converting & loading models in three.js - three.js

I'm using Autodesk Fusion 360 to create some assemblies and I'd like to be able to display them using a three.js app.
Fusion can download any of the following formats: F3D (own format), Inventor 2014, IGES, SAT, SMT, STEP, DWG, DXF, STL (binary) & FBX.
My current workflow is Fusion 360 -> STL -> MeshLab -> OBJ & MTL -> three.js
This gives the following results:
In Fusion 360: external faces are solid red, internal ones are white (removed this because I can only post two links)
In MeshLab: MeshLab - faces are solid blue (actually, I didn't think STL carried any colour information, so I'm not sure how it has worked out that outside faces are one colour and internal faces are a different one) and otherwise it is an accurate representation of what I see in Fusion
In three.js: three.js - face colours are now shaded following the triangles.
Based on answers to other questions, I've tried using object.geometry.computeVertexNormals() and mergeVertices() in the onLoad function, but I get the error "cannot read property ... of undefined", which seems to mean there is no geometry object.
So, my questions are:
Is this the best workflow?
Is there a way to get real material info from Fusion to three.js?
How can I smooth out the faces?
Thanks.

Depending on your needs, you might be able to use the JavaScript viewer available here:
https://developer.autodesk.com/api/view-and-data-api/
It's extensible, uses ThreeJS, and provides full support for viewing Fusion models.

Related

Is there a way to convert gltf to dae?

I can make gltf files with the collada to gltf converter.
But is there a way to reverse this?
UPDATE - October 2019 - Blender 2.80 has shipped with full glTF 2.0 import/export capability. It also has COLLADA import/export capability, so can be used to convert one to the other.
UPDATE - November 2018 rewrote answer for glTF version 2.0, which has almost completely replaced 1.0 in the time since this question was originally asked.
glTF 2.0 can be processed by a variety of tools, many of which are listed on the glTF Tools section of the official Khronos glTF README.
Older glTF 1.0
While there are numerous command-line utilities for converting to glTF, the options are much more limited going the other way, from glTF to COLLADA or anything else. One thing to understand about this is that glTF is intended to be a runtime delivery format, not an interchange format like COLLADA. glTF strives to store its internal data in as close to GPU-ready form as possible, with mesh data organized into data structures that can be used as vertex attributes, and so on. Khronos has a tagline that glTF is "the JPG of 3D" meaning that it has wide distribution to rendering engines of all kinds.
So, importing a glTF into a 3D editing package is something like loading a JPG into a paint program. You can do it, but after the import you want to avoid any unnecessary round-trips to and from the delivery format. So you would use the paint program's native save format (.psd or .xcf etc), or the 3D modeler's native save format, to keep your own editable copy of your work, and ship the exported JPG or PNG or glTF for wide distribution.
Even so, I do expect more importers to become available as time goes on. glTF version 1.0 had an internal structure that made this quite difficult (its vertex shaders would use swaths of attribute data without explicitly marking them as positions or normals, etc.) glTF 2.0 replaced those custom shaders with modern pbr pipeline assets, with clearly marked mesh position, normal, and other data, opening the door for future import tools and utilities of all kinds.

STL rendering with threejs

I have created a 3D model for printing in 3D an industrial layout.
Because I am not used in playing with professional 3D modeler software, I used SketchUp and the result was fine !
Now, I want to reuse the 3D models to make a dynamic visit of the "to-be" installation.
I exported each object in Collada format (DAE), and then try to used the collada importer in Threejs.
I have around 130 objects that I want to be able to select interactively, but I manage only to load one ...
I then get a try with STL loader (after having converting objects with MESHLAB from DAE to STL).
And then it works without any problem... but rendering problems.
In the linked picture (sorry, not enough reputation to insert image !), you can see that some parts of the objects seem the be "transparency", even if they have not this property set ! (only the ground is).
While moving with the TrackBallControl, some parts of the objects disappear from time to time....
I try with only one object, with or without the ground,...
I took snapshots of the problem I get :
fig 1, inside the red circle, the errors appears
fig 2, without the ground, it is the same : some parts that should be hidden are not
fig 3, the wireframe rendering shows not pb in the exported model...
link >> http://stackoverflow.legrandcondor.com/photo.html
link >> http://stackoverflow.legrandcondor.com/
Any ideas ? Suggestions before I get crazy ?! (Everything else works fine!)
Thankx in advance,
Your camera near plane is 0.1 and far plane is 1000000. Small values of the near plane can lead to depth-sorting precision problems.
In your case, set your near plane to, say, 100.
ref: http://www.opengl.org/wiki/Depth_Buffer_Precision
Also consider using OrbitControls so your model remains right-side-up.
three.js r.69

