OBJ file format and centering

[Victor Ramamoorthy]

Hello, 3DF Zephyr is just wonderful tool and I am happy to get to know about it. Here is my question: When I export an object reconstructed with OBJ format, I find that every vertex has 6 numbers. I guess the first 3 are x, y, z coordinates. What are the next 3 numbers in each line?
How do I translate the object to the origin and orient along z axis for example?
Thanks for the help.

[CG-Guy]

Free 3D program called Blender 3D will allow you to adjust pivot and x,y,z if needed

https://www.blender.org/

I use 3DS Max or Maya so you'll have to watch tutorial on that for that program

[Andrea Alessi]

Hi Victor,

you can use control points as constraints (in 3DF Zephyr Pro and Aerial) otherwise, if you need to only change the up vector you can use the tools as I explained here ( https://www.3dflow.net/forums/forum/...on-to-xy-plane ) or you can use external software (e.g. blender, as CG-guy pointed out)

[Victor Ramamoorthy]

Hi Andrea and CG-Guy,

Blender seems to be very complex and appear to need many late nights to get started. Instead I was trying to read the vertex data in Matlab and find the center of gravity in the XY plane. Then subtracting the center of gravity from the vertices will push the object to the origin. My reason for placing the object at the origin is to do shape preserving UV unwrapping that can be sewed to make a car dust cover. Blender seems to do UV unwrapping but not dimension and shape preserving. Any you guys know more than I do and help me out. Heartfelt thanks!

[Andrea Alessi]

Hi Victor,

it's much easier to do it in blender than doing it in matlab. It's not that complex, it just need a little bit of patience to learn to use it, as any other software.

You can define your own UV mapping and re-texturing. Make sure you check out this tutorial https://www.3dflow.net/technology/do...xture-blender/

Simply define your UV, and have zephyr re-generate the textured mesh on your desired UVs. As for placing the origin, it's easier to do it with control points and constraints (Pro/Aerial) or you can do it in blender or any other 3D modeling software. If you do that, remember that you must to it after you have done the custom UV mapping in zephyr as the new mesh with custom UVs must have the same origin as the zephyr project.

[Victor Ramamoorthy]

Thanks Andrea, I saw your tutorial on UV mapping. What I am trying to do is a bit different. I am trying to do is to build Papercraft model of 3D objects with non-stretchable materials like paper, leather, etc. The idea is to use generalized cylinders. There are a couple of papers from Technion, Israel which I am trying to replicate. That is why I need regular grid spacing point clouds where I can follow the 3D shape with polygonal paper cutouts which can be glued to create 3D objects. This is somewhat close to metal sheet working to create the shape with minimal cuts and folds.

[cam3d]

Hey Victor - It sounds like you might want to look into manual retopology https://youtu.be/2hEHtKH55Us.

Also check this out: https://www.instructables.com/id/Pap...-With-Blender/