A slightly different x file question

[Abyss]

I have had a pluggin for 3ds max allowing me to export x files for a while now. This was working fantastically, it would export my models as they are ( i have tried moving my files between porgrams to get it into an x file before however i found this lost some detail such as meshsmooth modifiers). Now I don't have the option to export as a x file anymore and im not sure what has happened. I have recently re-installed 3ds max but i did not delete the original folder and did not overwrite anything. Has anyone got any ideas what has happened or where i can find this pluggin again? Any help to get my aircraft into an x file is grately appreciated.

[FSEdge]

Which version of 3Dmax are you working with?

Which folder are you talking about when you tell us you didn't delete it?

The information you've offered is just a bit vague to give you a here

[Abyss]

Oh, sorry your right. Well im using version 6 and it is installed to the default location ( C:\3dsmax6). When i reimstalled it it was because I needed to repair it but the normal repair option was not working, so I did a full install into a different folder then copied the imformation back to my original folder (C:\3dsmax6). During this process i did not delete the main default folder. I can find all the pluggins and such, but i cannot remember what this pluggin is called or where i got it from. I hope this helps. Thanks for any help.

[Abyss]

Hmm another thought. I could import my model into Gmax and export it from there, however I think (I haven't given it a close examination) that doing this loses some of the quality from my model. Am I imagining this or is it real and is there a way to cure it? Thankyou.

[FSEdge]

Hi Abyss,

Your problem most likely is in the configuration files. Can you find these two files 3dsmax.cfg and plugin.cfg both of which are located in the root folder and post the information in them for me to review?

There are two X file exporters available that I know of. One can be found in the DirectX SDK from Microsoft and the other can be found at Quest3D for the latest version to work with 3DMax6.

FSEdge

[Abyss]

Hmmm, interesting. I cannot find either .cfg. Maybe I'mnot looking in the right place, I was looking in the main folder (C:\3dsmax6).

[Abyss]

Oh, it works. I deleted the pluggins folder and all of the extra pluggins i have installed, then copied the default pluggins folder back in with no extra pluugins installed, Finaly i installed the padasoft pluggin and it seems to have worked. Thanks a lot for the help.

[FSEdge]

Hmm another thought. I could import my model into Gmax and export it from there, however I think (I haven't given it a close examination) that doing this loses some of the quality from my model. Am I imagining this or is it real and is there a way to cure it? Thankyou.

If you go this route the stack will become collapsed locking in all the work you've done. Also, if there is any animation done, you are going to find that key frames have been added to just about every tick in time on the time slider bar.

Hmmm, interesting. I cannot find either .cfg. Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, I was looking in the main folder (C:\3dsmax6).

Wow, that's odd. Do a search if need be to find them. Even if you delete them right out of the C:\3Dmdsmax6 folder they will be created a new the next time you try to run the program.

FSEdge

[FSEdge]

LOL, it seems I am just a few minutes late on my replies.

Glad you got it going again.

FSEdge

[Abyss]

Ok well it seems make model is having a bit of a hard time. When I try to convert the .x into a .mdl i get either of these errors.
1st error:
Running model

Start! (C:\Documents and Settings\Luke Dalby\My Documents\3D Max Files\A10 project\a2.X)
Loading X C:\Documents and Settings\Luke Dalby\My Documents\3D Max Files\A10 project\a2.X...
Zero normal encountered in part
Error!
Error!

If I don't get this error then it takes ages but eventually comes up with this (i have cut some out which are basically repetitions of what appeares to be the same problem but with other objects):
Running model

Start! (C:\Documents and Settings\Luke Dalby\My Documents\3D Max Files\A10 project\a.X)
Loading X C:\Documents and Settings\Luke Dalby\My Documents\3D Max Files\A10 project\a.X...
Processing...
ERROR: Scaling null has a translation, ignoring it
(Part ) Found colocated vertices within triangle
   (15.135435,-52.533997,-9.848300)
   (15.156199,-53.477051,-9.541862)
   (15.135409,-52.534061,-9.848293).
(Part ) Found colocated vertices within triangle
   (15.155540,-46.388313,13.320161)
   (15.155515,-46.388378,13.320168)
   (15.176305,-47.331367,13.626598).

Lots more of this^^^^ then this:
Model units are 1024.00 units/meter
Error!
Error!

I have no idea how to rectify these problems, thanks again for any help.

[FSEdge]

What you have is a case where three vertices are trying to reside on the same axis. An example of this would be if you looked at the XY plane and one face (a face is made from 3 vertices) on that plane had no vertices moved up along the Y coordinate. All three vertices would then be along the X coordinate causing a colocated occurrence.

[Abyss]

Ok this sounds very very bad as I had Loads of these errors. It could take some time to fix these by the sounds. Thanks for the help, I will try to fix them all.

[Abyss]

I have managed to locate all of the offending components, but now I am not sure how to find the exact verticies causing the problems as there are so many. Is there any easy way to do this or is it just a lot of searching?

[FSEdge]

If you can find offending triangles at the Face sub-object level, you can just delete the face/faces and that should take the vertices with them.

Once you've done that you can go to the vertices sub-object level and use the Remove Isolated Vertices tool under the Edit Geometry rollout.

FSEdge

[Abyss]

Working in the vertex sub-object level I found a mess of verticies after an extrusion. Deleting these has reduced the amout of errors on 1 component by 2. Eg when i try to convert the x file into an .mdl it only gives me a log with 7 errors as oppossed to the original 9. I am having trouble looking for problematic faces as there are so many. Caan you please explain how the optimizer modifier works please becasause I am not sure what i am actually doing by changing thses values. At the moment this looks like a possibly useful option depending on the damage it causes to my model. Thank you very much for all this help.