Now, upon importing that mesh into Bryce, Poser, Studio, Carrara, Hexagon, etc it looks just fine, as it does above.

Question - How can I (what can I use to) now convert that mesh to be one, single, solitary mesh AND retain its smoothing info?

Ideas?
Links?

DOWNLOAD the Bryce made mesh (good looking with 13 sub-meshes)

What I tend to do is pass it through Rhino3D and join the objects I want to keep as one. I'm doing this a lot with my current stratocaster model.

Try opening the OBJ file in a text editor, remove all the group ("g") lines, all but the first "usemtl" line which you want to move to just after the "mtllib" line at the beginning of the file.

You now have a single mesh with a single material.

Ouch! No go. It seems the version of Rhino I have can't import an .obj file. I don't know if the current version can. Can you save this in some other format for this test?

Not that this is rocket science or anything close, but it looks as if the vertice count is different.
That's how most of my modeling turns out....guess that's why I don't do too much modeling.

Somebody will come up with the solution.   :)

See

I think nruddock's method is working for me... very smooth .... and one mesh.

Very nice method!

Rhino can't import an .obj??

In another format I lose all the smoothing information, so that would be goign backwards. I will be using obj throughout my entire process.

If you need to convert any mesh, import it into Bryce, select it, click the "E" in the little white box, then Ctrl+D to save it out as a different format. Yes, Bryce is a coverter.  ;o)

**nruddock
**
I'll....have to try that, seems pretty caveman-manual, but in researching meshes and poser...they have some strange techniques going on, lol.....

I'll give it a shot.

Hrm, it is actually smoother than posted here.... maybe the jpg compression....    The one on the right is the altered one.

I have an old Rhino... Maybe the new one does it, but the one I have doesn't.

I don't have a solution for you, but I've gotta say.... I like what you've done. Lou.

That final step, bringing it back in, smoothing down to 46%, then exporting it again, really destroys it, it seems. I do that final step and it's terrible in Poser.

In Carrara, you have choices as to what to import it as. Load it as a Vertex object, not a primitive object, and select the option to load it as a single mesh.

You still may also need to fiddle with the crease angles. Look in 'Object' menu while in the modeler, and choose Crease (or Smooth?) angle around 85 degrees or thereabouts.

I'll try some.

Have you also tried the free Amapi 6.1 ?

It can load OBJ and it's super easy to merge all surfaces into one single object.

I've tested this on Carrara 5.1, no problem loading it as a single primitive vertex object. Looks good even without further messing with crease angles.

I've also used Amapi 6.1 and it loads as expected as multiple objects, but the Weld tool easily brings it all together into a single object.

If you dont have Amapi 6.1 I highly recommend you get it, it's free and still works like a charm on Windows XP. You can find it a polyloop.com (formerly eovia3d.net). I also have details and tutorials at http://www.thebest3d.com/amapi - as a Bryce user you probably should know that Amapi has long been a favorite modeler for none less than Brycetech. He also made and sells Amapi tutorial CDs.

EDIT - Well it I wasn't allowed to upload the .zip file. Says that 'the file doesn't have a valid extension.' Is this what the object is supposed to look like?

In higher end apps you would just applie different smoothing channels to different sets of faces.... or if u dont have that available, just alter the smoothing angle sensitivity?

Okay.

*nruddock's solution, works perfectly. Poser people use the text editor "Crimson" to do work like this, it loads/works with files very fast. And, it took just a few minutes to find/replace the lines I needed to!  http://www.crimsoneditor.com/ 

*staigermanus - Yes, I finally saw that option in my Carrara to import it as a single object. It works perfectly, but upon export tacks on an addtional 300kb onto the file size. ;o(
I'll keep playing with those options, see if I can get it to save to the same size. I was sure there was a way for Carrara or Hexagon to help me out (like dvlenk6's 3dsmax), thank you for pointing that fact out!!

*dvlenk6 - yeah, the forum only accepts images as uploads. Would be VERY cool if it could at least accept zip files under the 200kb image limit.

x-post with Incarnadine.
Hey, that's what Bryce made, lol. I just exported it, lol.

