NURBS import

[Byron Nash]

I need to get some NURBS objects from Maya to Softimage. Client gave me an igs file which I can get imported into Softimage and Maya. The problem is, that in Softimage half of the normals are flipped but it looks great in Maya. The object has hundreds of small parts so it's not effective to go find every last inverted shape manually. Is there a good way to get the NURBS into Softimage or keep the normals from getting screwed up on import?

Thanks,

Byron

[Ben Davis]

If you have a copy of Lightwave (gasp!!) lying around, "Unify Normals" does wonders for that sort of problem...

Holler if you need help :)

Ben

--

Benjamin Clifford Davis

3D artist - Senior Modeler
Senior 3D Generalist

www.moondog-animation.com 

office:   +33 9 50 04 76 15
mobile: +33 6 88 48 54 50

6 bis avenue des Iles
74000 Annecy
FRANCE

[Gareth Bell]

When exporting a polymesh from Maya to Softimage using Autodesk Crosswalk Exporter there's a check box "Export Maya Normals" which tends to keep things in check.

 

Not sure if it's the same for NURBS

 

---

[Thomas Helzle]

Or use Moment of Inspiration for the conversion to polygons...

It creates beautiful meshes (try Ngons).

I usually export to obj.

NURBS in XSI are very sophisticated C.R.A.P. ® © 

Cheers,

Tom

[Christian Gotzinger]

Are you sure the normals are ok in Maya?
This kind of data often has pretty random normals, and I don't believe Maya shows you bad normals in black like Softimage, so there'd be no way for you to tell unless you turn on the normal vector display.

On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 5:29 PM, Byron Nash <byro...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Stefan Kubicek]

You've probably thought of this first and there might be reasons that speak against it, but: Couldn't you just render two-sided?

--
-------------------------------------------
Stefan Kubicek Co-founder
-------------------------------------------
keyvis digital imagery
Wehrgasse 9 - Grï¿œner Hof
1050 Vienna Austria
Phone: +43/699/12614231
--- www.keyvis.at ste...@keyvis.at ---
-- This email and its attachments are
--confidential and for the recipient only--

[Byron Nash]

I don't know Maya well enough to know exactly what's going on with the normals, I just know that it looks and renders correctly. I have tried running the iges through Rhino but in every case (Maya, Rhino, straight import) the normals are screwed up in Softimage. 

[Vladimir Jankijevic]

you have to disable the two sided lighting crap in maya to see the normals right on the polygons 

--
---------------------------------------
Vladimir Jankijevic
Technical Direction

Elefant Studios AG
Lessingstrasse 15
CH-8002 Zürich

+41 44 500 48 20

www.elefantstudios.ch
---------------------------------------

[Byron Nash]

Vladimir, you called it. They look jacked in Maya as well when I turn the two-sided lighting off. It still renders clean though. If Soft would render clean I'd be in business. 

[Daniel Rajcic]

Hey Byron

Did you try the unify normal compound by Christian Gotzinger yet?

Maybe it can help to solve the flipped normal issues after you imported the iges into Soft.

Have a look:

http://vimeo.com/groups/ice/videos/36614302

 

cheers,

Daniel

[Sara Diaz]

Hi ya,

I had a problem with geo' normals from a heavy model generated from Houdini.  I found unlock normals seemed to sort them out.  Polygons/Normals/UnlockNormals... worth a try..

You can toggle view normals similar to XSI by going Polygon/Display/Polygons/Face Normal Just make sure you have the object in selection mode..

Damn I miss XSI so much..

Sara :D

---

From: Byron Nash <byro...@gmail.com>
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Sent: Monday, 14 May 2012, 17:13
Subject: Re: NURBS import

[Alan Fregtman]

I have a hunch it only works for polys.

I don't know if this one does NURBS but it's worth a shot:

http://area.autodesk.com/downloads/scripts/ml_unify_normals
(I've attached the addon to this email for those who don't care to register on The Area.)

[Matt Lind]

That’s my script.

 

It was designed for polygon meshes only.

 

 

Matt

[Byron Nash]

I'm trying the ICE unify normals but I think it choked on my object. It's been chugging for over an hour. 

[Matt Lind]

I’d check for “UserNormals” on your imported surfaces.  If they exist, delete them.

 

NURBS surfaces have their normals computed according to the direction in which the curves are swept to form the surface.  Each software uses a different standard, but NURBS curves generally have to be drawn in the clockwise direction.  If drawn in counter-clockwise direction, the normals will be inverted.

