[camel]

Well.. i have this issue.. i have complex geometry. very small triangles.. a embossed logo with very small radii.
I do triangulating in Pro/Engineer (high end CAD) to OBJ.

When i do my regular way.. i have issues, small triangulate errors.. especially in the chrome parts it becomes visible.
Yesterday i spent 5 hours finding out how to make it finer, etc.. trying to do recalculate in maxwell studio. other exports.. VRML etc

All of the solutions had no good results.

But this evening i tried another aproach. i opened the OBJ directly in maxwell.. and it renders very good.. without the need for recalculate geometry.
It also renders very good with regular cinema.

So.. my conclusions is:
- when cinema exports to MXS.. it converts the geometry.. and with complex geometry it goes wrong.. hmm so this is in the maxwell plugin?

So what should i do?
my only solution now.. is to work without cinema.. directly in Maxwell studio.. but i hate (yes still with v2) the studio compared to my cinema layout with 3d spacemouse etc..

Thanks for any help
(and no i cant show the pics.. its classified project, maybe i can do small render regions if you want to see the errors..)

[camel]

hmm i just tried something else.. when i export from cinema to obj.. and reopen the via cinema made obj (so: proe obj -> cinema -> export obj).
it is already very bad..

So what exporter does the maxwell plugin use? an internal from cinema? or does it have an own?
because if it uses the wavefront obj exporter from cinema.. that might be my issue.

can i set it to something else maybe? or is it possible to try another format? does that make any difference?

I just thought of something else.. why does it exactly use an conversion? because file is already triangulated in cinema.. i have the idea it uses the wavefront exporter to create a new obj.. and that is what goes wrong.. cuz of complexity i can only triangulate correctly in pro/engineer.

So another question, how do Solidworks or Rhino plugin handle this? do they use conversion as well?
(damn i dont want to change from cinema..)

[JDHill]

Well, the plugin doesn't 'use' any other exporter's code; its main purpose is to read the scene, as cinema gives it, and basically to transfer triangle-based meshes into an mxs file. So, if an object is analytical, it asks cinema for a polygon version, then it runs cinema's triangulation on the polygon object, then exports the tris to mxs. If the object is already a polygon object and triangulated, then these steps are not necessary, and nothing is done except for a direct transfer of the triangulated mesh data into the mxs.

I have seen files where there are problems, usually involving non-native cinema geometry, but in these cases, there's not much the plugin can do - it can only work with the data it's given, and it can't really invent any triangles that aren't there.

If you could email me even just one of these objects, I would really like to try to find out if there's something I can do about it. Of course, confidentiality is absolutely guaranteed.

[JDHill]

On the question of Rhino/SW, they operate in much the same way - they simply obtain triangulated meshes from the host app and transfer them into the mxs.

[camel]

well i just tried maya 2009 + v2 plugin.. when i import the obj there.. it renders out perfectly. doesnt seem to change geometry.

too bad i dont know anything about maya.. lol took me an hour to install it and render justy with sky
if only i have one year of spare time..

but i dont understand what you describe for cinema route.. the geometry definitely changes when i export to .mxs
it clearly visible just by the eye... and its not just one part.. more parts are not ok.

But i think its not the cinema maxwell plugin.. but maybe cinema itself? i dont understand it.

Ow and maybe i havent mentioned it, but i really appreciated your quick reply as always
Thanks again.

[JDHill]

Yes, but as I say, I would really need to see an actual example. There was a situation, just prior to the V2 release, in which an obscure compiler option used in the OSX Maxwell SDK was causing some missing triangles in the export - only on OSX, and only when running in 32bit mode. Through alot of debug printing and subsequent analysis, we were able to find where this was happening and to correct it. Point being, anything is possible and it is not guaranteed to be or not to be plugin-related...but I definitely need a concrete example to analyze. In theory everything works perfectly, and we have to try to find those special cases where different combinations of factors may be coming together to produce an imperfect result.

[camel]

JD, can i send you a cinema file?

ill just put one object in.. chrome part from coffee machine with detailed logo and the rest of the scene (ramp etc).
what cinema version ? i have 10 & 11. Problem is same in both.. (used 10 (32bit) yesterday and 11 (64bit) today=same error)
and can I email it ?
thanks,
C.

[JDHill]

Yes, that would be great ( jeremy at nextlimit dot com ). R10 would be best so I can debug it on as many versions as possible.

[camel]

check your inbox..
thanks

[camel]

update:
I just email jeremy another example of an .obj that is different rendered with cinema plugin or with the obj directly imported in maxwell studio. He's diving in this issue..

And i thought maybe share it with the rest if you have simular issues. Or maybe anyone else can help out..
i did notice very low phonge angles (10) can reduce error a bit.. but not all.

obj file rendered with cinema maxwell v2 plugin:



and the same obj imported / rendered directly in studio:



if anyone is interested in can email the .obj file, its only 2000 triangles (50kbytes).
let me know.