon]

Thank you

[Gaia Clary]

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Ashasekayi Ra wrote:

If we find any issues, should we report here or at Blender's site?

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I think the best option is to report to Blender 2.6 Bug Tracker However you first need to setup an account on their system. On the other side if you mention a bug here it will also be seen