Help neede to export Mesh to Rhino

[jojodesign]

Hi !

I want to export a mesh from Zephyr lite 4.350 to Rhino (in a PC version). Rhino won't recognise the obj. files I make with Zephyr for some reason.
Can anyone help? I'd like to do it as simply as possible without transferring to blender - although I will if I have to!
Thank you - all suggestions gratefully received.
Alison

[cam3d]

Hi Jojo - Which version of Rhino are you using? I'd be happy to see if I can solve this for you. When importing into blender, do you then export as .obj and it works? There's a few different variations on .obj export settings so it's likely there's something either ticked, or not ticked on export. Have you tried exporting as an alternative file type such as .stl?

[jojodesign]

Hi Cam3d thank you for your response.
I have Rhino 6 for PC educational licence.
Ive tried myself to transfer the mesh to both blender and Rhino but with no success.
Im not a programmer - and artist! so Im working t out as I go along but I really need some pointers.
Im happy to be given a number of steps that I can follow.
Thank you again

[jojodesign]

Hi again - I just tried to export as .stl but Zephyr wont let me do this. Thank you!

[cam3d]

No worries jojo - We will troubleshoot and help solve the problem! Zephyr lite should definitely be able to export .STL files. Can you please post a screen capture of your export settings? Seeing the rest of the workspace in on your screen will help give some clues as to what's going wrong

[jojodesign]

Thank you

[cam3d]

So it looked like you only have a textured mesh there, and none of the other project files? .stl files don't have textures, which is why there's no option to export a textured .stl

When you make a project, you typically have sparse cloud, dense cloud and mesh files (all of which precede the textured mesh generation).

Do you have the original .zep file which has all of those still?

[jojodesign]

Thank you - Ill find them - the mesh is edited - will I lose the edits if I use the original file?

[jojodesign]

Thanks again - I've found the Zephyr file (unedited)

[jojodesign]

I should explain - what I want to do is take a piece of the mesh and transfer it to Rhino so I can make it - via laser cutting or cnc routing I'm not sure yet - into a sculptural form. I'm happy to go through Blender if necessary. Thanks again!

[Andrea Alessi]

Hi jojodesign,

in order to export in .stl, you need to export the mesh, not the textured mesh.

as for the obj, if your photos have embedded GPS data (e.g. if used a cellphone with GPS on) zephyr will automatically use double precision (as georeferenced data need to be like that for GIS software). Zbrush most likely does not support double precision yet, so when exporting from zephyr make sure to check "local coordinate system"

[cam3d]

Yup Andrea is most likely correct about the local rendering reference system! ZBrush, Rhino, Meshlab.... there are a lot of programs which don't support the local rendering reference system - The majority of 3DF Zephyr users DO use software which supports it, so it's left on by default (and usually isn't an issue because a lot of cameras don't store GPS data in the photos they take)

To answer your other questions:

If you made your edits on the textured mesh, then yes you'll lose your edits - You can recover them by exporting edited textured mesh to something like Blender/Meshlab/Meshmixer, then re-import into 3DF Zephyr as a non-textured mesh. This way it will load into the 'Meshes' category (not the textured mesh category).

I haven't seen the entire mesh, but I will assume there are holes in the surface of the model. You'll want to create a watertight model for any kind of real world manufacturing (at least this has been my experience in the past - Especially relevant to 3D printing, but has also been a requirement for CNC routing jobs.

Let us know how you're getting on - Remember: There are no stupid questions

- Cam

[jojodesign]

Hi there - thank you SO MUCH for your suggestions and help. I'll try these out in the next week . I'm prestty sure I'll be able to work it out from your advice.
Thanks again !!

[cam3d]

No worries!