Max to Mudbox export steps?

Karmageddon

I know this has been asked most likely a million times but can anyone explain to me all the steps you have to go through to prepare a model in 3Ds Max (2010) to Mudbox (2009)? Whatever I'm doing from memory isn't working cause importing my OBJ files crashes Mudbox.


Milk and cookies,
-Zilk

aesir

doesnt max have a mudbox export setting now in the obj exporter?

Karmageddon

aesir wrote: »

doesnt max have a mudbox export setting now in the obj exporter?

Yes but aren't you supposed to reset xform and all that garbage?

pior

Check for tris and quads.
And all that garbage.

seforin

reset X- form

go into animation hiarchey

transform/scale

reset pivot 0,0,0

make sure ALL quads

no 5 sided NO Tris

Also apply a relax modifier on top of it so all polys are equally spreaded .

Karmageddon

Nope, still crashed. Must be a driver issue or something?
"An unknown error has occurred while performing this operation. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

Muzzoid

you still have tris and ngons. Select every vertex and use the weld command on a really low setting, it should weld alot of the verts that werent welded properly. (careful you dont weld anything unintentionally though.

Well is that when you are importing or subdividing? If its when subdividing its definately the problem.

seforin

illusion catalyst plugin has a setting to select all 3/4/5/6 sided polys , install that and test and see if you have any 3 sided 5 or 6 sided polys at all

I usually export my OBJ out of max reimport into a fresh scene and check for any extra verts /tris or ngons anywhere on it.

also checking for subdividing is crucial

pior

Post that damn mesh!

gavku

Have you tried to export/import a generic mesh, to see if it's a setting or the mesh in question?

Jason Young

Having tris or n gons shouldn't crash it. It may subdivide like crap, but it should still import. I've seen it crash before when uvs were garbled, so maybe just do a flatten mapping real quick so you know the uvs are fine.

pior

JM I had this a few times : Ngons or tris importing fine, but crashing the app when trying to subdivide them once. Also (today actually!) Mudbox crashed instantly just because I was trying to import a "very not quadratic at all" kind of mesh for reference.

Sam Hatami

There is a combination of selection during the export you have to make to be sure mudbox doesn't crash. It was a while ago I did this, so I forgot which they where, but try out and make some combos. Wasen't much help was it :P


EDIT: Oh... found a screen of the exporter, make sure you tick of all the optimisation. I'm sure there was something else... I might figure it out during the day.

EDIT2: I usually use this one, cause it tends to more stable than max object exporter. http://www.guruware.at/main/index.html and download gwObjIO

renderhjs

maybe check with a another tool such as the free meshlab if its because of max (bad data or export) or if its because Mudbox. My guess is Mudbox as its still young with a short history of not being so robust.
When I have some crashes with other tools that support OBJ files but my mesh is so fucked up because of nGons I export only 1/2 or so to find the trouble spot. Usually I then notice that there are some dead vertex leftovers from the symmetry modifier (often nasty). Max2010 has some nice inspection shaders to highlight dead, isolated verts or other stuff that one would consider as bad geometry.

In any case installing updates might be worth a try, maybe there is a fix available.