Hi all.
I need to export scenes to softimage XSI - which is the best way to do this? Someone with any experience?
Regards, Klopes
export to obj format. If I remember well Xsi can import it.
Or d’load the evaluative version and check it.
Gravedigging only unearthed this thread. I exported two objects (one ~130 vertices, another ~6500, both in the same file) to Wavefront OBJ and Softimage XSI 4.2 is failing to import it, and it offers me no explanation as to what went wrong…
I looked at the OBJ file Blender produces and it is (of course) very correct. To compare, I produced a simple OBJ from XSI and got a file without face indices…
I had removed the material reference from the file…
Is anyone else having problems with this? Or did I do something obviously wrong?
Thanks for any help…
Yay! /me runs home to try it/
Thank you! 
obj and x importers/exporters work perfect with XSI. Even obj imports perfectly vertex normals (hard edges from other packages)
You know, that’s very rude. Are you telling me my problem didn’t occur? Or perhaps that I’m incompetent and/or stupid?
XSI 4.2 is broken in a number of significant UI/file handling spots. If you can, in fact, make it work, perhaps you can enlighten me rather than put me down.
The .xsi exporter worked flawlessly.
This is my report on what I’ve learned.
XSI does not like meshes with faces containing less than two vertices. When I was preparing my model, I chopped out all the stuff that would not be visible in the final scene before exporting. Apparently I missed a couple of (that is: two) stray edges. The OBJ export of course contained them, and XSI choked without offering an explanation as to why.
Superbly, the XSI exporter script LetterRip graciously posted above was smart enough to complain about that. After running Blender’s “clean mesh” script I was able to export and import without problems.
This is, BTW, an error in XSI’s Wavefront OBJ importer. If it were robust it would (a) complain, (b) simply remove the mal-formed faces, or © both a and b. It is always a mistake to program assuming that the user will invariably give valid data. My problem is a case in point. I thought I had correctly culled all those extraneous edges, but I hadn’t. Simply informing me of the oversight would have been much better than nothing.
did it sound rude to you???
Incredible. Was no intention of that in any way possible.
I was mentioning .obj xsi importer and .x import well, as I have tested with a huge bunch of my models in my xsi Foundation. True that I tend to produce quad, or tri only meshes, and I keep them very clean as are meant for video game engines.
OK, I understand you didn’t mean to be rude; grappling with English doesn’t help either. So don’t feel bad.
As a courtesy, this is how you avoid a bad response in the future.
Your response was taken poorly because you did not offer anything which could help or advance the discussion. Boiled down to it’s simplest content, the discussion went like this:
Duoas: XSI OBJ importer fails to import my OBJ.
Extrudeface: XSI OBJ importer works just fine.
Such a response is:
[>] non-informative (it offers no new information that is useful to solving the problem)
[>] combative (it directly contradicts my claim that XSI is failing. No explanation is given to support the assertation)
A better response would have been:
I’ve never had a problem importing OBJ files into XSI.
Perhaps there is an error in your model? I always make sure to clean mine so that it contains only quads or triangles before importing.
This response is better because it is:
[>] informative (it offers a course of action: check that the model is clean [as this is what you always do when you prepare your models for XSI])
[>] non-combative (it does not suggest that the XSI OBJ importer always works)
This is an international community and I cannot read your thoughts except by the language you use to express them. Your language will of course differ from mine, so by more carefully choosing it you’ll communicate more effectively. Use this criteria to determine if the response is appropriate:
[>] Does my response suggest a course of action or a useful train thought?
[>] If my response contradicts a previous statement, does it explain why or offer an alternative?
Thank you for wanting to help to begin with. Blend on!
Duoas,
I think part of the communication problem was that you didn’t offer a clear problem statement. For the the vast majority of meshes people create it would work ‘just fine’ since people rarely have loose edges, and other potential problems. (Hmmm actually your later response did in fact give a pretty clear explanation…)
Also he did offer an alternative in the .x exporter.
Anyway I’m glad that the .xsi exporter works for you, it is good to have some additional testers for it. Also I’ll pass along the note on potential problems with exporting loose edges - I’m not sure which way is compliant with the spec, but perhaps it should offer a warning at least.
LetterRip
SO what about for xsi 5.0. Would the importer work for that?
this is an xsi exporter - ie takes the data in a blend and creates an xsi compatible file.
Not sure what version it targets tho,
LetterRip
The .xsi format was new to 4.0, so it should still work in 5.0.
OK, I understand you didn’t mean to be rude; grappling with English doesn’t help either. So don’t feel bad.
hehe. I didn’t. Was just surpirsed. A bit, only.
My english is crap,is not my language, that is a fact, but I also write in a very fast and lazy way. As I arrive quite destroyed at home. Being a game artist is…what I wanted to be and am trying to stop being.
