How to delete a figure or prop I've imported in with the wrong scale and re-import

Richter-3D

I imported a castle from an outside vendor that is as tall as a person, not the right scale.

How do I delete the castle from Daz Studio 4.6 and re-import the castle?

Or is there a way to change the scale value (not parameters menu scale property) in Daz?

Thanks.

Richard Haseltine

Just delete it and import again if it's a static prop - if you rigged it then that's a little fiddlier.

Richter-3D

When I imported the castle I put it in its separate folder, but there is no icon that shows up in the Content Library for me to reload it or delete it or anything.

Richard Haseltine

I'm not sure what you are doing - not, I gather, just wanting to delete an imported item in a scene.

Richter-3D

I'm not deleting something from a scene, but the object itself out of Daz. That way I can re-import the object with the correct scale setting. i realize I can change the scale of an object in Parameters setting of scale, but what I really want is to just start over importing the whole castle into Daz. But, I assume since I have already imported it once, it might duplicate itself if I try to import it again without deleting the first import file.

Richard Haseltine

So you saved it as an asset and you want to update that?

Richter-3D

Here is my sequence:

I added a directory in Edit --- Preferences--- Content Library --- Content Directory Manager--- Daz Studio Formats--- My Castle Directory
This is where all of the files are on my computer.

Next I imported the first two .obj files into Daz Studio using the File ---- Import menu item. I selected the first piece of the castle, the bridge.obj and then it appeared into the blank scene. Then I imported the second piece, the castle.obj and it came into the scene.

Next I added a figure to the scene to check the scale of the castle and the actor was taller than the castle wall. So, I saved the scene only and exited.

Now, this may not have created an asset like a figure or anything yet, I'm not sure.

This is all I have done.

Thanks.

SimonJM

If 'all' you are doing is a File> Import of .obj files then there is no need to have the directory listed as part of content. Just navigate there, as you will currently be doing, when you use the Import menu option. You olny need to have the directory listed in the content f9olders if you will be 'directly' accessing the content via the Content Library.
As part of the Import process there should be a scale option where you can specify how big a 'unit' of the model will be: either by slecting the name of a product used to create the object or by entering a manual percentage figure. In suspect that doing this would give the same effect as just loading and then sacling via the Properties tab.

Richard Haseltine

It has created a temporary asset, so you should be able to safely delete the items (or just start over with a new scene). If that doesn't work, you should find the temporary asset files in My Castle Directory/Data and remove them without affecting anything else.

Richter-3D

I will try these ideas you have offered.

I appreciate the time you spent on helping me!

Thanks!!!

jestmart

Folders that contain the *.obj file format should be pointed to in Content Directory Manager under Other Import Formats.

Richter-3D

Thanks Jestmart!

The .obj files all showed up now in the Other Import Formats directory. Now all I need is to apply the material to the castle.

Any help would be appreciated. I have been given all of the .mtl files for each section of the castle. How do I apply them?

Thanks!

SimonJM

If the .mtl files are in the same folder as the the .obj they should apply when you do the import.

SpottedKitty

Note that there are a couple of ways (at least) the .mtl file might be ignored when you import an .obj mesh, it all depends on the program that was used to create the object. Also, remember this is a very old file format; it's usually pretty reliable, but there have been different versions over the years, not all of them compatible with each other or with what D|S considers a "proper" .obj file.

The .mtl file name is stored a few lines down from the top of the .obj file. If the file names have been changed since the object was created, this pointer won't work any more. Easily fixed; the .obj and .mtl files are plain text (you can read them, you just can't understand them) so all you need to do is open the .obj file in a text editor — not a word processor — and fix the pointer to match the current name of the file.

If the .obj has textures applied, these are listed in the .mtl file. Problem is, some programs create .mtl files with folder paths to the texture file explicitly stated... as they are on the computer that created the object, which is pretty much guaranteed not to match the folder paths to where you've put the file in your computer. This can be fixed by opening the .mtl file in a text editor, looking for each "this is a texture file" command and removing the folder path from the beginning of the texture file name. If there is no path, just the file name, D|S will look for the texture files in the same folder as the .obj and .mtl files.

Richter-3D

The program used to create the castle was 3ds max in 2004.

Thanks for all of the great info!

Richter-3D

I looked in the .mtl file and there are just file names. It also references the .jpg files I have located in a separate maps directory. I'm not sure that Daz is finding the .jpg files. Do I put them in the directory I told Daz where the .obj and .mtl files are located?

Also, i gues the .vob files are for 3ds Max only?

