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obj. thumbnail preview

Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 6:22 pm
by Polyxo
Hi All,
I often use wavefront .obj as a transfer-file format between applications.
What bugs me for long here is that I have many .obj files on disk but no Explorer preview-image available.
Neither do my modeling packages takes snapshots at Export time nor do they offer a shell extension
for Windows-Explorer/XnView.

On the web search for a solution I just found a single obscure product which makes some formats
available. It works (kind of) but the preview image displayed is is not the last active viewport but some
far less significant default camera perspective.

I do not want to use a dedicated 3D-model Browser for that simple task. Does anybody know a better solution?

Thanks, Holger

Re: obj. thumbnail preview

Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 7:56 pm
by polynurb
deep exploration is the best program i know for browsing 3d formats.. but unaffordable for the average user..

..so i went for that one obscure program from mootools... and yes it kinda works.. if that is the one you tried.

if so.. there actually is a way to define default POV for different file formats.. you have to open a eg. obj file in the GL viewer, rotate it into the wanted position, and go to TOOLS> Thumbnail Update >

there you find options to define the pov.

Re: obj. thumbnail preview

Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 8:50 pm
by Polyxo
Thanks for your input Polynurb!
polynurb wrote:deep exploration is the best program i know for browsing 3d formats.. but unaffordable for the average user..
D'uh -I even have the Lite-Version of this program, it came with another Software I use.
The Lite version does nothing which seemed any helpful to me - apart from that I found the
program really horrible to use - I can not remember any other program which is so disorganized :D
So I uninstalled quickly. But if it could give me Explorer-thumbnails, I might re-install.
polynurb wrote:..so i went for that one obscure program from mootools... and yes it kinda works.. if that is the one you tried.
No, I had a quick look at this thing here http://lion-ts.com/
Where is this Mootools thing? I could not find it with a Google search...

Re: obj. thumbnail preview

Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 9:31 pm
by polynurb
Polyxo wrote: No, I had a quick look at this thing here http://lion-ts.com/
Where is this Mootools thing? I could not find it with a Google search...
interesting approach.. didn't know that one.
hopefully it is stable! it can really hurt when a shell extension crashes while opening/saveAs a document from inside an application..
..just checked it's just 8€ :D could be worth a try


http://www.mootools.com/plugins/us/index.asp

indeed i know what you mean.. in terms of interface this software is nerve-racking.. and it's 2d file capabilities are mostly inferior to Xnview, anyway it is pretty stable and comes in a native x64 version. i think it does a pretty good job on scanning large numbers of 3d files and that is what i need it for.. browsing 3d scenery folders, and drag and drop stuff into rhino, which is possible directly from the thumbnail browser.

cheers,
Daniel

Re: obj. thumbnail preview

Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 10:08 pm
by Polyxo
polynurb wrote:
indeed i know what you mean.. in terms of interface this software is nerve-racking.. and it's 2d file capabilities are mostly inferior to Xnview, anyway it is pretty stable and comes in a native x64 version. i think it does a pretty good job on scanning large numbers of 3d files and that is what i need it for.. browsing 3d scenery folders, and drag and drop stuff into rhino, which is possible directly from the thumbnail browser.
Daniel
Ha - I was talking of Deep Exploration here :D
But so I already got an idea what to expect from this Mootools browser - I didn't want to use a dedicated Browser anyway.