Blender won't open .obj files... can you help me?

Support Basics & Interface
1

Hi everyone-

So I am VERY new to Blender. My boss has handed me a .obj file bought specifically for use in Blender and I can’t get it to open at all. From what I’ve seen on google posts about other people who’ve had this issue… I’m supposed to be opening it through something called wavefront??? I don’t see that anywhere in the program.

I’m desperate. Can anyone help me figure this out or tell me what to do? Also… can you recommend a great book on Blender for people just starting out? (For animation, texturing, and modeling …etc…)

Thank you so much for any help you can offer!
-Jen

2

You may need to enable the addon by going into your “User Preferences” -> “Addons” -> “Import-Export” and enable it by checking the check box.

3

hi! im pretty good with blender and i think the cause is your blender download…go to the part that says 3d view and change it to User Preferences…then click addon tab, then go down to import-export and click the Checkbox for .obj files. that shouldlet you open it…as for tutorials, blenderguru.com and blendercookie.com are both good places to go for help with Texturing and everything else under the sun :stuck_out_tongue:
if you dont mind…what style of OBJ is it? a character? or a regular mesh?

4

oha nd once your at tat point, go to file-> import->.obj-> and then click your file :stuck_out_tongue:

5

Hey all -

Thanks for the helpful answers. …Like I said before I’m really really new to Blender. I’ve found the User Preferences window but I’m not seeing an addon tab anywhere. Can you give me a hint as to where it is?

Thanks -
J

6

Which version of Blender did you download? The featured version on blender.org is 2.49, but it has been mostly superseded by the new 2.56 which is still in beta.

Check out the tutorials here:

7

I’ve got blender version 2.49b

8

Ignore all the posts above that mention addons, that is not applicable for the blender version you have.
From the top of the screen in the File menu there should be an ‘Import’ entry. In there is a list of all the formats that can be imported. near the bottom there should be an entry for wavefront (obj), that is the entry you need to select. Then browse to the obj and just accept the defaults. If you don’t see the wavefront option try installing python from http://python.org I don’t think the importer actually needs you to install python but try anyway. IMPORTANT: You need to install the correct python and the one for your operating system (32bit or 64bit) You need python 2.6.6. http://python.org/download/releases/