I am working on a new "Brick" set for Poser and have set up a Pirate ship but I am finding the mesh a little too big. Due to the way I built this (over 200bricks) the mesh size in obj format is over 25MBs just for the ship. Is there a way to lower that size with out loosing details? To see a better image click image below

If the mesh is built in one piece, you could switch the bumpy parts on the deck to
a bump map, which would save a lot of facets.  But if it's built from 'actual' blocks,
there probably isn't much you can do.

It is built from actual blocks, since I followed instructions (with some modifications due to a few parts I could not model to make it work correctly). Here is another image

I suppose you could redo the unit block so its bump is a bump map, but
that probably isn't worthwhile at this stage! 

I was hoping to find a utility that could reduce or compress the size of the obj file I am using.

Blender has a shrinkwrap capability that will formfit a new mesh on top of another mesh.  I haven't used blender, so haven't much advice there.  This should create a new mesh without all the internal geometry of bricks that aren't visible to the external view of the lego kit.  In other words, it should get rid of the hidden interconnecting meshes of the bricks and only leave the external view (assuming that you're not trying to make the mesh in a fashion that allows pulling apart the individual bricks).

The last time I used Blender (maybe 3 years ago) I got frustrated with it due to the GUI. It sounds like it might be the way to go. Does Blender support 3ds?

As for pulling bricks a part. I am planning working on an animation for the boat that will blow up, but I have not even gotten that far yet.  

.obz ???

Issue is if I sell it, cannot be in compressed format.

Because ... ???

The hull and deck look like a fairly simple shape.  Could you just re-build
them as a single mesh?   I don't know which modeler you're using, but
this would be a half-hour task in Amapi.  Extract the outlines in three directions
and form a new surface, then tweak.  Most modelers would have a
similar feature, I'd think.......

obz doesnt really solve anything , the file is decompressed when loaded. Check the polygon count and if it say 60,000 polys then its ok  60-100 thousand polygons is about one figure with clothes.

Theres probably a ton of polygons inside that hull. I would select all the exterior polygons and invert the selection, then delete those polygons . You will need to deselect some stuff after inverting.

If you would send me the model in a zip file , I would be happy to have a look at it for you .
my email is marks542004@yahoo.com - please put renderosity in the subject line .

Quote - Because ... ???

There are people who still use Poser 4 which cannot read Obz files and not sure if Daz Studio can.

Quote - obz doesnt really solve anything , the file is decompressed when loaded. Check the polygon count and if it say 60,000 polys then its ok  60-100 thousand polygons is about one figure with clothes.

Theres probably a ton of polygons inside that hull. I would select all the exterior polygons and invert the selection, then delete those polygons . You will need to deselect some stuff after inverting.

If you would send me the model in a zip file , I would be happy to have a look at it for you .
my email is marks542004@yahoo.com - please put renderosity in the subject line .

I maybe taking you up on your offer, but will be looking at the Blender option first.

250,000 polygons max for poser users IMVHO.
I agree about the displacement part.  skip poser 4.  not enuff sales to justify
dumbing down the model to that extent.  modelling all those raised round
bumps out of polygons is not a good idea, especially if most of 'em are not
even showing.

You can make one block equal 6 polys with displacement maps. Just make sure you have the block seams welded and do a UV map of the block. The white for the raised portions and black for the inset portions. 200 bricks=12000 polys or about one fancy dress for V4. It can be that simple,IMO.

Let me rephrase this...

The shop I am planning selling at requires all files to be in the original state and not compressed. 

The other issue is even if compressed the file size is still on the large end. When I get home tonight I will post the Poly count and file size. Then I am going to try to get rid of the "unneeded" bricks by either a using the blender method or by hiding the "unseen" bricks which in truth there are not many.

FYI the modeling tools I have at hand are 3ds max 7, MLCad, EasyCad and Hexagon

Show some wireframes in various camera positions.  A 25mb OBJ file would suggest to me more like a couple of million polygons.  I am pretty confident you could model something like this with more like 20-30 thousand (OBJ file more like 1mb).

ps: I don't really recommend doing all the pegs with displacement actually, since a) they are prone to shading errors, e.g. with Ambient Occlusion, and b) the target rendering app may not be Poser and might not work well, or at all, with displacement techniques. 

