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Gigantic 3d poly's


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Hi all. I am having issues with converting 3d objects to poly then having them be extremely large and it boggs down the computer something terrible. Lets say I create a chair. I do a lot of extrude along path, fillet edge, extract curves to get the shapes that I want.. Here is the deal... I use Strata 3d pro and (other than an upgrade to cx---that may not even fix the problem). Exporting to Strata 3d, or simple vectorscript with items created in such a way, disappear in strata unless converted to 3d poly. And Dang it I'd swear the file size goes from 50 megs to 650 megs for 2 chairs.. Does anyone know of a simpler way?

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Thanks for your response: Here is what I've noticed after trying iges; I created a 2d circle, extruded it, extracted a curve of the top, extruded along a path, then subtracted solids. Exporting iges 3d only then opening it in strata, the subtract solid is not there, the extruded curve is there and the cylinder is hollow.. So then I re imported it into vectorworks and then exported it in simple vectorscript and It worked.. Though the import into strata took quite a while on my g4. It seems quite archaic..

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Sorry to piggy-back on this topic -- but I am extremely interested in this same thing and I hope someone can help us.

I have wondered the same thing for a couple of years now; and still can't come up with a good answer. This problem includes when you import all of those wonderful free models from the internet. Inevitably you wind up with a simple chair that has 15,000 polygons and takes 20 min. to render by itself.

Looking for any clues which might include:

- tweaking in another program before importing

- applying any kind of transformation inside of VW

- third-party software?

- any secret recipe that has worked for others

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The solution to massive file size can be found in fractal programming. Very complex objects can be reduced to a set of simple interactive symbols. It's like solving a puzzle ... find the simplest most direct route which will achieve the desired end result. Try to avoid unnecessary additions and subtractions. When you get it right the file is small, tight & renders fast. Example of a few shapes created from a single NURBS Fractal Brane.

A few other simple examples:

Fractal_Poly_Thumbs_905.jpg

These were created from just a couple basic NURBS symbols. resulting in very small VW files.

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Wow. Surprisingly, fractal programming wasn't at the top of my list.

Unfortuntely, I don't think this addresses the problem Fred and I were having with importing and exporting. Unless, of course, there is a huge library of fractally programmed chairs and tables out there somewhere; or perhaps if VW13 would encorporate a "convert to fractal geometry" command.

Cool objects, though. They gave me flashbacks to my college "experimental" days (and, no I'm not talking about experiments in CAD). I think there was a lot of Pink Floyd involved. It's very blurry. . . .

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O.k., we'll try this again. . .

I am having problems IMPORTING. I would love to find a way to change or import 3d models from OTHER programs so that these models weren't 10,000 3d ploygons. I know VW has powerful tools - I LIKE VW's powerful Nurbs tools. As much as I like VW, I don't have time to model a huge library of furntiure, etc. I have these sent to me from the industrial designers who make the proudct. That is irrelevent; as are all of the pretty fractal models.

Fred is looking for the same thing in reverse. He obviously likes VW also, and knows all about it's powerful nurbs tools - as he stated in his original post. He doesn't need to be sold on VW; he needs a way to get objects into another program without converting to 3d polygons first.

By the way Fred, I use Cinema4d for the high level rendering. With the "export to C4d" script, it works very well and retains small file sizes without conversion. I wish it was the same for Strata, but perhaps interest in such a thing will help create the script. Good luck.

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I think Mike M OZ's reply was on point - convert it to generic solids if possible to reduce file sizes.

One thing about 3DS files -- depending on how they were made, they may come in as a few shapes or thousands of shapes. VW has no control over this since it has to do with how the objects were originally drawn.

The other part that can balloon the file is relating to textures. If there are lots of high end textures, then the object becomes that more complicated, that much larger, and that much more time to render.

If either of you have a link to a website or send sample 3ds files and VW files, I'll be happy to take a look at it and see if there's a way to reduce or filter out the extra information.

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Squirrelboy, Thank You. You are absolutely correct. I don't like to convert to 3d poly. I don't think that I should have to. I love VW. It allows me to draw anything! Its great! Converting to generic solids gives me undesirable outcomes in strata. Exporting in iges gives me the same stuff in strata. Is strata the problem? Do I have to learn ANOTHER program to get my job done? I was hoping that there was an order to the creation of an object; or a convert to command in the process of creation that would make me happy in strata. Katie, I will send you the chair I've drawn. I hope you can help. I'm correctly using the tools and it all works the way I've done it for years, but man, when the boss is hovering over me and the program is walking like a 286 trying to add 2+2 I create strange conversation topics to mask the tick tock of the clock. Thanks everybody..

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  • 1 month later...

One possible tip when you're converting your NURBS to Mesh geometry: change the tesselation level in your preferences. The lower you set it, the lighter your export becomes. I would, by the way, not use the export to Strata anymore. Just export to 3DS (small file) or DXF (large file, but same information as 3DS). And dare I say that 50 MB for 2 chairs is horribly large? I regularly get office chair designs with alls screws, bolts, handles, interior frames and caps included (from BULO), and they are never larger than 15 MB - and I'm talking about geometry that is production ready.

Edited by BaRa
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I've created a vase with 2 sweep objects; 2 extrude along path with exponential scale; and 1 extracted curve extrude along path. Nothing really complicated and yet file size before converting objects to 3d poly is 35 megs. Converting all 5 objects to 3d poly not only slows down the re-drawing of the objects the file size after just doing that is now 55.3 megs. I've tried to convert to mesh but got the error,"Selected objects may have too many vertices for a mesh." It's a simple vase. In my line of work, I need to represent client products for display purposes. I may need to create 4 to 6 different tea pots for a rendering. Those 20 megs add up. You can imagine what it's like along with the display fixture/structure also in the file.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi, i also use vw and strata 3dcx. i use the dxf export, it's the best way to export to strata. use classes and you get

named shapes in strata, easy to texture.

select all, scale it and its ready for use

i make exhibition drawings and i sometimes convert to 3d poly, when i have problems but most of the time it is not necessary. good luck

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