Issue importing .obj from Zbrush to 3ds Max
polycounter lvl 7
Hey guys, I'm a new user to ZBrush and have been running into an issue when trying to open up my ZBrush to 3dsMax .obj export. I searched for this particular issue in the rest of the threads, but couldn't find anything, so thought I'd post. Thanks in advance! 
The initial issue was when I imported the .obj the object appeared completely invisible in all viewports. I thought it could be viewport settings, but those checked out. I tried swapping from mesh to poly, flipping norms, adjusting both import and export settings, and applying a scene material to the object.
Upon further investigation, it looks like all of the verts may have collapsed to 0,0,0 at import. I'm not entirely sure how that could happen or what I can do to stop that from happening.
Repro steps (Done on original object and again in a troubleshoot test object):
1) Created an edit poly object in 3ds max. Set up smoothing groups, set to mat id 1, centered and reset pivots, reset xforms, and set to 0,0.
2) Export object as a .obj to bring into ZBrush for some uprezzing and sculpted detail.
3) Import object into ZBrush. Sculpt in some detail. Decimate down to a more reasonable poly count (in a test I tried 50k). Export for import back into 3ds max.
4) Import object into 3ds Max. Object is "invisible"/all verts appear to have collapsed to 0,0.
5) Cry. =P
I'm hoping this is just a nub or silly mistake that's easily fixable! Thanks guys.
The initial issue was when I imported the .obj the object appeared completely invisible in all viewports. I thought it could be viewport settings, but those checked out. I tried swapping from mesh to poly, flipping norms, adjusting both import and export settings, and applying a scene material to the object.
Upon further investigation, it looks like all of the verts may have collapsed to 0,0,0 at import. I'm not entirely sure how that could happen or what I can do to stop that from happening.
Repro steps (Done on original object and again in a troubleshoot test object):
1) Created an edit poly object in 3ds max. Set up smoothing groups, set to mat id 1, centered and reset pivots, reset xforms, and set to 0,0.
2) Export object as a .obj to bring into ZBrush for some uprezzing and sculpted detail.
3) Import object into ZBrush. Sculpt in some detail. Decimate down to a more reasonable poly count (in a test I tried 50k). Export for import back into 3ds max.
4) Import object into 3ds Max. Object is "invisible"/all verts appear to have collapsed to 0,0.
5) Cry. =P
I'm hoping this is just a nub or silly mistake that's easily fixable! Thanks guys.
Replies
I'd actually thought it might just be scaled down, as well, when I first started seeing the issue. Scaling up the object scales the bounding box, but all object attributes stay at 0,0. It's interesting because I can center the pivot to the scaled up bounding box, but when I select all verts/faces/etc the pivot moves to 0,0.
I've also tried zooming way out, zooming extents, zooming way in.
I just tried exporting a native .ztl as a .obj into 3ds Max and got the same problem. The tool I tried was the dog.
Do you have a place you could upload one of the exported objs?
I actually have tried GoZ and the object goes fine between both programs, no problems. I'm still trying to figure out, though, why I can't import any .objs exported from ZBrush without having the problem.
Unfortunately no, I can't upload the .obj I'm working with. However, I did make a little panel of the issue I'm seeing for a visual reference. Maybe it is just a setting?
It looks like even an object scale of .01 causes the .obj to import to a correct size. It's interesting because if I try to import the same .obj into the scene after a successful import, and set the scale back to 0, the imports continue working even though that setting was apparently causing problems in fresh scenes. *Weird*
Anyway, problem solved. Thanks for the help!