.OBJ organizer?

[lemonnado]

I am looking for an app which can catalog .obj files. If there is an app which simply creates a .jpg with the same name, that would be cool to.

Tests to do that with ZScript have failed miserably as I fail to be able to hand a filename to IPress,Tool:IMPORT.... Sighhhh. The ZBScripting language must have been forged in a dark place... M.C.'s skills are definitely SuperHuman!


Cheers
Lemo

[billrobertson42]

Can you describe what you mean by catalog? I might be able to help you.

[marcus_civis]

:) You need to use the [FileNameSetNext command, something like this:


[VarDef,filename,""]

[VarSet,filename,"fullpath\model.obj"]

[IButton,"Import OBJ",,
[IPress,Tool:PolyMesh3D]
[FileNameSetNext,filename]
[IPress,Tool:Import]
]

Of course, that doesn't solve the difficulty of finding the file name & path in the first place...

[lemonnado]

Great Marcus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That did it. I actually generated the script with a small VB script lol.
So I have not tackled that directory parsing problem in ZB.
Now it runs through a directory, loads every .obj file one after the other, plops it onto the screen, scales it to the max, saves a bmp, and continues.
In the end I have a directory with all the .obj's and .bmp's with a picture of them. When I go into the directory with the MS Thumbnails set, it neatly shows all the pictures and I am having zero difficulties finding a certain mesh again.... Memory does not seem to be a problem as I import the new .obj while the old one is still selected. Speed is alright. Better then doing this manually.... It's really a shame that ZScript is so awkward. I never could really warm up with it...
Lemo

[marcus_civis]

Hi Lemo,
I'm glad to help. :) It sounds like you've made yourself a nice little cataloguer. On ZScripts, they can be quirky. Perhaps you'll have better luck writing plugins for Carrara! ;)

[lemonnado]

Perhaps you'll have better luck writing plugins for Carrara! ;)Not really... The compiler for the Mac version is not available any more since this month. SO... they have to move to a more modern platform there. Till then... I'll stay low ;-). But XSI has an interface for an SDK and 3 different (Python, Java, VB) scripting languages. That's my animal of choice right now for enhanced mesh and brain bending 8-).
Lemo

[Svengali]

Lemo,

Here's a link / solution (http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=24075) to a similar .obj cataloging discussion over a year ago...


Sven

[lemonnado]

Thanks! Great idea to display all four views. I'll go back to the drawing board for that one. Funny that there is no solution out there... I can't be the only one drowning in models hahaha.
Lemo

[chrisd]

Deep Exploration at http://www.righthemisphere.com (http://www.righthemisphere.com/) will generate thumbnails from many different formats, including OBJ. I know $149 is not cheap, but it is primarily a file converter.

Here's a cheaper one, 3D Photo Browser, I just came across at http://www.mootools.com (http://www.mootools.com/) I have not used it yet, but it looks like it might do thumbnails, and it converts files too. They have 3 levels, $20, $29 and $49.

Chris