Unfortunately meshing nurbs surfaces that render properly is a problem with many cad applications. The mesher in Moi3D seems to be one of the best.
MoI3D can export quad meshes from this sort of data, and usually makes them water tight. One of the best converters I’ve seen. Fusion 360 might be another route. It is free for startups and hobbyists.
Thanks very much. Hopefully someone here will have a solution.
Frustrating that this project is already overdue, and my commissioned artist is not holding up his end of the work. This model is completely messed up. I wouldn’t even know where to begin fixing it. Is there anyone here with the know-how to make a quick fix on this bottle? Or at least give me some steps to correcting the mesh?
Will look into both options. Thanks very much. Could that really take care of all these 100+ pieces scattered about the mesh?
That’s really weird. The guy I commissioned told me specifically that this model was developed in 3ds max. He never mentioned a cad file involved. Just straight 3ds max.
One problem might be the 3ds file format you used for the transfer.
Many CAD applications save custom vertex normals into the exported file, so that the shading is smooth despite the horrible geometry. If your modeling guy had given you an OBJ file, chances are that those custom vertex normals could have been successfully transferred, as Blender’s OBJ importer can handle those.
3ds, however, is a so hopelessly limited and outdated file format, that it just might not be able to carry that information across.
OK, it appears it could have been modeled in Max as a nurbs object, so it may not have come from a cad application. The problem; however, still comes from nurbs surfaces. See this info on the Autodesk knowledgebase: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2017/ENU/3DSMax/files/GUID-6B55EB8E-71CF-4117-B330-197248D2540B-htm.html
Well, here’s the .obj file of the bottle that my guy sent. Originally he sent me this format instead of a .3ds. The .3ds one was just something I requested after trying and failing to fix the mesh myself. So keep in mind that this .obj contains the exact same problem with the creases, so it probably has the same geometry deformations.
jug.zip (1.86 MB)
Yup. The OBJ does also not contain the vertex normal information…
Was worth a try, though.
So it was built in Max as a nurbs object. Alright. But I don’t think that accounts for the hundreds of separate mesh pieces in the bottle.
I’ve already tried to see if this was a problem in importing or translating file formats. As far as I can tell, it isn’t. I’ve also looked at any other possibilities for smoothing and correcting these creases. After a week’s worth of research I’m sure I would’ve found something, but no normal solution works. And I can’t figure out how to get rid of or fix all these mesh pieces.
This might be an odd question, but why would my modeling guy export a .obj from Max and not include normals? And why would it look so deformed in the mesh?
Not a Max guy, but not every 3D app exports those vertex normals - or at least not by default.
I think the best chance still is to get hands on the Max file and to hope that a Max user here knows how to export that properly.
Very nice JA12
Did you rebuild the geometry manually, or were you somehow able to easily extract a low poly version that smooths nicely with subd?
Manual retopo. Still room to improve and didn’t build all of it, but should be more manageable than the original.
JA12, I’ve been looking at the model and touching it up here and there for detail. You are a lifesaver. This probably cut down the time I would’ve spent fixing this by another week or so.
I need to know exactly how this was done, so that I can replicate the process if I run into a problem like this in the future. I’ve never done a retopo in Blender, will probably look at some tutorials for it. Was it a difficult process? This looks like a brand new mesh with none of the shards from the original. So you did an excellent job.
I haven’t dug into the mesh, but by the looks of it, I’d hazard a guess to how fixing it is done. Two most handy tools are remove doubles and tris-to-quads (alt-J). Going over the tool properties with F6 (right after) and control-scrolling values. Rest has got to be a metric crap ton of vertex snap with auto-weld enabled. At least that’s how I’d approach it.
Frankly a bottle like that almost looks like something easier to model from scratch in Blender itself. Next time around you might want to spec that something is “quads” and “poly mesh” unless you have a particular need for CAD or MAX files.
Will look into all this. Thank you. With enough research I’ll probably be able to fix this kind of problem in the future. On top of that, JA12 demonstrated beautifully how effective a retopo can be.