But...this is another reason I kinda wanted to run it through ZBrush. ZBrush will convert the tri's to quads.

And, I knew at some point I would try running Bryce-made (low-poly) meshes through ZBrush to sculpt on them.

if the Carrara re-export is larger perhaps it's because there's other stuff in the scene like lights. But perhaps also it did some triangulation.

Try Amapi 6.1 and compare sizes?

After doing the conversion to a single object, what do you want to do with it again? back to Bryce?

**After doing the conversion to a single object, what do you want to do with it again? back to Bryce?

**The main points of this exercise;
-We all can now do this with Bryce 6, so I was experimenting to see how well the meshes would turn out just to see.
-I want to take some boolean groups, export them out and give them away as freebie items in a generic form, so absolutely anyone could use it.
-I am creating some enviroments to sell. Was curious if bryce meshes could be inserted.

Basically, I want the mesh to look as good as possible in as many programs as possible.

Booleans always leave messy meshes behind. I think it is because of the different resolutions of the parts that are being booleaned. Like the circular holes in you example; they have many more vertices around the edge than the cylindrical object they are booleaned through. The verts have to be connected, or the mesh will broken and/or be ruined by smoothing; so additional triangles are made.
Bryce seems to only export meshes (triangles) and not polygons (quads). I always have terrains and rocks and everything come out as all triangles, never quads. I can untriangulate most of them with Wings3D, so it isn't that big of a deal, but Wings won't fix all of the triangulation caused by the boolean process. There are just too many verts along the some of the edges.

in a traditional modeller, if you had to do this you would use objects with the lowest number of polys you can and still get a smooth rendered image.  The larger the polys the fewer very fine triangles. You would also tweak the the number of polys in the cutting object to try and minimize.

One of the problems with B6.1 is that re-importing a converted Bryce boolean mesh results in a mesh that doesn't behave like it ought to. If this were a cube you'd probably have 6seperate flat meshes that won't 'solid when boolean' or in fact boolean at all.

Rhino 3 will import and export obj.
Just select all
Edit/join
and save

UVMapper pro will also save as a single mesh.

Can't you just import it into poser and export with weld body parts checked?

Hrm..... I am using Rhino 3.... I wonder what I'm doing wrong that I couldn't import the .obj.  Hrm.... 

Iusually run it through C4D, make corrections to the mesh, then smooth, and port....most meshes have turned out okay.

Lol, well I don't have C4D.  ;oÞ
(so there, lol)

Would like to find a solution that would be free to all Bryce users. So far, editing the obj file by hand is the best route. It does the job, and doesn't add any Kb to the mesh. (and its free)

Can't you just import it into poser and export with weld body parts checked?
-Sadly, that won't do it. The obj does show up in Poser as single mesh, unless you are in the Setup Room. (I'll have to read up, but I would bet there is a way to make it into one single mesh within Posers setup Room)
-But, simply exporting out of Poser, and then importing into Bryce, all 13 meshes are still there. (yup, with Posers "weld body parts" checked)

Obviously....this process doesn't create "nice, neat and lean quad" meshes, but its still a solution to getting something out of Bryce. Perhaps we will have something even better down the road. But, for now, to get something out of Bryce and give some meshes out for free, it'll do.  ;o)

Btw, speaking of free solutions - after googling some keywords last night I tripped over the fact that Blender had scripts built into it to Convert Tri to Quad, and a Poly Reducer. 

I'm gonna tackle it again today, because I could get the Tri to Quad converter to work, but MAN does the poly reducer work!

Oh, yeah...one other little footnote/warning;

I had taken one of my primitive made columns and was going to Convert it down for export, and thought I would do it at the highest resolution (128). I knew it would take a good while so I just set it to Convert, and went to bed..........................................

...........................9.5 hours later it was still not finished.

Now, it is a fairly complex boolean. 78 parts, 13,920 polys (that's a good-ish amount of polys for Bryce primitives), and also what takes Bryce longer to convert was it had a lot of curves on curves (a sphere cutting out part of a cylinder, etc)

So, beware. And, stick to a resolution of 64 or less, imo.

