FBX import - options - Polyloop

DaveH · 16th December 2007, 22:11

I've seen a number of threads here and on forum.daz3d.com that lament problems with using the fbx importer/exporter. I've not seen one that discusses the options, though.

I have an fbx file from Maya (basically a camera move) and it imports fine for my limited purposes except that the options dialog doesn't allow me to change the number in the scaling box. Yes, I've checked the "Disable auto-scaling" box.

Ultimately what I want to do is uniformly scale the XYZ values of a particular node.

Is there a way to either make fbx import accept my scaling, or to scale the positions after the fact? After the fact would be better. I've searched the manual, and the only scaling discussions I've found have to do with dimensions of objects, not positions in keyframes.

I have 5.1 Pro.

Thanks!

DaveH · 29th December 2007, 18:07

Wow. Silence. No new posts in nearly 2 weeks on this topic or any other here in the Animation subforum.

I posted here in and in a couple of other places, as well as emailing and phoning Daz tech support. In the phone call, the support rep tried to help but couldn't find a way to do it, but he also didn't find anything that said it couldn't be done, either. It remained a mystery - could it be done or not? If so, how? Kind of an odd resolution given that he works for the company and ought to be able to ask a developer what's up. I write software for a living for products with much wider use than Carrara and the support people have a path to me if they need it. Whatever.

Anyway, I solved the problem by saving the imported .car file uncompressed (ASCII) and then reverse engineering the contents. I didn't try to figure out the whole file, just the XYZ keyframe coordinates. I wrote a Ruby script that reads the file, finds the keyframe coordinate sections for the object I want to scale, multiplies the point value by my scaling factor, and then saves my modified value to a new file. (All file lines I don't care about are written as is to the new file.)

Piem · 30th December 2007, 11:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveH

Wow. Silence. No new posts in nearly 2 weeks on this topic or any other here in the Animation subforum.

It's just that everyone knows that Carrara got a real problem with fbx..since a long long time.

http://forums.polyloop.net/carrara-e...bx-export.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveH

Anyway, I solved the problem by saving the imported .car file uncompressed (ASCII) and then reverse engineering the contents. I didn't try to figure out the whole file, just the XYZ keyframe coordinates. I wrote a Ruby script that reads the file, finds the keyframe coordinate sections for the object I want to scale, multiplies the point value by my scaling factor, and then saves my modified value to a new file. (All file lines I don't care about are written as is to the new file.)

That's a VERY good news!

Please beta test again and then make an offer to Daz...

Or make a plug.

DaveH · 30th December 2007, 16:13

Yeah, I've seen a lot of threads with people who aren't impressed by the FBX import. I'm importing only motion, so I wasn't seeing the same sets of problems as the others.

As for my solution, it addresses a limitation in Carrara that's not related to import, namely you can't scale or reposition keyframe coordinates on a large number of keyframes. So this is useful for any uncompressed .car file. You can proportionally stretch or squash the keyframe times using the graph editor, so the lack of a positional version is kind of a glaring omission.

If people are seriously interested in this, then I would need more info on how Carrara relates to or supports a plugin community. My tool needs a lot of polish before I'd be willing to subject anyone else to it, and I'd rather not begin that work unless I knew for sure that it wouldn't get lost in the ether.

16th December 2007, 22:11	#1 (permalink)
DaveH Spline Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 44	FBX import - options I've seen a number of threads here and on forum.daz3d.com that lament problems with using the fbx importer/exporter. I've not seen one that discusses the options, though. I have an fbx file from Maya (basically a camera move) and it imports fine for my limited purposes except that the options dialog doesn't allow me to change the number in the scaling box. Yes, I've checked the "Disable auto-scaling" box. Ultimately what I want to do is uniformly scale the XYZ values of a particular node. Is there a way to either make fbx import accept my scaling, or to scale the positions after the fact? After the fact would be better. I've searched the manual, and the only scaling discussions I've found have to do with dimensions of objects, not positions in keyframes. I have 5.1 Pro. Thanks!

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29th December 2007, 18:07	#2 (permalink)
DaveH Spline Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 44	Wow. Silence. No new posts in nearly 2 weeks on this topic or any other here in the Animation subforum. I posted here in and in a couple of other places, as well as emailing and phoning Daz tech support. In the phone call, the support rep tried to help but couldn't find a way to do it, but he also didn't find anything that said it couldn't be done, either. It remained a mystery - could it be done or not? If so, how? Kind of an odd resolution given that he works for the company and ought to be able to ask a developer what's up. I write software for a living for products with much wider use than Carrara and the support people have a path to me if they need it. Whatever. Anyway, I solved the problem by saving the imported .car file uncompressed (ASCII) and then reverse engineering the contents. I didn't try to figure out the whole file, just the XYZ keyframe coordinates. I wrote a Ruby script that reads the file, finds the keyframe coordinate sections for the object I want to scale, multiplies the point value by my scaling factor, and then saves my modified value to a new file. (All file lines I don't care about are written as is to the new file.)

30th December 2007, 16:13	#4 (permalink)
DaveH Spline Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 44	Yeah, I've seen a lot of threads with people who aren't impressed by the FBX import. I'm importing only motion, so I wasn't seeing the same sets of problems as the others. As for my solution, it addresses a limitation in Carrara that's not related to import, namely you can't scale or reposition keyframe coordinates on a large number of keyframes. So this is useful for any uncompressed .car file. You can proportionally stretch or squash the keyframe times using the graph editor, so the lack of a positional version is kind of a glaring omission. If people are seriously interested in this, then I would need more info on how Carrara relates to or supports a plugin community. My tool needs a lot of polish before I'd be willing to subject anyone else to it, and I'd rather not begin that work unless I knew for sure that it wouldn't get lost in the ether.