If you modeled it out of actual separate blocks, then I am POSITIVE that you have a very large number of polygons that will never be rendered and ought to be removed.  I can't even imagine how difficult the UVmap for that kind of model would be to work with.

Size is 47MB

just to say, shrinkwrap does what it says.   i don't think that's what you want.  your shape isn't organic, and i think you'll have a problem getting crisp edges.  i think you'd want to try the retopo tool in Blender.   it does exactly what it sounds like - allows you to create a new mesh on top of the old one, so you have the same shape but different topography.  i haven't tried it, only read about it. 

it does seem like it's your internal geometry that's killing you.  and areas that could be one poly instead of several.  maybe booleans functions would merge those away? 

Quote - just to say, shrinkwrap does what it says.   i don't think that's what you want.  your shape isn't organic, and i think you'll have a problem getting crisp edges.  i think you'd want to try the retopo tool in Blender.   it does exactly what it sounds like - allows you to create a new mesh on top of the old one, so you have the same shape but different topography.  i haven't tried it, only read about it. 

it does seem like it's your internal geometry that's killing you.  and areas that could be one poly instead of several.  maybe booleans functions would merge those away? 

Installing blender right now.

Okay I cannot figure out how to get the scripts to work. Can someone please help?

437,000 quads in one model is too much for poser IMVHO.
maybe ya can dupe some of them lego™ bricks.

they're not scripts.  shrinkwrap is a modifier, and retopo is a tool.  in edit or object mode, look for the modifiers tab and add a modifier.  retopo is a mode. in general, for any feature and as for any software, i suggest consulting the online help files at http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual.  information about the shrinkwrap modifier is at http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Jaguarandi/SummerOfCode2008. information about the retopo tool can be found at http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Retopo.

scripts, however, are easy to use.  just pull up the script menu, select one, and select it.  you might have to read to find out if you have to have something selected when you begin, but everything i've messed with so far just required clicking on buttons.

No option to import obj file found a script but I cannot get it to work.

Quote - No option to import obj file found a script but I cannot get it to work.

in Blender?  if that's what you mean, it's right there under "Import".  second to last one, after Truespace (.cob) and before Wings3d (.wings).

Did not see it there.

wow, what version are you working with?  i've been using Blender for a little while now, and looking at it for years, and it's been there the whole time.  i found it the first time i opened it, without anyone telling me where to find it.

I just downloaded it last night and then I remembered why I did not like it, the GUI is more confusing than, well I'll not say so I won't upset a gender :blink:

I think I might be remodeling it due to these issues.

to each his own, i guess.  like i said, the stuff you need for this is right there when you load it up.  but it won't work for you if you've already made your decision.  i see tons of kids in the forums, and tons of them who make tutorials for Blender, so it can't be too hard.  and really, i'm not at all a 3d maven, and i didn't find it that difficult to learn to navigate.  most people who've been at modeling a month or less in any app are where i am now after ages  (basic principles and concepts are taking a long time to sink in), but i went through about 2 tutorials, set up the interface the way i wanted, and was good to go.  in terms of the interface, at least.  my biggest problem is actually that i know how to draw with bezier curves really well, and i think in those and not polys.  and worst of all, don't really think in surfaces.  i'm beginning to have flashbacks to my multidimensional calculus and complex analysis.   i have no intuitive concept of tris and quads mapped onto surfaces, and it's making the whole learning process slow as molasses for me.  but i digress. 

too bad. i'm pretty sure the problem would be easy to solve in Blender at least, but if you find it easier to remodel the whole thing, that's what you should do.  i'm rather surprised your modeling tool doesn't have similar functions you can use.

