Hi, I want to export a mesh to Poser (2014 Pro). In Poser I like to get polygon groups based on what I set in LW (11.5.1). The limitation is, I need to avoid different surfaces. I tried with setting parts and selection sets in LW; exported to obj, dae and LW native. Imported in Poser, but unfortunately none of those ways results in poly groups in Poser. Does anybody know a way to get those poly groups in Poser, without the need to install an old LW 9.x or 10 (it was mentioned somewhere it might work there)?

poly groups in Lightwave are a selection set used within Lightwave they arnt nessisarly understood or used by other bits of software (consider them like meta data in your mp3s).

they can be saved into a LWO just like surfaces or other data sets like morpsh or point groups. However it seems that the Poser LWO importer is ignoring the data sets stored within the LWO such as surfaces, groups, uv's weightmaps and morphs. It doesnt even seem to understand layers and just welds them all together into a single mesh.

The only way i have manged to get seperate parts into Poser via Lightwave at present is to split the LWO in modeler (with for example "surfaces to parts") and then put each part onto a seperate layer and export the object as a Collada. This I import into poser and it will create a seperate prop for each part.

Quite what you would do with those bits after that I am not sure. 

There has to be a better solution. Perhaps when the new poser fusion plugins arrive the workflow will be more friendly.

I have NO idea if it will be of any use, but you might look at PoseRay, which has LightWave import and can export to .obj. If nothing obvious jumps out, you could contact the developer, FlyerX and he might have some advice. The only thing I've done in this regard is using PoseRay to load multi-part LW models (multiple .lwo) and save them as a single .obj mesh for Poaser or other apps.

If it doesn't export to OBJ, I know of no other way.

I wouldn't trust Posers Lightwave import feature. Export and OBJ and let Poser intepret that.

Thanks for helping,

I freared that there is no easy way to do it. Final goal is to set smoothing IDs in Poser without the need to create groups in the, well, limited grouping tool (the box example would be easy but my real mesh would be a pain). Will check PoseRay and let you know.

Tried it now. Can't transfer grouping to Poser unfortunately and obj export made erverthing tris. But nevertheless thanks for the tip.

ya, Lightwaves obj exporter is very basic. i dont think it has advanced since it was first included way back in the 1990's. It only holds a single mesh (from the 1st layer only) and it will drop the parts and surfaces which is somewhat useless :(

just tried in modo 701. its obj exporter also seems to be very basic. it took a layerd object and dumped the surface assignments and layers into a single mesh and surface :(

its looking more and more like the only app thats going to export an obj with parts is maya (i dont have max and xsi licenece has run out so i cant check that)

Modo lets you easily assign parts and surface groups to obj. exports that can be read by Poser without any hassle at all. Lightwave should allow you to do this as well, (at least it could in version 8 and 9.) At some point, a Lightwave update dropped the obj. export grouping information, but they should have fixed that years ago.

In both Lightwave and Modo you select the polygons and use "set part" or "set surface" to assign the groups. In Lightwave there was a catch where UV maps for obj exports would be lost unless you had the UV maps loaded in the material editor and the UV map selected before export. I don't remember if Lightwave dropped the material zones as well as the UVs.

i cant get the obj exporter to recognise parts or surfs from modo 701 (64bit). i set surfs and parts then hit save as wavefront obj and it says this format only suports geometry and simple surfacing and in poser  all i have is a single element with a single material. :/

 

i have LW 9.6 -> 11.5 (all 64bit which may make a difference) and none of the obj exports have more than 1 part or surf

discovered LW 9.6 32bit on my laptop. my part split and surfaced cube come into poser correctly as both an LWO and an OBJ.

i did a load and save of the 9.6 32bit LWO in LW 11.5 64bit to see if there is a difference and now the object is also loading into poser with multiple surfaces :/

sigh gonna try a more complex object in 11.5 and see if that was what was causing it to fail of whether it was user error

 

I need to apologize,

Lightwave parts -> OBJ -> Poser is working correctly in Lightwave 11.5.1:
The "OBJ Part" check box in the preferences got disabled. It was enabled but after restart of Lightwave disabled again. Could be due to write protection in the win user folder, which is the default location for LWs config files. I have not noticed and tried all the time with parts off. With Parts on, it works.

In LW 10 and 10.1 it works as well (installed both before I found out about my check box mistake). Could be that only 11 and maybe 11.5 had a problem (but after my wrong test in LW 11.5.1 I am not sure anymore).

Thanks a lot for your help and again sorry to bother you.

well lets call that partial user error. partial bugged SW

both 32bit LW9.6 and 64bit LW 11.5 LWO's and exported OBJ's load into Poser with surfaces. 

But on larger more complex objects with lots of surfaces Poser gets them muddled up name wise on the LWO (they are all there it just seems to assign the names incorrectly) It gets the OBJ's right though.

As for the parts. they dont seem to be in there as far as the grouping tool is concerned (that is where i would expect to find them, should i be looking someplace else?) for either the LWO or the OBJ. However you could re-make them from the surfaces as they all appear in the add and remove selection buttons. So if you split by surface then your good to go.

I dont think LW is exporting the parts into the OBJ, certainly it isnt reading them if you relaod your obj back into LW. Also Poser isnt reading the LWO parts so between Poser and LW there are no parts. :(

ZOMG, I dont have the OBJ Parts checkbox in my Options :/ 

then again am only using 11.5 here 

Hi nyaid,

I tried again. Here is how I was able to get it working:

1. made a box in LW and gave it two parts: Flat for the siides and Round for the edges.

2. Export settings like in the screen shot (the 38,15% downscale is to get same size in LW and Poser - units set to meter).

 

Poser obj import settings.

Result in Poser:

I get LW's surface and the parts as well.

But I think there was a problem in LW 11.5 with obj export. You should find 11.5.1 in the download area of your user account at lightwave3d.com (its a free service update).