Switzerland
Joined: Apr 22, 2022
Post Count: 1
Status:
Offline
Importing OBJ file in Sweethome3D
Hello there.
I just bought a 3D model of a stove at CGTrader. The download section proposes .MAX, .OBJ, and an additional maps.rar file.
When importing the OBJ file in Sweethome3D, the wood burning stove is all gray. There are no texture. I guess the maps.rar contains textures and details ? How can I have the full object imported in Sweethome3D ?
Italy
Joined: Nov 17, 2021
Post Count: 406
Status:
Offline
Re: Importing OBJ file in Sweethome3D
The obj file alone isn't enough, it must come along with a mtl file (materials) and zero or more image files (textures). The archive should contain all of them, so you have to extract everithing without altering the directory structure. When importing just select the obj file, the program will find other files by itself.
Netherlands
Joined: Apr 8, 2022
Post Count: 777
Status:
Offline
Re: Importing OBJ file in Sweethome3D
Be aware that downloaded objects from sites like Archive3D and CGTrader are often a little 'broken' with parts not correctly lined up or unmapped textures. This is especially true for the free objects. Try either a 3DS or FBX version since those often offer better results than an OBJ+NTL file.
On CGTrader the FBX versions are generally the best (in my experience) but you have to use a program like Blender to import them and export them to a 3DS file which can be imported by SH3D. It's an option if the original 3DS or OBJ versions fail. You have a better chance of correctly mapped textures with a FBX or 3DS file. Blender is also useful to realign a wrong part of an object. A tip while importing objects from third party sites: many times the size seems wrong in SH3D because the scale is different. Check the number and in most cases moving the decimal point one or two places to the left will give you the correct dimensions.
Even if textures are not mapped you can (re-)create an otherwise good object by manually mapping the textures using the Color and Texture Modify button in SH3D. Of course this requires that the different parts are correctly listed in the object file. If you encounter just a single item to map you are out of luck because there are no parts to map.
Most of the Archive3D files can be imported without a problem but the rar files sometimes show 0 files (some are very old). Specifically on Linux I found that some rar files from Archive3D can only be extracted with p7zip (a Linux port of 7zip). SH3D expects a zip file so the rar file must be extracted anyway. It is advisable to copy textures that are in a subdirectory to the directory where the OBJ/MTL or 3DS file is. This often avoids the need to manually map the textures in SH3D.
Joined: Jan 16, 2023
Post Count: 1
Status:
Offline
Re: Importing OBJ file in Sweethome3D
Thanks it works! But last versions of blender won't export in 3ds, so you either need to get a legacy version (2.9 or less), or install a custom addon.