What I need is a few hours to spend to familiar my self with Blender. Truthfully I hate learning new software, I think that is why I have never spent the time to learn Hexagon. I have made a few items in Hexagon but nothing to radical.  I will be looking at some tutorials during lunch and book marking them for home so I view there.

mmmmm.   yeah, that's the thing, i really think.  over several years, i poked at a pretty large number of different 3d tools.  and they all required me to learn an interface totally different than what i knew.  when i started looking more closely, i found myself having an immense amount of respect for the designers of Poser and how easy they made camera manipulation and object manipulation.  and i really never expected to appreciate Poser's interface designers. 

that said, as i mentioned, the biggest shift for me has been internal and conceptual.  i'm just beginning to dream about modeling, which says i'm not only in the beginning of that shift, but that my brain is struggling with it.  lots of people find it incredibly easy.  i see people who are like, "oh, i just bought Zbrush and it's great!" and then post works of art i don't know if i could ever do.  my eye and hand are just not there.  Blender has a sculpt tool i'm sure is much more limited, but since i also see people post incredible stuff made with it, i know the problem is me. 

what are you using now?  i'm wondering if there's not a way to simplify it in whatever you're already using.

I use 3ds max, Pegasus modeler for mat editing and some group editing, and several CAD software. I think that is where my problem is, The CAD files are small (usually around 2 to 5 MBs) but after converting they are huge.

oh!  that does sort of make sense to me.  CAD always sounds both specialized and more like actually working with vector tools in 3d (never really researched because i'm mainly into organic stuff).  well, i'd think Max would have shrinkwrapping and a retopo equivalent.  and i'm sure there's a way to make the output from CAD more poly efficient. 

you know what i'd do?  if this ship started in a CAD program, i'd check out arch vis sites to see how they handle the conversion to obj.  i'd bet there are specific tricks and such.  it seems like a lot of arch vis is designed in a CAD program but rendered in max with vray. 

I think it is the way I am converting these files is my issue at this point. When I export them from one program it cause the faces to be inverted (might be a setting in the program) and I use another program Deep Explorer to convert to double sided.

yeah, that's what i was thinking from what you said, that the conversion process is the problem.  is your target app Poser?  i don't think Poser like double sided polys.  this forum is probably not a good source for solving this problem.   i wish i knew somewhere to refer you to, but as i said, i don't know much of anything about arch vis stuff. 

Well since Poser is my target application I thought this would be a good place to start. I have started a new thread over at 3d Modeling about this issue. 

yeah, not so much, in my experience.  just for personal use, my target app is Poser, but the Blender forums and sites are still the most helpful for me.  i mean, this site is good with info for getting from certain apps to Poser.  for instance, my best information on import and export settings started from inquiries in the Blender forums here.  when i was curious about Zbrush, the Zbrush forums here seemed to have the best import/export info for Poser.  are there CAD forums here?  anyway, your problem seems more basic than Poser specific.  you just need to learn how to get from your CAD program's native format to .obj most efficiently, right?  i'd bet that's a fairly common problem in the arch vis community, while being very uncommon in the Poser community where only a handful model, and most use a polygon modeler. 

Attached Link: http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/

:D

That Looks like it might work.

To bring a bunch of folks up to speed, nyguy is using a Lego CAD program that builds the model Lego brick by Lego brick. That's why the file size is so large. The program is carrying a lot of internal geometry for the bricks that isn't seen on the exterior.

Quote - I don't know if it will be much help, but look for a program called mesh lab.   It has poly reduction capabilities. Amongst other things.  You can take a gander and see if it will do what you need, I suppose.

:D

Not getting any where where the file size is getting much lower

Quote - To bring a bunch of folks up to speed, nyguy is using a Lego CAD program that builds the model Lego brick by Lego brick. That's why the file size is so large. The program is carrying a lot of internal geometry for the bricks that isn't seen on the exterior.

This is correct the program is called MLCad

Being a Rhino modeler, I have learned to scoff at little 25MB files and regularly use them in scenes.  I understand that others would be reluctant to do so however.  If your hull is filled with blocks that will never be seen, then you have a lot of wasted polys there.  I would get rid of them .

There are no blocks that are hiding behind other blocks. I was able to get it down to 30MB but there has to be a better way to get it lower.

I'd guess that most of the extraneous polygons are in details of the individual bricks that are hidden, i.e. you only need to have the pillars modelled when they're exposed to the outside, the same for  just about all the internal faces.