So I don’t waste more time than essential in a post, usually. Unless something really looks interesting. Or new, for me.
As a courtesy, this is how you avoid a bad response in the future.
hehe, I have enough rules from my boss. Sorry.No more rules other than the self imposed(also in life) of me trying to be respectful as I actually was. You simply over reacted.
No kind of offense was intended, so it filled me of curiosity, that was I showed my surprise. I was giving a valid hint. I often read that as a clue in froums. Then I know maybe something went wrong in my workflow: I examinate it and discover. Just like that. But to be true, it’s not even needed.
Your response was taken poorly because you did not offer anything which could help or advance the discussion.
Spent last many years writing ‘bibles’ of help in 3d, not only in Wings or others, but in the many packages I did have to control , sadly.Had almost zero reward of that, and even sometimes bad answers…even!.
Lately I am very tired and only drop a clue. As I did find all on my own with the screen, I guess a clue is more than enough, often.More than I use to have.
Boiled down to it’s simplest content, the discussion went like this:
Duoas: XSI OBJ importer fails to import my OBJ.
Extrudeface: XSI OBJ importer works just fine.
Sorry. In general in 3d forums it means: “something is failing in your workflow. I don’t have your mesh, neither know each step you made, how you exported, how you imported, etc… but I give you the clue that the xsi I/O in x(just in case you treat animated meshes as well) and obj works well, so that you can have that point ensured, and can at least don’t have that doubt. Sorry but I must go, you know, have to feed my dog, and am a bit in a hurry”
man I am not gonna explain all that in every post I could answer, which are many today. In many forums of many tools. And have helped a freaking load under many nicks in many years. And still it was good help, sorry , but is so.
I discovered all my learning alone.Is not needed so much help.
Such a response is:
non-informative (it offers no new information that is useful to solving the problem)
yup. is of help.free help. Costs no money. Surely several didn’t even dare to post an answer.
combative (it directly contradicts my claim that XSI is failing. No explanation is given to support the assertation)
There is your main error. No combative intention. Was also stablishing that the plugins work well as the good work of the authors is good to be defended. But zero combative intention.Big error.
And I don’t need to use so much time. Is a clue.Some one else could have done a later one more verbose explanation. Sometimes one have more time, some times less. In a comunity, works so.
A better response would have been:
I’ve never had a problem importing OBJ files into XSI.
Perhaps there is an error in your model? I always make sure to clean mine so that it contains only quads or triangles before importing.
That’s too basic to mention in any I/O conversion. Not only because Blender oficial doesn’t import/export yet Mirai like n-gons, but is a thing way common as an error in importers and exporters. Also, being so basic, the usual in me is that u already double checked that…
One never knows where’s the line. When I explain things too basic, ppl shout saying me if I think they don’t know such basic things…
Bye.
I only came back here to see if I could find more information about the dotXSI exporter, since it seems to convert everything to triangles…
I don’t think you realize, Extrudeface, how combative and defensive your responses are.
There seems to be a point of pride among some in this forum to dissect another’s post by quoting bits and pieces and responding to them. That doesn’t usually get anywhere with me when the argument is invalid or poorly articulated.
Let me explain where I’m coming from.
I have 20 years of experience with programming, much of it in graphics and low-level interfacing.
I also have about 20 years experience in teaching. My students love me because I remember what it was like to know nothing!
I have extensive knowledge of the English language. I’ve had to learn to speak in simplified terms so that people can understand me. (What that usually means is that I have to take longer to explain a point than it would take with some ‘more advanced’ vocabulary.)
So, simply giving a long-winded answer claiming your advice was good because I didn’t understand the answer is, colloquially, plain bunk. And I won’t put up with it.
There are more than fifteen thousand registered members of elysiun. We don’t regularly hear from most simply because they don’t want to deal with the contention that ensues from some of the unappologetically single-minded responses that commonly happen here. Elysiun is a nicer forum in the sense that it’s not a match between participants simply spouting obscenities at each other. The problem here is that when someone is offended they do their best to take another person apart.
I’m sorry you’ve been offended. I’m sorry you feel upset. But you can’t seriously look down your nose at me and say “I overreacted”. Your response was curt and non-informative (for the reasons I plainly listed above). And now your response is edging towards belligerence. And I won’t simply and quietly put-up with it.
I won’t suffer it simply because I want those who are lurking to know that it won’t be tolerated, at least not by me.
Please just accept my kind observation that your response was poorly worded, even if that was not how you intended it. I cannot read your mind. That there was no error to my workflow was never intimated: I plainly stated that I was quite possibly doing something wrong, and I needed suggestions on what works for others. Even the intended response of “there’s something wrong with your workflow” is not helpful.
It is true that my problem statement could have been much clearer (as noted by LetterRip).
oh, well…