Imported Meshes - Editing so that I keep rendering info

[cberg]

I imported an OBJ file from a 3d scan.  I was wondering if it is possible to edit the mesh without losing rendering information.

 

When I double click, I get a message saying that I will lose 3d rendering information if I edit the mesh.  Is there any way to modify without losing render info?  Maybe change settings on import? 

 

[Jeff Prince]

I do not know how you can edit an .obj in Vectorworks without losing the texture.  You can do that easily in Blender and then export the modified .obj and texture back to Vectorworks.

[Andy Broomell]

Sadly, you can only do limited modifications to Mesh objects with Imported texture mapping. If you want to retain the texture mapping you can only do things on the "outside" of the mesh, but you can't double click to enter its contents without destroying the texturing.

 

What you can do on the "outside" of the mesh is to use the Selection Tool to marquee over vertices, then either hit the Delete key to remove them, or you can click and drag to move them (adjacent faces will stretch as needed). But that's about it.

 

When per-face texturing was introduced last year, and because imported meshes inherently already have per-face UV mapping, I would've hoped that they would've improved Mesh editing so that it doesn't discard texturing info. At this point it seems entirely unnecessary, and it seriously inhibits workflows that include imported meshes, which these days is most of us. Whether it be models purchased from the web or Lidar scans of a location, we need to be able to edit meshes!

[Jeff Prince]

@cberg after posting my comment, I realized I didn't have Blender on my new system and hadn't used it in some time.  So, I installed it, brought in one of my old drone based aerial surveys to test Vwx 2022 vs Blender.

 

The latest release of Blender is snappy and made quick work of the task, cutting out a portion of the model and exporting the results to a new .obj.  It imported cleanly and correctly textured in VWX.  When I tried the same in VWX, it promptly removed the texture.  The price of Blender for this sort of thing is pretty compelling 🙂

The model in the images on the left is the unedited obj, the one on the right was quickly trimmed in blender, both correctly rendering in Vwx.

hope it helps,

Jeff

[cberg]

@Andy Broomell @jeff prince Thank you for your suggestions!  

 

I wanted to remove portions of the mesh, so your techniques will help me to delete areas. 

 

I would never have thought to hover over the mesh in VW without double clicking.  Thanks again.