Mesh converting to .dae issues? (and a few other questions)

[Mandi Hotaling]

I'm using Maya 2013 and having a hard time exporting my meshes properly. Sometimes they export fine, sometimes they just don't export at all and crash my program wether I use the in maya fbx_dae or COLLADA file extension in maya or the fbx converter seperately after exporting as just a .fbx. Not sure what's going wrong here, I create the mesh... combine it, bind it, paint all of my weights and when I go to export either maya just freezes when "writing output file", or the converter just stops responding. I can export with the opencollada exporter built in maya but the weights do not export. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

ps* I'm also curious about linked meshes, is it possible to, instead of having a uv map texture for a mesh, be able to export multiple seperate polygons into secondlife as one linked object you can edit the textures seperately on? Or would you have to just export and import the files seperately and resize the mesh in secondlife and put it all together by hand?

pss* (sorry), any way to import meshes scaled correctly... when I import meshes they are always tiny and out of scale, I know it isn't a huge deal but it's a little inconvenient at times. Thanks so much.

[Leviathan Flux]

 

There could be a number of things going on with your export process.  It sounds like you may be working with a file that is too large.  What is the poly count of the model you are having trouble with, and is it usually with less complex models that are the ones that work fine?  For rigged items, have you been able to get any models to work with weights?  You may just be missing a step there.  Are you making sure to select the model, then shift+click on the pelvis joint o fthe skeleton and exporting together?  

With multiple objects, I would always recommend importing them separate so you can control the LODs and for architecture, the physics models.  If it's just a matter of having multiple texture faces, you can always apply different materials in maya to the faces you would like ot have a different texture surface, and then overlap the UVs and bake to separate maps.

To get the models the proper scale in SL, you can either work in meters in Maya, or if you work in cm as I do, open the dae file with a text editor, and then you'll see a few lines down, it will say ><unit meter="0.010000" in the middle of a lot of text.  Just change that to ><unit meter="1.000000" and your model will be in the correct proportions, making pieces multiple pieces together much easier.

[Mandi Hotaling]

Yes I have been able to get smaller projects rigged and imported into sl that isn't my issue, I think it may be like you said just too high of a poly count so I will try to seperate and upload in pieces maybe? It is hair that I'm working with so its really important I can texture the pieces how I need them, is there any tutorials of how to do this for hair? I've never really worked with UV maps for hair because I've been using sculpts up until now, I left sl for a while came back and literally mesh has taken over so I've yet to find a nice tutorial explaining how to properly export and import a hair or anything like that, or UV map hair. Thank you!

[Leviathan Flux]

You could do it in pieces but I would recommend just lowering the poly count.  It will allow more people to render it and help preserve the LODs better if it's a larger object.  

As far as I know there aren't any tutorials I have seen for mesh hair, and since I know a lot of people are interested in learning how, I am actually working on making a series of videos for it now.  I am busy with a few other projects so I am not sure when I will get it done, but shouldnt be more than a couple weeks.

[Cathy Foil]

Here is a cleaver trick I came up with when wanting up load many individual mesh objects that need to lined up perfectly once in SL.

First export all the objects in your scene as one DEA file but don't combine them.  Don't worry about LOD or physics for this mesh model.  This DEA file will create a multiple unlinked object in your inventory which you will use to line up all the individual mesh objects you will upload separately.

Then upload all your individual mesh objects separately so you can control LOD and physics for each.

Rez your multiple object uploaded model the one you uploaded first.  Link all the mesh together so it will be easier to select it in the end to delete it.  With the "Edit" window open and "Edit Linked Parts" option selected rez one of your individual mesh models and right click on the corresponding mesh object in your linked mesh and copy the XYZ coordinates and then apply them to your single mesh object.  You might also need to do this for your XYZ rotation.

Once you placed all your individual objects you can delete your linked mesh object you were using as a guide for placement.  Most third party viewers have copy and paste buttons right next to the XYZ coordinates as well as the size and rotation so it is a snap to line up all your individual mesh objects. 

Hope that helps.

Cathy

PS. If Maya is crashing when trying to export make sure you "Freeze Transformation" and "Delete History" for each of your mesh objects.  This will help keep your file size smaller so Maya doesn't run out of memory.  Plus depending on the complexity of the mesh object it can take a long time to export a really big file.  Maya may look like it is frozen but just really working hard to export the file.  Listen to your hard drive and the watch the LED on the front of your computer to see if the hard dive is being activated.  Start an export right  before you stop to eat lunch or dinner.  I have had exports that take as long as 40 minutes to an hour to finish exporting.  Mind you my computer is 8 years old but she is still a pretty decent computer even by today's standards.