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Home ? How Do I ...? ? Making ASE export work in Milkshpae or Blender

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09/03/2017 15:41:27

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		Now that RodriSilva has presented such a good idea that requires ASE format, I'm finding that the Sketchup exporter takes wayyyy too long. I know that Blender has an ASE exporter and so does Milkshape. I have both programs, and I have the ASE plugin installed for Blender, but I can't get either program to export an ASE that will successfully load into Muvizu.

If anybody out there is using either of these programs to generate ASE files, please explain step by step how to do it. I must be missing a step . What I've been doing is to import an OBJ file that I modelled in Silo, then I highlight it and immediately try to export to ASE. If there are any other things that also need to be done, I'll need a heads-up!

Thanks in advance to anyone who knows the secret and is willing to share it!
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09/03/2017 16:36:46

RodrisilvaMuvizu mogulExperimental user
Rodrisilva
Posts: 113 		PatMarrNC wrote:
Now that RodriSilva has presented such a good idea that requires ASE format, I'm finding that the Sketchup exporter takes wayyyy too long. I know that Blender has an ASE exporter and so does Milkshape. I have both programs, and I have the ASE plugin installed for Blender, but I can't get either program to export an ASE that will successfully load into Muvizu.

If anybody out there is using either of these programs to generate ASE files, please explain step by step how to do it. I must be missing a step . What I've been doing is to import an OBJ file that I modelled in Silo, then I highlight it and immediately try to export to ASE. If there are any other things that also need to be done, I'll need a heads-up!

Thanks in advance to anyone who knows the secret and is willing to share it!



ASE exporter isn't working anymore in latest Blender versions. It's only usefull with 2.5/2.6 versions. That's why I never use it. The reliability of that script was not very good producing unexpected results in some models.
A good place to find instruction step by step : https://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/blender/export-ase-models.php
edited by Rodrisilva on 09/03/2017
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09/03/2017 16:51:39

RodrisilvaMuvizu mogulExperimental user
Rodrisilva
Posts: 113 		What I usually do is to export from Blender to sketchup as OBJ format. I export models with triangulation, smoothing surface and materials. In Sketchup the best importer is Fluidimporter. It' s a paid plugin but you can find a free one in sketchup extension warehouse.
To export I use ASE exporter that run without problems in Sketchup 2017.
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15/03/2017 00:14:05

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		FWIW... I've been experimenting with Milkshape's ASE export. it is WAY faster than Sketchup, but it has some peculiarities that sketchup's ASE doesn't have.

MilkShape's ASE files can only have one material, whereas Sketchup's can have many.

Milkshape's texture must be applied from within Milkshape, even if the OBJ was imported and it already had a texture. Sketchups will read the MTL file and use the texture that was applied in another program if one exists.

but given the speed difference, people who like ASE format might want to give Milkshape a look. It also exports FBX export, so its one of the few inexpensive modelling apps that supports bOTH of the formats used by Muvizu.

ASE has become worth lookig at again now that Rod Silva's multimesh animation opens new possibilities, and it only works with ASE...
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21/03/2017 03:07:40

RodrisilvaMuvizu mogulExperimental user
Rodrisilva
Posts: 113 		Hi
I have found some shining metal, surfing on internet. An old ASE exporter for blender was recently updated and is working now in Blender 2.78.
I tested it according to the associated rules and it's working. First attempts were not successful because anytime I tried to import into Muvizu it gave an error message telling me that textures were not found at stored address. I made some modifications in code to allow the script to search for original textures addresses where they were primarily stored. If you fall in troubles you can use original script but in that case it was better to create a folder in root disk and name it to UT3. Inside this folder you need to create another folder named "textures". Every texture you gonna use must stay inside this folder. Sometimes original script works without problems but it depends how long is the texture address location. Anyway I think my small code contribute has settled that.

Download and try: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0GJCNBaYT8MV2FkOEotVmNEbFE/view?usp=sharing

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21/03/2017 14:00:50

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		awesome! You are an amazing help to this forum, Rod! Last time I tried the Blender ASE exporter, it was the texture error that stopped me... now that you've fixed it, I'll use your version and give it another try! I'm very excited about the potential of your multimesh idea, and anything that makes it faster is a big help!


are you willing to say exactly what edits you made? It might help people who later DL the unedited version and can't make it work
edited by PatMarrNC on 21/03/2017
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21/03/2017 16:41:24

RodrisilvaMuvizu mogulExperimental user
Rodrisilva
Posts: 113 		PatMarrNC wrote:
... are you willing to say exactly what edits you made? It might help people who later DL the unedited version and can't make it work
edited by PatMarrNC on 21/03/2017


Actually I made changes in one line code only. I made some in a personal update to allow automatic material assignment but it'is a work in progress, not available yet.
If you open an ASE file, with notepad++ for example, you will find material definitions similar to this:

MATERIAL_LIST {
*MATERIAL_COUNT 6
*MATERIAL 0 {
*MATERIAL_NAME "textures/props/torch_ember"
*MATERIAL_CLASS "Standard"
*MATERIAL_DIFFUSE 1.000000 0.733272 0.472161
*MATERIAL_SHADING Phong
*MAP_DIFFUSE {
*MAP_NAME "textures/props/torch_ember"
*MAP_CLASS "Bitmap"
*MAP_SUBNO 1
*MAP_AMOUNT 1.0
*MAP_TYPE Screen
*BITMAP "textures\props\torch_ember.tga" # complete path i.e " C:\where is\stored\...'
*BITMAP_FILTER Pyramidal
}

If you have an ASE file that Muvizu is unable to open search for '*bitmap ' and write correct texture directory.

What is happening with original exporter?
If you store textures in another hard disk, long directory address or out of blender textures directory the original code doesn't keep track of absolute file path (look to line 'a' and 'b' in next picture). It's pointing to relative path or base directory



I changed this line code in order to get absolute file path, whatever location was. Look at 'a' in the next picture.
Another solution was to write the desired absolute path ( 'b' ) . This late solution was pretty bad because all textures must stay in textures directory.



Anyway this is a big achievement for me. Python is new to me. I have never use it before. Actually I'm only a curious not a programmer.
edited by Rodrisilva on 21/03/2017
edited by Rodrisilva on 21/03/2017
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22/03/2017 06:07:23

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		I finally had time to experiment with this new Blender plugin, and it worked great! A file that took over an hour to export as ASE from Sketchup took about a minute in Blender! And I'm happy to report that it handled my first multi-mesh animation!

I'm one of those guys who rarely gets things right the first time, and it always drove me nuts to wait an hour or more for each revision to process through Sketchup. Now I can continue to screw up, but at least it will take less time to work my way through my process of eliminating errors.

Thanks again for finding and sharing this version of the sketchup ASE exporter! The last one I tried was a previous version, and I never could get it to work
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22/03/2017 10:40:33

Ammostro
Ammostro
Posts: 42 		I have already used the ASE exporter for my heli whit rotating blades. That works fine, now its one object to create the movements. Thx guys. Now its fun
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