[Matt Lind]

Attached is a self installing selection filter to identify NURBS Surfaces whose surface normals have been inverted.  This filter does not check for inverted UserNormals.

 

INSTALLATION:

1)      Extract ML_NURBSSurfaceInverted.js from .zip archive.

2)      Copy ML_NURBSSurfaceInverted.js into the “Plugins” folder of any workgroup

3)      Restart Softimage

 

USAGE:

1)      Deselect all, then set selection filter on MCP to ML_NURBSSurfaceInverted

2)      Select suspected NURBS surfaces in scene (or press CTRL+A on keyboard to quickly select all)

3)      If anything appears in the selection, Model > [Modify] Surf.Mesh > Invert Normals.

NOTE: will throw error if any selected surface is inside a reference model.

[Tim Leydecker]

Hi Byron,


I�d like to suggest you take the time to clean up the object in Maya.

The advantage is that your Normalpass will output useful information,
all shaders computing refraction or transparency, subsurface scattering
and last but not least reflection will give reliable output...

I know, it�s a pita but shading&lighting&comp will be far less error prone.

Personally, I�d look into converting to polygons and merging to useful shells.

Rhino, MOI, Maya�s convert to polygons.

The reason why I suggest to do the clean up/conversion in Maya is that it
gives you more options to edit Normals. Just make sure that User Normals
and Geometry Normals point into the same direction...

Once the geometry is in XSI, nuke the user normals and live with the 30-35� smoothing...


Cheers,

tim

On 14.05.2012 22:50, Matt Lind wrote:
> Attached is a self installing selection filter to identify NURBS Surfaces whose surface normals have been inverted. This filter does not check for inverted UserNormals.
>
> INSTALLATION:
>
> 1)Extract ML_NURBSSurfaceInverted.js from .zip archive.
>

> 2)Copy ML_NURBSSurfaceInverted.js into the �Plugins� folder of any workgroup
>
> 3)Restart Softimage
>
> USAGE:
>
> 1)Deselect all, then set selection filter on MCP to ML_NURBSSurfaceInverted
>
> 2)Select suspected NURBS surfaces in scene (or press CTRL+A on keyboard to quickly select all)
>
> 3)If anything appears in the selection, Model > [Modify] Surf.Mesh > Invert Normals.

>
> NOTE: will throw error if any selected surface is inside a reference model.
>
> Matt
>

> *From:*softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Byron Nash
> *Sent:* Monday, May 14, 2012 11:18 AM
> *To:* soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
> *Subject:* Re: NURBS import

>
> I'm trying the ICE unify normals but I think it choked on my object. It's been chugging for over an hour.
>

> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 2:09 PM, Matt Lind <ml...@carbinestudios.com <mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com>> wrote:
>
> That�s my script.

>
> It was designed for polygon meshes only.
>
> Matt
>

> *From:*softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com <mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com> [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com
> <mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com>] *On Behalf Of *Alan Fregtman
> *Sent:* Monday, May 14, 2012 10:56 AM
>
>
> *To:* soft...@listproc.autodesk.com <mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com>
> *Subject:* Re: NURBS import

>
> I have a hunch it only works for polys.
>
> I don't know if this one does NURBS but it's worth a shot:
>
> http://area.autodesk.com/downloads/scripts/ml_unify_normals
> (I've attached the addon to this email for those who don't care to register on The Area.)
>

> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 12:29 PM, Daniel Rajcic <daniel...@gmail.com <mailto:daniel...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Hey Byron
>
> Did you try the unify normal compound by Christian Gotzinger yet?
>
> Maybe it can help to solve the flipped normal issues after you imported the iges into Soft.
>
> Have a look:
>
> http://vimeo.com/groups/ice/videos/36614302
>
> cheers,
>
> Daniel
>

> *From:*Byron Nash <mailto:byro...@gmail.com>
>
> *Sent:*Tuesday, May 15, 2012 12:13 AM
>
> *To:*soft...@listproc.autodesk.com <mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com>
>
> *Subject:*Re: NURBS import

>
> Vladimir, you called it. They look jacked in Maya as well when I turn the two-sided lighting off. It still renders clean though. If Soft would render clean I'd be in business.
>

> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 12:10 PM, Vladimir Jankijevic <vlad...@elefantstudios.ch <mailto:vlad...@elefantstudios.ch>> wrote:
>
> you have to disable the two sided lighting crap in maya to see the normals right on the polygons
>

> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 6:04 PM, Christian Gotzinger <cgo...@googlemail.com <mailto:cgo...@googlemail.com>> wrote:
>
> Are you sure the normals are ok in Maya?
> This kind of data often has pretty random normals, and I don't believe Maya shows you bad normals in black like Softimage, so there'd be no way for you to tell unless you turn on
> the normal vector display.
>

> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 5:29 PM, Byron Nash <byro...@gmail.com <mailto:byro...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> I need to get some NURBS objects from Maya to Softimage. Client gave me an igs file which I can get imported into Softimage and Maya. The problem is, that in Softimage half of
> the normals are flipped but it looks great in Maya. The object has hundreds of small parts so it's not effective to go find every last inverted shape manually. Is there a good
> way to get the NURBS into Softimage or keep the normals from getting screwed up on import?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Byron
>
>
>
> --
> ---------------------------------------
> Vladimir Jankijevic
> Technical Direction
>
> Elefant Studios AG
> Lessingstrasse 15

> CH-8002 Z�rich
>
> +41 44 500 48 20 <tel:%2B41%2044%20500%2048%2020>
>
> www.elefantstudios.ch <http://www.elefantstudios.ch>
> ---------------------------------------
>

[Byron Nash]

I tried most of the things suggested and appreciate all the tips and help. A colleague was in today with his machine and copy of 3DS Max. It was able to read the files and output polygons with correct normals. Curiously, the file sizes for the resulting FBX was much smaller than from Rhino or Maya. 

On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 3:48 AM, Tim Leydecker <baue...@gmx.de> wrote:

Hi Byron,


I´d like to suggest you take the time to clean up the object in Maya.

The advantage is that your Normalpass will output useful information,
all shaders computing refraction or transparency, subsurface scattering
and last but not least reflection will give reliable output...

I know, it´s a pita but shading&lighting&comp will be far less error prone.

Personally, I´d look into converting to polygons and merging to useful shells.

Rhino, MOI, Maya´s convert to polygons.

The reason why I suggest to do the clean up/conversion in Maya is that it
gives you more options to edit Normals. Just make sure that User Normals
and Geometry Normals point into the same direction...

Once the geometry is in XSI, nuke the user normals and live with the 30-35° smoothing...

Cheers,

tim

On 14.05.2012 22:50, Matt Lind wrote:

Attached is a self installing selection filter to identify NURBS Surfaces whose surface normals have been inverted.  This filter does not check for inverted UserNormals.

INSTALLATION:

1)Extract ML_NURBSSurfaceInverted.js from .zip archive.

2)Copy ML_NURBSSurfaceInverted.js into the “Plugins” folder of any workgroup

3)Restart Softimage

USAGE:

1)Deselect all, then set selection filter on MCP to ML_NURBSSurfaceInverted

2)Select suspected NURBS surfaces in scene (or press CTRL+A on keyboard to quickly select all)

3)If anything appears in the selection, Model > [Modify] Surf.Mesh > Invert Normals.

NOTE: will throw error if any selected surface is inside a reference model.

Matt

*From:*softimage-bounces@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-bounces@listproc.autodesk.com] *On Behalf Of *Byron Nash

*Sent:* Monday, May 14, 2012 11:18 AM
*To:* soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
*Subject:* Re: NURBS import

I'm trying the ICE unify normals but I think it choked on my object. It's been chugging for over an hour.

On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 2:09 PM, Matt Lind <ml...@carbinestudios.com <mailto:mlind@carbinestudios.com>> wrote:

That’s my script.

It was designed for polygon meshes only.

Matt

*From:*softimage-bounces@listproc.autodesk.com <mailto:softimage-bounces@listproc.autodesk.com> [mailto:softimage-bounces@listproc.autodesk.com
<mailto:softimage-bounces@listproc.autodesk.com>] *On Behalf Of *Alan Fregtman

*Sent:* Monday, May 14, 2012 10:56 AM

*To:* soft...@listproc.autodesk.com <mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>

*Subject:* Re: NURBS import

I have a hunch it only works for polys.

I don't know if this one does NURBS but it's worth a shot:

http://area.autodesk.com/downloads/scripts/ml_unify_normals
(I've attached the addon to this email for those who don't care to register on The Area.)

On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 12:29 PM, Daniel Rajcic <daniel...@gmail.com <mailto:daniel.rajcic@gmail.com>> wrote:

Hey Byron

Did you try the unify normal compound by Christian Gotzinger yet?

Maybe it can help to solve the flipped normal issues after you imported the iges into Soft.

