Has anybody figured out how to make a program, probably external from Poser, that would mirror the geometry and textures of an obj file. Say for example you make a left wing for an aircraft, run the program and wa-lah, you have a right wing, mirrored. I'd pay a lot of money for a handy program like that. I guess it's a challenge! Davo

Some programs do that. LightWave does it. Very handy :o)

heh heh, when I said "pay a lot of money", I didn't mean Lightwave money :-) I bet Ajax could swing something like this being the genious he is ^_^

LOL...Autocad does it too, but be warned sometimes when you do that your normals go wacko....Sharen

crap, I use autocad every day and don't even know if can work with objs, I think it's just 3ds files isn't it? Then I'd loose all the uv mapping. I think somebody needs to do a script or something that would mirror all the information (posatives to negatives or something like that), then they could mirror the texture manually. Definately something I could use with some of the new stuff I'm working on.

as an experiment, I exported a leaf from figure I have, mirrored it in rhino and saved it as a morph target, I applied the morph and the leaf mirrored over just fine, except the normals are reversed. I exported the leaf (mirrored) as an obj file and opened it up in uvmapper pro, then inverted the normals and saved it as a new obj file, the textures still held. This is okay for single items like a leaf, but more complex objects, like a full figure, say a wing with moving struts and such might prove more difficult since each item would need to be exported on it's own.

Attached Link: http://ockhamsbungalow.com/Python/ReverseOBJ.zip

As mentioned, most modelling programs will mirror an obj. Here's a quickie script to do the job if you don't have such a modeller. See the readme for details. I think you'll need to check the "flip normals" when importing the reversed obj.

Thanks ockham, I'll give this a go, ummmm.. what program do you use to open this up or run the script? Poser 5? or do you do it with wordpad or something? (I have poser 5, but have not used it much, I'm still using poser 4 at the moment) Davo

If you have original non-Pro Poser 4, you can't run Python. ProPack and P5 will run it.

okay, that's cool, I can load up my Poser 5 and give it a try, I really appreciate your help a lot, Davo

Try this: "STOMP" ...it correctly flips the normals for you as well. It's a (beta) windows program, uses OpenGL for displaying the mesh. Be sure to read any included readme type files. Cheers, - Keith

...as an aside, if you download my program, please take note that my correct e-mail address is: spanki@cablenet-va.com ...the old mindspring address is being discontinued.

Spanki!!! Thanks so much, it worked perfectly on a simple figure with moving parts!! Normals flipped, textures take, no problems at all, I'm sooooo happy ^_^ This did exactly what I wanted it to do. Davo "can you tell I'm happy?" Rama

Cool.. glad to help. ;).

...now, about that "I'd pay a lot of money" thing... ;) j/k

I'd pay you for that, you just saved me a ton of time and effort, or if you like, go browse beyondbent.com and pick whatever you'd like :c) Davo

Hehe... actually, I'm mostly interested in any feedback on the program. It may end up a dead-end project, but I've got plans for a (similar) new project. (on the other hand, you DO have some neat stuff at your site... ;)

most times you don't even have to mess with the normals, cause it seems to always render correctly, but looking at it with out a render where there are invisible spots are just kinda weird. Sharen

I opened up your program, imported the figure, hit the flip in x direction button, saved it, used phi builder to do the parenting/heirarchy and imported it into poser, the textures applied just fine, it was perfect. The only thing that would be closer to what I needed to have happen is if you could open a cr2 or pr2 file, hit the flip button and save the cr2 or pr2 and when you open it up, it's mirrored and all the bending/heirarchy is already established. That would be awesome. I'll try the python script that ockham posted and see what it does in Poser 5, I just need to wait until I get home though... arrrgghhh!!! I hate it when work interferes with my life. Davo, ps, the offer is still open, if you want anything from beyondbent, just let me know :-)

I am checking it out now Spanki,..thank you for this work, I am always messing with this....we do alot of mirroring, and our models are so complex that some are reversed and some parts arent'....thank you again. Sharen

Yeah, I hate that Sharen. I sometimes get a model that has some reversed normals on some bolts or posts or something (because I mirrored them in rhino after converting them to a mesh). When I render in Poser 4, it's fine, but the other day I rendered in poser 5 and the reversed items were a lot darker after rendering.

Oh I know, I actually think I figured that one out, still testing that though....Sharen

Thanks Sharen... this program wasn't written explicitly for mirroring, I just added that code for my own use ;). The one thing I was thinking about adding to that was a means of mirroring only selected elements (selected by group or material, maybe)... which is easy enough to do, but would take more time creating the selecting interface (scrolling list or whatever) than the rest of the code. I may or may not ever get around to adding that. One note on the program... for a long time, I was making certain assumptions about the format of the .obj files (specifically, that if ANY of the mesh was texture-mapped, then ALL of it had to be). I've now convinced myself that this is a bad assumption, but my code is not currently set up to handle this well.

Attached Link: http://www.wings3d.com

Try wings3d.

I suggest wings too. Any obj can be mirrored around any selected facet. When creating a complex item, you ony have ti build half of it keeping the face you want to mirror around in mind, and it you wan to separate the resulting obj into two objs, one loop cut does the trick.

Teh easiest program to do it is Word or any other word processor To flip the OBJ file left to right do a search and replace Replace "v " with "v -" Replace "v --" with "v " This flips left and right. Same works for UV Replace "vt " with "vt -" Replace "vt --" with "vt " The problem is it reverses normals but you can fix is when you import it into poser y clicking "reverse normals"

How is that easier than: load, flipX, save. ? ;)

Attached Link: http://www.brycetech.com/stufftodelete/flipobj.zip

I made this program. It comes free with my amapi 7 tutorial cd. It flips the geometry (keeps the same uvs) and will rename body parts (which it has to do as well) automatically. http://www.brycetech.com/stufftodelete/flipobj.zip its written in visual basic and requires the vb runtimes. If you dont have them you will need to get them. just open the mesh you want to flip in the program and as it encounters body part names (like lShldr), it will ask if you want to rename that part to rShldr)..you will in most cases. it has lots of options.. to overwrite automatically, to change names automatically, and several other things. Once you get the mesh flipped, you will still need to open it in "UV mapper" and smooth the normals (I didnt program it to do that). I use this program all the time when I make shoes, gloves, or some other model where there is a symmetrical duplicate... btw it flips across the "zero X" plane. You cant alter it to flip somewhere else. no warranties expressed or implied. Can not be redistributed without my permission. Billy's OS only. :) BT