Any Semi-serious Blender users here??
the Renderosity blender forum is a bit deserted so I though id try here.

I have been searching the internet for over a Week and it does a not seem possible what I have concluded:
Maxon Cinema4D & with the commercial 3RD party "Riptide Pro" plugin  and Poser  with the Commercial 3RD party "Wardrobe Wizard" plugin are the ONLY options within the current  2009 technological ability of MANKIND to BATCH export multiple Scene meshes to simple.obj files..NOT an animation sequence just  a scene with say.. 85 cubes BATCH exported to a folder creating 85 object files(shaped like cubes )
can this be possible??

Cheers

 Acutally, you would not need WW to export every object in the scene. All you need is a pretty short python script. I think Blender can be scripted too, so that should not be much of a problem.

You can do it in Softimage as well, no plugins needed. And like bantha said, any app that supports scripting will also work so it's probably doable in MAX and Maya too.

I have a python script for Poser that will export each figure or prop as a seperate mesh. I used it for lightwave or 3dsmax so scenes can be arranged slightly if needed.

I already have the ability to  batch export multiple objects from poser  and from C4D I am just Amazed that Blender and Modo etc CANT do this simple task natively.

Well the reason you don't see more features in OBJ export is that OBJ is a pretty deadend format now. Apps support it for legacy reasons but all the cool new features are being added to COLLADA and FBX. COLLADA for example is open source, supports animation, bones, weight maps etc and you can extend it to export whatever you like. In comparison OBJ is very limited so devs don't bother much beyond basic mesh export/import.

"OBJ is very limited so devs don't bother.."

Is that so? OBJ is as a rule the only thing that work. Yesterday I downloaded a Collada file from Google (the reason I searched and found this thread...) The only hero that managed to import the file was Cinema 4D (the Germans are famous for being gründlich..). Maya 2009, 3ds max 2009, Poser Pro, Poser8, Vue 7 ALL crashed. The other programs could not be tried as unfortunatly they do NOT support the format.. This is the 10th time I try in vain, the results are always consistent. :(

So don't hold your breath .

"KISS"

Quote - "OBJ is very limited so devs don't bother.."

Is that so? OBJ is as a rule the only thing that work. Yesterday I downloaded a Collada file from Google (the reason I searched and found this thread...) The only hero that managed to import the file was Cinema 4D (the Germans are famous for being gründlich..). Maya 2009, 3ds max 2009, Poser Pro, Poser8, Vue 7 ALL crashed. The other programs could not be tried as unfortunatly they do NOT support the format.. This is the 10th time I try in vain, the results are always consistent. :(

So don't hold your breath .

"KISS"

Yes but that doesn't negate the fact that the .obj format is only designed to describe a mesh and is limited to that purpose. no shaders, morphs, rigging, animation or any other feature other than the mesh itself so those options have to be handled using other formats, so where is the previous poster wrong in their assessment.

".obj format is only designed to describe a mesh.."

You forget that it also carry the matrials/texture, precisly what you need in 9 out of 10 cases.

Those who think that there ever will be a standard for everything, mesh, texture, morphs, rigging, animation, light, cameras, (parametric)shaders, etc etc have more fath in humanity than I have. As the orginator of the thread pointed out most of the poor vendors have not managed to get the relatively simple OBJ export/import right yet... :( So when did it became good practice to start a new project without being finished with the previous one?

OBJ also carries the UVmap just fine.

right now, it's the best of the 'base' formats for moving things around. it's well established, understood and tested.

Collada still needs to mature. it's not universally accepted as yet, while you can find many apps that export it, only a few import it and then success can be problematic.

I'm not anti collada at all btw. I just think it's still in it's very early stages and has a long way to come.

Modo can be scripted.  I saw a OBJ script somewhere, must have been Luxology.  I was playing with Modo trial and it's been a while.