Have a look:

http://vimeo.com/groups/ice/videos/36614302

cheers,

Daniel

*From:*Byron Nash <mailto:byro...@gmail.com>

*Sent:*Tuesday, May 15, 2012 12:13 AM

*To:*softimage@listproc.autodesk.com <mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>

*Subject:*Re: NURBS import

Vladimir, you called it. They look jacked in Maya as well when I turn the two-sided lighting off. It still renders clean though. If Soft would render clean I'd be in business.

On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 12:10 PM, Vladimir Jankijevic <vlad...@elefantstudios.ch <mailto:vladimir@elefantstudios.ch>> wrote:

you have to disable the two sided lighting crap in maya to see the normals right on the polygons

On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 6:04 PM, Christian Gotzinger <cgo...@googlemail.com <mailto:cgo...@googlemail.com>> wrote:

Are you sure the normals are ok in Maya?
This kind of data often has pretty random normals, and I don't believe Maya shows you bad normals in black like Softimage, so there'd be no way for you to tell unless you turn on
the normal vector display.

On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 5:29 PM, Byron Nash <byro...@gmail.com <mailto:byro...@gmail.com>> wrote:

   I need to get some NURBS objects from Maya to Softimage. Client gave me an igs file which I can get imported into Softimage and Maya. The problem is, that in Softimage half of
   the normals are flipped but it looks great in Maya. The object has hundreds of small parts so it's not effective to go find every last inverted shape manually. Is there a good
   way to get the NURBS into Softimage or keep the normals from getting screwed up on import?

   Thanks,

   Byron



--
---------------------------------------
Vladimir Jankijevic
Technical Direction

Elefant Studios AG
Lessingstrasse 15

CH-8002 Zürich

[Thomas Helzle]

Hahahah - sounds like the Autodesk® -Approach® : instead of fixing the ever broken ®  Nurbs ®  import in XSI ® , sell the new Autodesk® Entertainment ®  Creation ®  Suite ®  Ultimate ®  2013 so you can use Maya ®  to look at the Nurbs ®  and 3DS ®  Max ®  to convert them to polygons ® .

Good® stuff®! ;-)

Cheers,

Tom

[Tim Leydecker]

Ah,

good to know. 3DS Max, I wouldn�t have thought of that...

Cheers,

tim

On 16.05.2012 03:27, Byron Nash wrote:
> I tried most of the things suggested and appreciate all the tips and help. A colleague was in today with his machine and copy of 3DS Max. It was able to read the files and output
> polygons with correct normals. Curiously, the file sizes for the resulting FBX was much smaller than from Rhino or Maya.
>

> On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 3:48 AM, Tim Leydecker <baue...@gmx.de <mailto:baue...@gmx.de>> wrote:
>
> Hi Byron,
>
>
> I�d like to suggest you take the time to clean up the object in Maya.

>
> The advantage is that your Normalpass will output useful information,
> all shaders computing refraction or transparency, subsurface scattering
> and last but not least reflection will give reliable output...
>

> I know, it�s a pita but shading&lighting&comp will be far less error prone.
>
> Personally, I�d look into converting to polygons and merging to useful shells.
>
> Rhino, MOI, Maya�s convert to polygons.

>
> The reason why I suggest to do the clean up/conversion in Maya is that it
> gives you more options to edit Normals. Just make sure that User Normals
> and Geometry Normals point into the same direction...
>

> Once the geometry is in XSI, nuke the user normals and live with the 30-35� smoothing...

>
>
> Cheers,
>
> tim
>
>
>
>
>
> On 14.05.2012 22:50, Matt Lind wrote:
>
> Attached is a self installing selection filter to identify NURBS Surfaces whose surface normals have been inverted. This filter does not check for inverted UserNormals.
>
> INSTALLATION:
>
> 1)Extract ML_NURBSSurfaceInverted.js from .zip archive.
>

> 2)Copy ML_NURBSSurfaceInverted.js into the �Plugins� folder of any workgroup

>
> 3)Restart Softimage
>
> USAGE:
>
> 1)Deselect all, then set selection filter on MCP to ML_NURBSSurfaceInverted
>
> 2)Select suspected NURBS surfaces in scene (or press CTRL+A on keyboard to quickly select all)
>
> 3)If anything appears in the selection, Model > [Modify] Surf.Mesh > Invert Normals.
>
>
> NOTE: will throw error if any selected surface is inside a reference model.
>
> Matt
>

> *From:*softimage-bounces@__listproc.autodesk.com <mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com> [mailto:softimage-bounces@__listproc.autodesk.com
> <mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com>] *On Behalf Of *Byron Nash

> *Sent:* Monday, May 14, 2012 11:18 AM

> *To:* soft...@listproc.autodesk.__com <mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com>

> *Subject:* Re: NURBS import
>
>
> I'm trying the ICE unify normals but I think it choked on my object. It's been chugging for over an hour.
>

> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 2:09 PM, Matt Lind <ml...@carbinestudios.com <mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com> <mailto:mlind@carbinestudios.__com
> <mailto:ml...@carbinestudios.com>>> wrote:
>
> That�s my script.