SpottedKitty

Yes, the textures should be in the same folder as the object files. It doesn't much matter where that folder is, as long as you put it somewhere already set up in DAZ|Studio as a content location (this makes it easier for D|S to find the textures when you reload the object later). I usually put mine in /Runtime/Textures/ but that's mostly out of habit so that all my folders of folders of textures are in the same place.

Note that when you save your object properly into your Content Library as a Prop Asset — this is recommended, since the .obj materials settings are much more limited and will always need at least some tweaking when you import the object — the .obj and .mtl files will no longer be loaded directly but the saved prop file will include pointers to the texture files.

As for .vob files, they're for Vue d'Espirit — it's another modelling program, a bit like Bryce in that it's geared more towards creating landscapes but can also be used to make more conventional objects. If you don't have Vue, you can safely ignore those files.

Richter-3D

Since you mentioned saving prop presets, I have questions then about saving prop presets... do I have to have only one asset in the scene at a time to save a prop preset or do you just select it in the scene tab when multiple assets are in your scene?

Secondly, and related, is when you save a prop preset, do you leave the materials off when saving or for instance of a person, do you clothe them first, then save as a character preset or prop preset in the case of another type of asset?

Also with poses, I have the same question... do you clothe the person and then save the pose preset or before clothing them?

It seems, with some instances I've seen, if you move your person in a pose and then dress them, it seems the clothes don't always go on correctly as if it expects the asset to be in it's original load position (when you first add them to a scene) to dress them.

SpottedKitty

Richters Art said:

do I have to have only one asset in the scene at a time to save a prop preset or do you just select it in the scene tab when multiple assets are in your scene?
It's "prop asset" — a prop preset is not the same thing. When you're in the process of saving the object, you get a dialog to select which object in the scene you want to save. You can work with just a single object in the scene, but you don't have to. The same thing happens when you save a figure asset or a scene subset.

Richters Art said:

Secondly, and related, is when you save a prop preset, do you leave the materials off when saving or for instance of a person, do you clothe them first, then save as a character preset or prop preset in the case of another type of asset?
I think you've mixed a few things here. Saving a prop asset saves all the materials settings on the object at that time. Materials presets can be saved separately, so you could save one prop, then save several different materials presets for that prop.

A character preset is something diffferent altogether, it collects all the morph settings and materials settings for a figure e.g. Genesis2F, so you can recreate that character again from a blank Genesis in just one click. Note that this is just the figure, any clothes the figure might be wearing are something completely different and will need their own presets.

Remember that clothes are not part of the figure, they're usually figures in their own right and will be automatically fitted to the figure when you load them into the scene.
Also with poses, I have the same question... do you clothe the person and then save the pose preset or before clothing them?

Pose presets are just that, the pose of the figure. It saves the joint rotations and scaling, nothing else, and does not save any settings for any clothes that the figure might be wearing.
It seems, with some instances I've seen, if you move your person in a pose and then dress them, it seems the clothes don't always go on correctly as if it expects the asset to be in it's original load position (when you first add them to a scene) to dress them.
This is nothing to do with the pose, it's the Autofit function. This should automatically fit clothes to a figure when they're loaded, but sometimes it glitches and the fitting has to be done manually. How are you adding clothes? The figure should be selected in the scene before you click on the clothes object. Alternatively, you can click-and-drag the clothes object from the Content tab into the scene and drop it onto the figure. If you don't do that, the clothes will load floating in the middle of the scene, not fitted to anything.

Richter-3D

Thanks for clarifying!

I'm so new at this... just starting out really. I do click on the figure before trying to fit them with clothes, but it seems once I posed the figure before adding clothes and it seemed to mess up when I added clothes. But, with your instructions and clarifications I will try all of these things and master them.

Thanks everyone for helping!!!

SpottedKitty

Richters Art said:

I do click on the figure before trying to fit them with clothes,

Note that when you click on a figure in your scene, what you actually select is the body part of the figure that's under the mouse pointer. The autofitting function seems to work best when the root body part is selected; if you right-click on the figure in the scene, you get a drop-down menu with the option of selecting either that one body part, or the full figure. Alternatively, double-click on the figure or select the full figure directly from the Scene tab.

Incidentally, this is a good example of another basic principle of the DAZ|Studio program; there are usually at least two different ways to do anything. None of them is any more or less "right" than any of the others, they all just work. It's a bit confusing to begin with, I know, but it is important to remember if you come across a described procedure that doesn't quite match what someone else said.