[X3D-Public] Blender Export to X3D

[Don Brutzman]

On 12/12/2010 1:27 PM, JOHN COADY wrote:
> Hi
> Thanks for the link on how you used blender, it would be nice if you didn't need to edit the X3D file generated by blender to get a correct result.

i agree that is the goal.  i think that if we continue to
report issues with Blender along with test examples that
demonstrate the issue, they will continue to apply fixes.
so this is a very positive situation.

>  One of the things I tried was to first export to a collada file from Blender, and then Import the collada into X3D-Edit and then have X3D-Edit convert it to X3D. Then compare that result with what Blender produced with its Export to X3D method. In a couple of test blender scenes that I tried the results were different. I used blender scenes from the new book "Blender Foundations" which uses the new blender user interface found in Blender version 2.5 . The blender scenes in this book don't work with the older versions of blender.

Very interesting.  Are these collada files available online, and available publicly?

Perhaps we should build and publish a small conversion archive.

> However, some of these blender scenes can be quite large, a few meg in size when converted to collada, and X3D-Edit complains that they are too big.

Netbeans (and thus X3D-Edit) has a problem with files larger than 1-2 MB.
We are hoping that this gets fixed eventually.

  Also, X3D-Edit was not able to convert this Collada file to X3D which was taken from chapter 9 in the book and Exported from Blender.
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5095342/Models/demo_scene_chapter_09.dae

> Do you know why X3D-Edit can't convert this scene to X3D.

file size (in Netbeans/X3D-Edit) looks to be the culprit

>  This 2 step conversion process, first to Collada and then to X3D is one way to test, correct and compare the results from what the Export to X3D function provides in blender.

another way to do this would be to directly invoke Xj3D converter.bat
or converter.sh script from command line

i have previously had some problems with path handling in this script, you
might have to work in local directory.  sorry but i can't test that further
due to some other issues on my machine.


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Don Brutzman <brutzman at nps.edu>
> Date: Sunday, December 12, 2010 4:00 am
> Subject: Re: [X3D-Public] Blender Export to X3D
> To: x3d-public at web3d.org
> Cc: SAVAGE <SAVAGE at nps.edu>, Benjamin Anderson <bsa.drums at gmail.com>, Claudio Coreixas de Moraes <ccoreixa at nps.edu>
>
>  > Hi John. I used Blender and found some bugs too.
>  > Like you,
>  > they were fixed immediately. Very impressive.
>  >
>  > The page describing how we used Blender is at
>  > https://savage.nps.edu/X3D-Edit/BlenderExportToX3d.html
>  >
>  > If you see anything on that page which needs to get fixed, please
>  > let me know. Thanks for the good news regarding their continued
>  > support for X3D.
>  >
>  > > On 12/12/2010 3:42 AM, JOHN COADY wrote:
>  > >> I installed Blender the other day and tried exporting a
>  > blender scene to X3D and there were a lot of obvious errors in
>  > the resulting X3D scene (The objects were not positioned
>  > properly in the X3D scene). So I submitted a bug report and they
>  > fixed the problem I reported the next day. I am a new user to
>  > Blender and if the Export to X3D functionality had a basic bug
>  > such as positioning objects correctly, I'm sure that there are
>  > other problems with the Export to X3D. Does anyone have any
>  > ideas on how to test this properly. Blender seems to have a lot
>  > of configurable options to play with, and if X3D has some
>  > equivalent functionality then it would be nice to know when you
>  > Export to X3D that the X3D nodes get used properly.
>  > >>
>  > >> In the latest Beta release of Blender, they completely
>  > changed the user interface to make it more user friendly. They
>  > seem to be working hard to get the next major release out and
>  > that is why the bug that I reported got fixed right away. It
>  > would be nice to fix as many problems with Export to X3D before
>  > the next major release if anyone has any ideas on how to test it
>  > properly.
>  > all the best, Don
>  > --
>  > Don Brutzman Naval Postgraduate School, Code
>  > USW/Br brutzman at nps.edu
>  > Watkins 270 MOVES Institute, Monterey CA 93943-5000
>  > USA +1.831.656.2149
>  > X3D, virtual worlds, underwater robots
>  > http://faculty.nps.edu/brutzman
>  >
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>  >



all the best, Don
-- 
Don Brutzman  Naval Postgraduate School, Code USW/Br      brutzman at nps.edu
Watkins 270   MOVES Institute, Monterey CA 93943-5000 USA  +1.831.656.2149
X3D, virtual worlds, underwater robots     http://faculty.nps.edu/brutzman