>
> It was designed for polygon meshes only.
>
> Matt
>

> *From:*softimage-bounces@__listproc.autodesk.com <mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com> <mailto:softimage-bounces@__listproc.autodesk.com
> <mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com>> [mailto:softimage-bounces@__listproc.autodesk.com <mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com>
> <mailto:softimage-bounces@__listproc.autodesk.com <mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com>>] *On Behalf Of *Alan Fregtman

> *Sent:* Monday, May 14, 2012 10:56 AM
>
>

> *To:* soft...@listproc.autodesk.__com <mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com> <mailto:softimage@listproc.__autodesk.com <mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com>>

> *Subject:* Re: NURBS import
>
>

> I have a hunch it only works for polys.
>
> I don't know if this one does NURBS but it's worth a shot:
>

> http://area.autodesk.com/__downloads/scripts/ml_unify___normals <http://area.autodesk.com/downloads/scripts/ml_unify_normals>

> (I've attached the addon to this email for those who don't care to register on The Area.)
>

> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 12:29 PM, Daniel Rajcic <daniel...@gmail.com <mailto:daniel...@gmail.com> <mailto:daniel.rajcic@gmail.__com
> <mailto:daniel...@gmail.com>>> wrote:
>
> Hey Byron
>
> Did you try the unify normal compound by Christian Gotzinger yet?
>
> Maybe it can help to solve the flipped normal issues after you imported the iges into Soft.
>
> Have a look:
>

> http://vimeo.com/groups/ice/__videos/36614302 <http://vimeo.com/groups/ice/videos/36614302>
>
> cheers,
>
> Daniel
>
> *From:*Byron Nash <mailto:byro...@gmail.com <mailto:byro...@gmail.com>>

>
> *Sent:*Tuesday, May 15, 2012 12:13 AM
>

> *To:*softimage@listproc.__autodesk.com <mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com> <mailto:softimage@listproc.__autodesk.com <mailto:soft...@listproc.autodesk.com>>

>
> *Subject:*Re: NURBS import
>
>
> Vladimir, you called it. They look jacked in Maya as well when I turn the two-sided lighting off. It still renders clean though. If Soft would render clean I'd be in business.
>

> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 12:10 PM, Vladimir Jankijevic <vlad...@elefantstudios.ch <mailto:vlad...@elefantstudios.ch> <mailto:vladimir@__elefantstudios.ch
> <mailto:vlad...@elefantstudios.ch>>> wrote:
>
> you have to disable the two sided lighting crap in maya to see the normals right on the polygons
>

> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 6:04 PM, Christian Gotzinger <cgo...@googlemail.com <mailto:cgo...@googlemail.com> <mailto:cgo...@googlemail.com <mailto:cgo...@googlemail.com>>__>

> wrote:
>
> Are you sure the normals are ok in Maya?
> This kind of data often has pretty random normals, and I don't believe Maya shows you bad normals in black like Softimage, so there'd be no way for you to tell unless you
> turn on
> the normal vector display.
>

> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 5:29 PM, Byron Nash <byro...@gmail.com <mailto:byro...@gmail.com> <mailto:byro...@gmail.com <mailto:byro...@gmail.com>>> wrote:
>
> I need to get some NURBS objects from Maya to Softimage. Client gave me an igs file which I can get imported into Softimage and Maya. The problem is, that in Softimage
> half of
> the normals are flipped but it looks great in Maya. The object has hundreds of small parts so it's not effective to go find every last inverted shape manually. Is there
> a good
> way to get the NURBS into Softimage or keep the normals from getting screwed up on import?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Byron
>
>
>
> --

> ------------------------------__---------

> Vladimir Jankijevic
> Technical Direction
>
> Elefant Studios AG
> Lessingstrasse 15

> CH-8002 Z�rich
>
> +41 44 500 48 20 <tel:%2B41%2044%20500%2048%2020> <tel:%2B41%2044%20500%2048%__2020>
>
> www.elefantstudios.ch <http://www.elefantstudios.ch> <http://www.elefantstudios.ch>
> ------------------------------__---------
>
>