Replacing lwo, obj, or fbx from file, not from scene or other blenderfiles

Hi there,

This is a bit ridiculous, though it was a simple thing, maybe it is …but I can´t find it in blender, or on any google search of that issue, seems it just deals with replacing object from something alrady loaded in to scene or from other blender files.

Usually in lightwave, I can replace an object in the scene from whatever object I choose from any file path on the harddrive, it will maintain other properties as well that is applied in the scene.

So isn´t there a menu/command for this?
This should be basics …in my eyes anyway.
Perhaps 2.91 has it somewhere, and yes I just intalled that, but I am currently working with the older fluid system, so it should be doable in 2.79, and with lwo import for keeping weight maps…that´s why I use both lw 2015 and blender 2.79.3…the lwo is ok there with weight maps, just need a workflow to swap out a saved object from lightwave.

What you’re talking about is linking. It’s not a new feature - vertually any aspect of a Blenderfile can be linked from one blend file to another - materials, actions, objects, meshes, collections, scenes… I feel like I’ve missed something.

Thanks for trying to help, but I said clearly in my post, it´s not linking from one blender file to another, I simply need to replace an lwo file in a blender scene, by “replace” then select a new file from the hardrive, not any new mesh from the scene or other blender scenes.

this is a basic operation used a lot (in lightwave)when you are working on other objects, or have other objects you want to replace within a scene, without having to get it from another lightwave scene or from the scene you are currently working with.

So where do I load/replace a new object file, without having to import it first?
It´s the same in houdini…well sort of, you can go in to any loaded mesh (container) and in the mesh path select a new object to replace it with in the scene.

You can’t as far as I know. Just import it and replace the things you want from the imported file and delete it. You can do more things with blend files like link and append but not with other formats.

Yes, I thought just that…only workaround I can do currently.
I may send a feature reques for this, not sure how it is with maya,cinema4d and max, I think modo and
at least houdini can do that.

Could be one of those things that isn´t attractive for a studio when it can´t do this simple operation to swith an object at a object replace command.

I think I asked this before and you said something about object linking and I then thought it should be doable, but apparently not.

Currently experimenting a lot with fractal weigth maps to use as fluid emission, and I prefer many of the fractals in lightwave over blenders, thus…that workflow where I constanty make new maps and write to that lwo, and would like to update it within the fluid container.

Sigh…the new 2.91 build with vdb…so crashy…just frustrated now with it.

Remember that 2.91 isn’t even in beta stage yet. Otherwise I would say that released versions of blender is very stable and if they are crashy they usually realease a new version quite quick after.

I think you need to import and then replace. It’s two commands instead of one but should not take that much longer to do.

Yes, I know that…it´s just a cool feature to use that mesh to volume and volume displace, but as I said over at newtek forum, it´s too darn unstable yet…so I may be better of leave it alone for a while til it´s more stable, just forgot it right now, so right now fired up 2.90.1 instead and work with that for any vdb file.

But I managed to try various things with it, exporting painted fog clouds from houdini and applied noise in blender instead, just used houdini to freely screen paint the cloud shape.
Tried mdd export from lightwave…and it works too with animated meshes, seeing the mesh to volume and volume displace in almost realtime.

Tried various sculpt with snake hook in dyntopo mode, works as well…but only after exiting sculpt mode.
metaballs aren´t meshes, not until freezed.

But using simple shapes or spheres in edit mode and shift duplicating and having the remesher modifier is similar to metaballs, you can see it all adapt and merge in the viewport, even with mesh to volume and volume displacement active.

Thanks for your replies Mikael.

That is exactly what I said I had to do, in the post earlier.

But I just don´t like that extra workflow of first importing then relining instead of just replace object…but if nothing else is available, nothing to do about it.
Have to file a request for it I guess…just a bit odd that there isn´t any such option…In my eyes anyway.

Just got a crash with 2.90 as well fiddling with some settings in the vdb panel.
just shuts down without any error message, may have to check logs here.

Yes would be a nice feature for sure. You’re not alone in wanting that feature, I’ve seen many ask the same thing and I also looked for it when I started using blender.

There’s also this new modifier volume to mesh. Cool stuff! But I have no time to play at the moment.

I just mentioned mesh to volume in previous post…volume to mesh? that I didn´t see in the 2.91 build?
didn´t you mean just that…mesh to volume?

since 2.90 crashed almost instantly as well…switching back to 2.83 since that has been stable.

check the newtek third party 1001 ways to use lightwave and blender, I did some test there with mesh to volume.

I mean the new feature added a couple of days ago. Volume to mesh.
So you can basically have a mesh ->add mesh to volume then add volume displace and the volume to mesh and all non destructive and realtime (depending of the size of the mesh and the voxel size).

That´s what I said mikael, you intially said volume to mesh(edited) …which is something completly different…so you just mixed that up.

And yes…that´s why I installed it in the first place…check the tests here…

or perhaps…

https://forums.newtek.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=148877&d=1603062906
https://forums.newtek.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=148873&d=1603054983

https://forums.newtek.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=148874&d=1603054998

https://forums.newtek.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=148875&d=1603055013

https://forums.newtek.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=148876&d=1603058618

https://forums.newtek.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=148877&d=1603062906

https://forums.newtek.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=148878&d=1603066601

https://forums.newtek.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=148879&d=1603069008

Blah…whats wrong with the image linking now?

All these are mesh to volume which is cool but I’m talking about the even newer thing from volume back to mesh. Maybe not useful for your clouds but a nice and cool feature to have for vfx

Blah…Mikael, I am sorry…my wrong, mesh to volume, volume to mesh…who cares :slight_smile:

Thanks for the heads up on that…will have to check much later though on that.

:smile: Yes, easy to get confused with so similar names.

Thanks for the input, have to rest the community postings for today, have to eat and clean and continue with fluid cloud sims.

The object replace I have to file a request on.
Other issues I have is index naming of the vdb files from 2.79…which isn´t providing the proper sequence names, so I have to batch rename in ACDsee, if I want the fluid sim to come in properly from 2.79
(sorry mantaflow will not do it)

And I need more fractals :slight_smile:
have to try and ask Denis P if he can port the rman collection to blender, start a donate thingy for him in such case.

Here’s an addon doing what you want.

Ok,
Edit…no, don´t think it can handle lwo, and that is the only format that maintains the weightmap, so in this particular case, fbx and obj (only) won´t work.

And a second no…I noticed, it is only for 2.83, I need it for the 2.79 version unfortunately…at least for now, so it may be a dead horse, I need 2.79 for the old fluids, not mantaflow.

Could be something for the future though.

Thanks anyway, but I´m not gonna pay for that kind of basics really, donation perhaps.
Same in Lightwave…some basics that you can get a better workflow …but payed as plugins.

Since I am only doing hobby 3D work right now, and no immediate need for any other project, the workaround will have to do I guess.

Anyway…thank you for checking it up, should my sitation change, it´s good to know that it is possible (at least for obj and fbx) and I could change my mind about it.