3ds max material shows in render but not vrml export

I created a model of a bottle in 3ds max, and used a raytrace material (in Materials -> Standard -> Raytrace, not the raytrace map). Everything looks great in the 3ds max render, but when exported to vrml, all that shows up is the default blue colour as if it had no material assigned to it!
I have exported to vrml using "standard" materials with no problems, so is this material type unsupported in vrml or is there actually a way to get it to show up?
Thanks
edit: I'm in 3ds max 2013, in case that's relevant at all
It is unsupported. Usually exporters only handles certain materials during export (typically "standard" materials with bitmap textures).
Also raytrace material is not a material usually used in realtime applications, so there is no reason for them to support it.
Also rendering output and export output is two totally different things, so you cannot compare them, since the render output is made by the render engine you use, and the export output is dependent on both the format and the software used to display the output geometry.

How do I convert a ms3d model to three.js?

I'm trying to convert this model to the three.js model format:
http://tf3dm.com/3d-model/ninja-48864.html
Here's what i've tried so far:
I've imported the ms3d file in blender using the default addon. In blender, animations and mesh look correct; however, bones are only rendered as lines. Then I exported it to js using the three.js exporter. This results in a correct mesh, but the animation is not correctly exported. Only bone positions are exported (which are only rarely used in this specific model), NO rotations at all (except for a few identity quaternions).
It seems I have to modify the model in blender somehow, but since I'm a complete novice in 3d modelling, I'm kind of lost. I've also looked at other questions regarding blender+three.js but none of the tips (apply location/rotation/scale etc.) made a difference. It might also be a bug in the three.js exporter.
Can anybody help me do the conversion, one way or the other?
A nice Python utility is available for converting ms3d format to JSON format.
The link is: https://github.com/pyalot/parse-3d-files/blob/master/ms3d/convert.py
You can easily render this JSON model using THREE.JSONLoader() in three.js
Thanks.

How to import Blender 3D animation to iPhone OpenGL ES?

I am trying to do animations on iPhone using OpenGL ES. I am able to do the animation in Blender 3D software. I can export as a .obj file from Blender to OpenGL and it works on iPhone.
But I am not able to export my animation work from Blender 3D to OpenGL. Can anyone please help me to solve this?
If you have a look at this article by Jeff LaMarche, you'll find a blender script that will output a 3D model to a C header file. There's also a followup article that improves upon the aforementioned script.
After you've run the script, it's as simple as including the header in your source, and passing the array of vertices through your drawing function. Ideally you'd want a method of loading arbitrary model files at runtime, but for prototyping this method is the simplest to implement.
Seeing as you already have a method of importing models (obj) then the above may not apply. However, the advantage of using a blender script is that you can then modify the script to suit your own needs, perhaps also exporting bone information or model keyframes.
Well first off, I wouldn't recommend .obj for this purpose since the obj file format doesn't support animation, only static 3D models. So you'll need to export the animation data as a separate file that you load at the same time as the obj.
Which file format I would recommend depends on what exactly your animations are. I don't remember off the top of my head what file formats Blender supports, but as I recall it does not export Collada files with animation, which would be the most general recommendation. Other options would be md2 for character animations, or 3ds for simple "rigid objects moving around" animations. I think Blender's FBX exporter will work, although that file format may be too complicated for your needs.
That said, and assuming you only need simple rigid object movements, you could use .obj for the 3D model shapes and then write a simple Python script to export a file from Blender that has at the keyframes listed, with the frame, position, and rotation for each keyframe. Then load that data in your code and play back those keyframes on the 3D model.
This is an old question and since then some new iOS frameworks have been released such as GLKit. I recommend relying on them as much as possible when you can, since they take care of many inherent conversions like this, though I haven't researched the specifics. Also, while not on iOS, the new Scene Graph technology for OS X (which will likely arrive on iOS) in the future, take all this quite a bit further and a crafty individual could do some conversions with that tool and then take the output to iOS.
Also have a look at SIO2.
I haven't used recent versions of Blender, but my understanding is that it supports exporting mesh animation as a sequence of .obj files. If you can already display a single .obj in your app, then displaying several of them one after another will achieve what you want.
Now, note that this is not the most efficient form to export this type of animation, since each .obj file will have a lot of duplicated info. If your mesh stays fixed over time (i.e. only the vertices move with the polygon structure, uv coords, etc. all fixed) then you can just import the entire first .obj and from the rest just read the vertex array.
If you wanted to optimize this even more, you could compress the vertex arrays so that you only store the differences from the previous frame of the animation.
Edit: I see that Blender 2.59 has export to COLLADA. According to the Blender manual, you can export object transformations, and you can also export baked animation for rigged objects. The benefit for you in supporting the COLLADA format in your iPhone app is that you are free to switch between animation tools, since most of them export this format.

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