Sculpty exporter for Wings 3D

I have updated the Wings 3D sculpty plugin. The new version fully supports all topologies (sphere, cylinder, plane and torus). Also, the importer has been enhanced to automatically create a UV map for an imported sculpty.

Details:

1) New topologies (cylinder, plane and torus): I've added support for these topologies, but with trepidation. I'm sure they are going to cause confusion for many people, who won't immediately understand that topology is entirely different than shape. (Changing a sculpty from spherical to planar topolgy, for example, won't change its overall shape at all -- it will just create a gap along the sculpty's seams.) Furthermore, the current SL UI doesn't allow you to select the new topologies, so you need scripting for that. If you aren't someone who prowls the Wiki and building threads for every morsel of sculpty news, I suggest you wait until more pieces are in place before trying to build with these new topologies.

For those who do want to try it, you get a non-spherical topology in Wings 3D either by using one of the provided template files or by choosing a non-spherical topology from the import options menu. If you want to change the topology of an existing Wings model, you need to first export it <b>using the options to keep it from expanding to 128x128<\b> and then re-import it.

2) Automatic creation of UV maps during importing: When a sculpty is imported, the appropriate UV map is automatically created. You can then use Wings plus your favorite 2D paint program to texture your model.

I expect this will be particularly useful to people who do their initial sculpty creation in a program like Rokuro, Tokuroten or Sculptypaint (all recommended, BTW) and then use Wings to either add shape not possible in those programs, or just to texture their model.

Update: Warning -- when importing sculpties from other programs, if the sculpty bitmap is 128x128, rescale it to 64x64 before importing it. The importer will import a 128x128 bitmap, but the exporter won't export it. This isn't a problem if you only want to use Wings as a texturing previewer. But if you want to use Wings to do further modeling, it's a big problem.

3) I fixed the bug that generated a "badarith" crash instead of the "Unsupported mesh size" message in the previous version.

Thanks for the upgrade

Omei, you are the best! Thank you! Thank you!

Lol too bad Im going on vacation this week and cant update my tutorials... This would it *SO* much easier for texturing sculpties!!!

Did I mention your the best?

I have imported a Rokuro .tga, by first converting it to a .bmp, to tweak it in Wings3d. I'm using the 080707 version of the exporter. When I try to export the file to a sculpty I set the size at 128x128 and I get an "unsupported mesh size" error. As a matter of fact I get the same error using 16 x 16, 32 x 32, or 64 x 64. What am I doing wrong.

Shipton, I forgot to mention something. The Wings importer will import bitmap sizes that the exporter declines to export. So if you import a 128x128 bitmap, you'll get just the behaviour you describe. Is that your problem? If it is, at the same time you are converting from .tga to .bmp, rescale the bitmap down to 64x64.

Can you fix that, please? Thanks for the UV upgrade it makes things heaps easier.

What would you consider a fix to be?

Thanks for the info. It seems to be working just fine when I rescale the bitmap down to 64x64.

I can't seem to extract the advanced topology templates (Getting Data Error, "File is Broken". Is it just me or is the zip file corrupted?

I just tried downloading the zip file twice from the first post of this thread, and had no problems extracting the files. Have you tried re-downloading the zip file?

Can someone else upload it under a different thread? I can't download the topology templates either without them being corrupt... Or lead to another mirror? I've tried from Mozilla, IE, and I am using winrar to extract. Always comes up corrupt files. Thanks for whoever helps.

I am having trouble extracting the exporter plug-in file from the file
http://forums.secondlife.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=32482
despite repeated downloads which appear successful the extract by Winzip fails with invalid compressed file error message.
has anyone else had a similar problem?
Also having same problem with the .erl file in the advanced topology zip file.

I'm also having trouble with the topology zip - am getting the same 'file is corrupt' message as Kitsu, Ravenis and Gregory when I try to extract the files.

The first two zips worked fine for me, though (and I'm having great fun playing with Wings3D - thank you very much for doing this, Omei!).

Maybe it is too many downloads that is causing the problem.
Many thanks to Omei for making it available it must have taken a lot of time and effort.

Error message for interested:-
Extracting to "C:\Program Files\wings3d_0.98.36\lib\wings-0.98.36\plugins\import_export\"
Use Path: yes Overlay Files: yes
Extracting wpc_sculpty.beam
Error: invalid compressed data to inflate

I'm not sure what is going on. I have no trouble with the topologies file, but indeed the source archive is corrupted when I download it. And for some reason, I can't get access to managing the attachments in the original message. So I have created a new thread (/8/31/205258/1.html#post1641772) with one attachment containing both the source and the advanced topologies.

I'm really getting tired of all the hassle. I just need an uncorrupted .beam file for the 080707 exporter. If someone who has one could just email it to me at [email]shiptonsands@gmail.com[/email] I would really appreciate it.

TIA
Shipton

I'm not sure what is up with downloads from the forum, but I've put copies on PK PounceWorks:

Plugin plus basic templates:
http://pkpounceworks.sljoint.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=28&func=fileinfo&id=119

Advanced topology templates:
http://pkpounceworks.sljoint.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=28&func=fileinfo&id=120

Source code:
http://pkpounceworks.sljoint.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=28&func=fileinfo&id=121

Thanks Omei they downloaded from pkpounceworks OK.

Cant seem to get Wings 3d to install the plug-in. I manualy put it in the Import/ Export Folder, exited Wings and restarted my computer, and I didnt add it to the exports list. Then used the "Install Plug-In" feature and it still didnt add it. Not sure what I'm doing wrong here <_<. Any ideas?

Thanks!

Figured it out, only works with 98.36, Sorry! XD I glazed right over that forum post.

Except.. Now Im getting an unsupported Mesh size.. Urg, whats that mean? Help Please =P

Thanks!

It probably means you glazed over that forum post. To use the exporter, you have to model with the constraints described there.

The other possibility is that you imported a sculpty at 128x128 pixels. Unfortunately, the plug-in will import bitmaps of unsupported sizes without warning that it won't be able to export them.

When you say extract the wpc_sculpty.beam file from the first of the attached .zips where is this .beam file?
All I see is 'wpc_scuplty_080707(1_of_2)' and 'wpc_scuplty_080707(1_of_2)' .zips which both seem to be connected. I get a 'Unexpected end of archive' when I open 'wpc_scuplty_080707(1_of_2).zip' and they only contain files like '16.15quad.wings'.

Do I just add both .zips to the folder? and proceed to install them?

There have been a lot of problems with forum uploads this last week. Try the alternate source (PK Pounceworks) listed a half dozen posts back.

These fiale are corupted.

There have been a lot of problems in the last week with downloading the files from the forum. I have replaced all the files in the first post. However, the problems have been intermittent and LL may not have fixed the underlying issue yet. As an alternate source, I've put copies of the plugin files on PK PounceWorks:

Plugin plus basic templates:
http://pkpounceworks.sljoint.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=28&func=fileinfo&id=119

Advanced topology templates:
http://pkpounceworks.sljoint.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=28&func=fileinfo&id=120

Source code:
http://pkpounceworks.sljoint.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=28&func=fileinfo&id=121