Rhino had some bugs with obj files.  Win XP problems were fixed in 3c. VistaPro exports from macs also crashed. The current  service release is Sr5b. If you turned off the updater try downloading the latest from the website. All previous updates are included.

AS: I picked up the mesh exported from Poser 6 with Rhino and only grabbed one object, but when I tried again just now to explode it said" exploding 13 meshes into 27." I was running my egg render in Bryce and didn't want to stop it. sorry.

I also have an interactive polygon reduction deformer - works very well at this. (see object on right 70% reduction in poly's)

Cool to know I can handle most meshes you can export!

Again...
**:oÞ

**Yeah, I had reduced the mesh with Blender to around 50%, looked alright....

The Riptide plugin for C4D is written by the same guy who made S.T.O.M.P., which can "de-frag" obj's, which is a way to optimize them for Posers Firefly renderer. I had tried that out on my objs as well.

I SAY GRAB THE DAMN THING - THROW IT TO THE GROUND - GRAB A SLEDGE HAMMER - AND BEAT THOSE F#$$%'IN DENTS AND PINGS OUT OF IT WITH EVERYTHING IN YOU!!!

THEN - STOMP ON IT, AND I DON'T MEAN JUST LIGHTLY " ROMP " ON IT - I MEAN STOMP IT, AND KICK IT LIKE IT'S SATAN AND YOUR FINALLY GETTIN EVEN WITH THAT CLOVEN HOOVED JERK FOR PLAGUEING YOUR LIFE WITH BAD LUCK JUST BECAUSE YOU WANTED TO DEVOTE YOUR LIFE TOWARDS BEING A GOOD PERSON AND YOU GAVE THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES THAT CAME TO YOUR DOOR A TEN SPOT INSTEAD OF SLAMMING THE DOOR IN THEIR FACES FOR DEPRESSING YOU BY TALKING ABOUT DOOMSDAY!!!! 

WHILE YOUR KICKING IT - THINK ABOUT ALL THE TIMES YOUR GIRLFRIEND LIED TO YOU AND TOLD YOU THAT YOU WERE THE ONLY GUY SHE LOVED - ONLY TO STAB YOU IN THE FREAKING HEART WITH AN ICE COLD RUSTY SCREWDRIVER LATER ON WHEN YOU FIND OUT THAT SHE'S BEEN PLAYING TONSIL HOCKEY WITH PRACTICALLY THE ENTIRE SECOND SHIFT AT HER JOB!!!!

AND THEN ON TOP OF THAT - YOU GET A BONUS AT WORK - ONLY TO FIND OUT THAT AFTER TAXES AND BEING GARNISHEED BY UNCLE SAMMY - YOU'VE GOT EXACTLY ENOUGH POCKET CHANGE LEFT OVER FOR A THREE MUSKETEER'S BAR AND A COKE!

YOU GO HOME - AND YOUR DOG HIKED HIS LEG AND PEED INTO A WALL SOCKET - SENDING A THOUSAND VOLTS THROUGH HIS LITTLE BODY SO THAT YOU FIND HIM TWITCHING ON THE CARPET HAVING A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE.
SO YOU RUSH HIM TO THE VET, AND THE RECEPTIONIST LOOKS AT YOU WITH SUSPICION - MAKING YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR ON TRIAL FOR SOMETHING.

THEN - AFTER THE VET LOOKS HIM OVER AND SAYS "THAT'LL BE $256.27",YOU CARRY THE LITTLE GUY HOME - AND YOUR MOM CALLS AND ACCUSES YOU OF BEING AN UNGRATEFUL SON BECAUSE YOU HAVEN'T CALLED HER IN OVER FIVE HOURS.

Wait....What were talking about...OH YEAH - THE BOOLEAN....ummmm...it looks fine, yeah - it's, ummm - not bad at all really - Hey - good job Agent Smith!

My apologies...Never mix Zanthax and Prozac with Rocky Road ice cream...

uh, lol.....apparently not.
backs slowly away......

I have a sledgehammer model somewhere if you want to use that. ;-)  Can't help you with the dog, though :-)

OK-HUMOR ALERT - WAS JUST JOKING...HA....ha.....haaaaa-uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh
(must...fight...depression...........uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh) lol...