FBX export... let's discuss

[-andrew- 59]

I have two primary programs I need to be able to use with FBX export... Blender and Unreal Engine.

 

Starting with Blender... I can't seem to get a successful import to Blender. What's the trick here?

 

Ok, Unreal now. I'm surprised at how few things I've found regarding Unreal when searching here; I haven't tried importing FBX from FZ yet - is there a "standard" procedure before I start experimenting?

 

thanks

[Shibui Design 58]

FBX export works for mostly flawless in my workflow, which is export using default setting with the following changes:

 

1. Select "faceted" radio button (otherwise any smooth objects don't translate)

2. in Transformation, rotate -90 deg on X axis

 

Depending on the unit of measure, I sometimes need to change the "scale" values. Workflow is successful for exporting FMZ fully textured models to C4d. Materials, textures and geometry come thru cleanly. FBX import into FMZ has not been successful for me.

[-andrew- 59]

Hi,

 

I've had it set to Faceted, but it's not working... the model imports to Blender in the correct orientation, so I don't think the rotation is needed.

[Justin Montoya 324]

OBJ  may work better for you...

[etroxel 76]

I noticed with the latest build of the WIP that FBX isn't in there as an export option. I went back to 8.5.7 to try to get a model into Lumion and it had tons of missing faces and bad shading. I'm not sure what the culprit was. It seemed to work fine in an earlier build doing the same thing. 

[-andrew- 59]

Anyone else?

 

Considering how common UE4 is in ArchViz, I'm surprised there isn't more activity here.

So far, no luck importing a "clean" model from formz...

[bbuxton 59]

Missing polygons and flipped normals and other junk seems to be a thing with all of the FormZ polygonal export formats.

Sometime object doctor or triangulating all polygons helps a bit but normally I stick to Step format and convert to polygons outside of FormZ.

I use PowerTranslators for Modo (Not sure how active development is anymore but for now it works a treat)

Updating polygon import and export functionality is really overdue now. Particularly now that RenderZone now belongs to a bygone era.

 

If you have obj or dxf working then Autodesk fbx converter does a good job and can batch convert.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/item?siteID=123112&id=22694909

Also if you join the Datasmith beta you can bring step, iges, and lots of other formats straight into UE4

[rich f 8]

Missing polygons and flipped normals and other junk seems to be a thing with all of the FormZ polygonal export formats...

For what it's worth I still model primarily in 6.7.3, all faceted solids, no smooth objects. Which is fine for architecture but I realize probably not ideal for all industries. The models that FormZ exports via .dwg or .fbx (intermediate step through v8) import perfectly into Rhino, Sketchup, 3dsMax - I've had users comment on how clean the geometry is. SKP works better with "acis" checked on .dwg export, Rhino likes it better with "acis" unchecked.

 

The only problem I have is that .fbx will not save out layers no matter what options I check.

[Justin Montoya 324]

I'm having an issue where the FBX export is only converting and saving the file units as Centimeters, despite setting the Export as Inches or Feet, or Working Units (which should be inches).  Does anyone else have this issue or a possible solution?  

[-andrew- 59]

4 minutes ago, Justin Montoya said:

I'm having an issue where the FBX export is only converting and saving the file units as Centimeters, despite setting the Export as Inches or Feet, or Working Units (which should be inches).  Does anyone else have this issue or a possible solution?  

Hi Justin, for what it's worth, how do you know it's saving the file in CM? 

[Justin Montoya 324]

When I open the FBX file in 3DStudioMax, it says File Units:  Centimeters

[-andrew- 59]

Ah... sorry, I was just thinking Unreal Engine, which now has English units too... Don't know 3DS. Carry on... 

[Justin Montoya 324]

Using the settings above from Shibui Design, I am getting nice clean models and textures into MAX, but the scale is being read as CM when opening the file in MAX.  If I can get that problem sorted, then FBX appears to be a bit better than OBJ at this time when sending files to MAX.

Unsure about Unreal Engine, since I've never used it, but I would suspect it should be similar with regards to the FBX and OBJ files from FormZ using the settings suggested above.

[-andrew- 59]

Yeah, I'm not fluent with Unreal, but when they introduced English units (but workspace still defaulted to CM), apparently, a lot of people didn't know, so they imported models and the scale got weird.

[gordonjay 8]

I use FBX to get my models from FormZ to Keyshot.  Sometimes maps applied to a surface of a model do not come in correctly, it drops all but one map and applies that to all the surfaces of an object.  I found exporting from FormZ as FBX and importing into Blender (free software), re exporting as FBX and then importing into Keyshot seems to fix the issue.  I am not sure if the problem is with the FormZ export or with the Keyshot import, but somehow this fixes the issue.

[snow 129]

On 12/17/2018 at 1:29 PM, Justin Montoya said:

I'm having an issue where the FBX export is only converting and saving the file units as Centimeters, despite setting the Export as Inches or Feet, or Working Units (which should be inches).  Does anyone else have this issue or a possible solution?  

I've noticed this issue too.  I wasn't sure which unit it was exporting, but when I import the FBX into C4D the model is always quite small.  I have not found a proper workaround.  I suspect something is broken in the export settings (i've tried all the settings with no luck) and I've tried changing the import settings on C4D without any luck.

I just scale my model in the destination program.