Does anyone know of a utility that will flip the normals of selected groups in a .obj file? I tried doing it in Poser but for some strange reason, when I export the file as .obj for use as a character geometry, when I select the character in Poser, the rendered character has holes in it. The modeling program I used to create the original .obj file does not have the capability to flip normals. If I use this as the character geometry file, the rendered character has no holes in it. The character however before rendering shows the rear faces only for some object groups. Any work arounds would be appreciated.

The Poser4 Grouping tool can reverse the normals of selected areas. Also, Poser doesn't like 5-sided polygons and those really may be "Holes" in the mesh after exporting. Have you tried fixing the normals on import to Poser? There are two check boxes: "Flip Normals" and " Make Normals consistant" - use them both. -JH.

Yes, I used the grouping tool in Poser4 to flip the normals and the object looked ok in flat a g-shading and in render. Then I exported this as a new .obj file. Now when i use poser to convert my hierarchy file to a figure using the exported .obj and create a character in poser, the shaded mesh doesn't look as smooth as befor the export and when rendered the "holes" show up. The shape of the holes are triangular and rectangular. This effect also shows up when I import this same .obj file into poser. I also tried breaking my original .obj file into 2, one that needed normals reversed and one that didn't and imported these into Poser using the two check boxes you mentioned. Exporting the combined files as a single file also produced the same result. So if there is a utility around that does the same thing that Poser does with respect to reversing normals on selected groups I'd like to give it a try.

Poser doesn't like normals in an obj, it takes care of them itself. Open Posette in a text editor and you will see there are none. Try just dumping them with CR2Edit or Bushi's MorphSqueeze and let Poser take care of them and see if this fixes the problem. Dan Sorry, Win only for apps http://www.neca.com/~dwilmes/cr2edit.html PStart for Poser free to registered CR2Edit users.

heyas; what i do is import the obj into poser, use the grouping tool to flip the normals on whatever body part needs it, then export. if you open the character and use the grouping tool on that... well, let's just say there's certain little dangers associated with doing it that way ;) can you post a picture of the 'holes' you get? if they are black, they are caused by 'degenerate facets.' steve cox says that happens when poser doesn't keep all the decimal places for the vertices, and some merge together and all kindsa weird crap happens. the latest uvmapper can fix the degenerate facets automatically. (i think it just deletes them, which isn't always best for keeping your model's structure intact :/ ). i also think steve is working on an option to flip normals of a selection in uvmapper, but i don't think that's been implemented yet.

I suspect that we are talking about two different things:- (1) The vn lines in .OBJ files. In Wavefront (the 3D graphics program that the .OBJ format was created for), they specify how the surface is to be smoothed on rendering. (2) Whether you have to be inside or outside the object to see the vertexes of that face listed in anticlockwise order in the f line in the .OBJ file. (It should be outside.)

Dan - Downloaded your CR2Edit and wish I knew about it sooner. Will registering it enable it to be unlocked? Will try to eliminate the normals as soon as I figure out how to do it. I did try to hide some dials but got a runtime error 75. Bloodsong, the top 2 pix show the use of the geometry file "fixed" by poser. Top left before render and right after render showing the black spots. The bottom 2 pix show the use of the geometry file exported from C4D Go. Left showing where normals need to be flipped and right rendered showing no problems. Notice that the numbers in the .obj out of C4D are given in 15 digits whereas the Poser generated .obj shows only 6 digits for the numbers. So maybe its just the math round off problem in Poser.

Anthony, your message must have come in while I was composing mine. Thanks for the enlightenment on the vn lines and rotation order of the vertices in a face. I guess I just want to do the latter although using the reverse normal options in Poser seem to have the same effect.

Only some of the tools are dis-enabled in the unreg version. If you open an obj from the file menu, a screen with three icons will appear. Top is the wireframe viewer/UV mapping/modeling unit. Middle is the scaler, to resize an obj. Bottom is the masher, for removing the normals and a couple other things. Only the top button is not enabled. This will make your file smaller and eliminate any possibility of Poser choking on the vn lines, but I suspect your problem is indeed rooted in the rounding. If you zoom in on the problem areas you should be able to see any incomplete(degenerate) polys. I have had no reports of problems with the Dial Hider, can you email me and let me know what you did when the error came up? This was one of the tools that Zygote wanted made easier to use when they underwrote this upgrade, since they use it a lot when testing new models, so I would like to know if someone has found a problem file. It is noted in the help that it can have a problem with complex CR2's that contain props with dials. Dan dwilmes@neca.com http://www.neca.com/~dwilmes/cr2edit.html

heyas; those black holes are definitely degenerate facets. it's hard to tell from the lighting you have here... are there also round black holes on the blue joint things? make sure you run your obj through depent before you use it in poser. if c4d was trying to use a flat circle as one polygon with umpteen vertices around the edge... you'll have to triangulate that before you can use it in poser properly. try running the obj through uvmapper and hit the... i think it's 'insert' key. that gets rid of the degenerates. if you can also in c4d, try to reduce the number of vertices that are very close together. try to keep them spaced out. :)

The round "joint motors" render ok, they just are dark in the reduced picture. The above picture tells the story, no degenerate facets but still got the black areas.

Here's what the mesh looks like. What is this "depent" you mention running the object file through? I will try to work on the mesh in C4D. There are lots of little triangles caused when I boolean the head + snout. I should have left the parts seperate.

heyas; yeah, them boolean things are dangerous. it looks like that edge between the big muzzle triangles and the little boolean head triangles might have several vertices on it. depent will tell you. depent is by anthony appleyard, it should be in the free stuff utilities section. its just a little windows app that looks for any polygons in your figure with more than 4 sides, and gets rid of them. poser chokes on those like you wouldn't believe. if that doesnt find anything... you may have to rebuild that part of the mesh :/