I just bought some Lightwave (lwo) models from Turbo Squid soley because I thought Vue 4 could read them. Page 92 of the manual raves about Vue's Lightwave importing filters. When I tried to import them into Vue it says it cannot read them. I read some of the posts in this forum that indicate that lwo files can be be converted to 3ds files and then can be used in Vue. Does anyone know of any freeware utilities that can perform this conversion. I understand the 3D Exploration can do it but it costs $249.00 and I would only use it once. Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Attached Link: http://hem.spray.se/joakim.slettengren/#M

U can download a demo version of 3d exploration from the home website. Lightwave files are compatible with vue 4, the only hitch is that it can't read LW 6/6.5/7 files. I hope this helps. aside from that, you could try the link above. Its a converter's paradise for different formats...but I am not sure if it will have the conversion u are seeking.

Yeah, what she said. Vue 3 could only import LW 5.6 models at the latest, and I'm surprised that Vue 4 doesn't handle LW 6 models. But 3DS models come in great. The demo of 3D Exploration will do the conversions for you, and it's fully functioning until the 30 day limit is up. if you use it to convert to 3DS (you can also convert to OBJ, LWO 5.6, etc.), Vue will give an error saying that the format is obsolete and textures may not be converted properly, but that's just outright wrong, and they work just fine. Also the cool thing about 3D Exploration is that you have an option to copy the textures to the folder you're converting in, so they all load with the models.

Attached Link: http://www.stmuc.com/thbaier/

I use 3DWinOGL for conversions. A very nifty little program. :)

Thanks for all the suggestions. The situation was resolved in the best manner possible. I wrote TurboSquid and told them what happened. I got a reply back within hours and later today they sent me the "fixed" files. I assume that they must have converted them to an earlier version of lwo? At any rate, they work beautifully now in Vue. I am very impressed with the customer service at TurboSquid. I also am very impressed with the replies that I received here in the Vue forum. I have had a few questions from time to time and have always gotten excellent responses here. Thanks again!

Hey, great news, Johnny! Be sure to show us what images you put together. :)

I'm glad to hear that it all worked out for you. And it's especially good to hear stories about customer service going well, instead of badly. It's hard to say whether someone from Turbo Squid actually sat down and converted them, or if they already had the converted objects lying around and sent you those, but either way, it was quite nice of them. :)