Wishes
Post your wishes about Graphisoft products: Archicad, BIMx, BIMcloud, and DDScad.

Export, Import improvements.

Anonymous
Not applicable
I wish to have better export, import plugins. And I mean better working, and with more options like
-UV mapping (import)
-smooth groups (import)
-remove double vertex (export)
-triangulation of polygons (export)


cheers
4 REPLIES 4
stefan
Expert
UV-mapping import is supported in the 3ds-import add-in (which is not included with ArchiCAD but it can be freely downloaded elsewhere).

Smoothing groups is more or less taken care of with this plugin, but don't expect miracles from ArchiCAD.

Remove double vertices in export? When I export a model to 3ds max, I can do that there.

Triangulation? All exported models are triangulated (that is, cut into triangles). You cannot export a polygon with more then three vertices (which is very, very common in ArchiCAD geometry) into the *.3ds format, unless it's triangulated, so the ArchiCAD exporter allready does that. I don't see the problem. Can you clarify?
--- stefan boeykens --- bim-expert-architect-engineer-musician ---
Archicad27/Revit2023/Rhino8/Unity/Solibri/Zoom
MBP2023:14"M2MAX/Sonoma+Win11
Archicad-user since 1998
my Archicad Book
Anonymous
Not applicable
I'd like to see some controls for how a surface gets triangulated. The typical way that AC (and other 3D modelers) triangulate surfaces can lead to some odd artifacts and shadow lines when working with a radiosity solution. If it could work more like a tool that placed a triangular mesh over a surface of a controlled face size, you could control the density and regularity of your mesh to a large degree before exporting. If you needed to further increase the mesh density to get a really sharp rendering, you would have a much more regular set of faces to further divide up.
Anonymous
Not applicable
<UV-mapping import is supported in the 3ds-import add-in (which is not <included with ArchiCAD but it can be freely downloaded elsewhere).

But still it is outside Archicad and in German. I don't care about this, but this is still walk around, not solution.


<Smoothing groups is more or less taken care of with this plugin, but <don't expect miracles from ArchiCAD.

I was making a lot of tests, and this plugin makes all object smooth or solid.

<Remove double vertices in export? When I export a model to 3ds max, I <can do that there.

Of course, but that is one more step to do.


<Triangulation? All exported models are triangulated (that is, cut into <triangles). You cannot export a polygon with more then three vertices <(which is very, very common in ArchiCAD geometry) into the *.3ds <format, unless it's triangulated, so the ArchiCAD exporter already does <that. I don't see the problem. Can you clarify?

Actually polygons can have much more than 3 vertices. You say polygon but you think face. Polygon can have a lot of faces. What is a problem is that some 3D packages don't support polygons with more than 4 vertices (ex. blender) triangulation (converting all polygons with more than 3 vertices to polygons with 3 vertices) can solve that problem.

cheers
stefan
Expert
Miki wrote:
Stefan wrote:
UV-mapping import is supported in the 3ds-import add-in[...]
But still it is outside Archicad and in German. I don't care about this, but this is still walk around, not solution.
You would be surprised that a lot of the tools are technically not "inside" ArchiCAD, but are Add-Ons. And it exists in English too. As long as it works, it is as integrated as we can hope for (that is, except for the menu positions, but that is Graphisoft-policy: Add-Ons can't modify the interface).
Miki wrote:
Stefan wrote:
Remove double vertices in export? When I export a model to 3ds max, I can do that there.

Of course, but that is one more step to do.
Yes. But exporting is meant to be used in other software. I often pass through 3ds max when I want to export ArchiCAD files to somewhere else, even when exporting to VRML, since I have more control in max about it.
Miki wrote:
Stefan wrote:
Triangulation? All exported models are triangulated (that is, cut into triangles).
Actually polygons can have much more than 3 vertices. You say polygon but you think face. Polygon can have a lot of faces. What is a problem is that some 3D packages don't support polygons with more than 4 vertices (ex. blender) triangulation (converting all polygons with more than 3 vertices to polygons with 3 vertices) can solve that problem.
cheers
You are right that some programs don't like polygons with more then three vertices, but ArchiCAD does triangulate it's geometry before exporting. Otherwise you won't see any geometry at all in these packages.

--> On a side note: the polygons in ArchiCAD can also contain "holes" and there is not a lot of programs that like that, so most exporters will have to triangulate the geometry.
I am writing a Radiance exporter (as a learning project) and to be able to see the ArchiCAD polygons, I have to use some tricks, since the Radiance engine doesn't want polygons with holes.
--- stefan boeykens --- bim-expert-architect-engineer-musician ---
Archicad27/Revit2023/Rhino8/Unity/Solibri/Zoom
MBP2023:14"M2MAX/Sonoma+Win11
Archicad-user since 1998
my Archicad Book