CCG/Modelling: Merging and Exporting
Merging and Exporting
If you have a completed model, or part, that you wish to use in the currently open model, use the File... Merge function to select and load the part/s. You will have a list to choose from for the parts you wish to merge. The parts will be loaded in the same relative location to the origin, as when they were originally saved. Be aware if they were hidden in 3DSMax in the original, they will be hidden when merged.
Exporting the model to Trainz requires the use of ehe exporter plugin for 3DSMmax.
Make sure all surfaces have been mapped with your materials or error messages may indicate that certain parts of the model cannot be exported.
You should save the model before any export, a good practice to make sure you have a saved file in case of computer problems. You must save the file before the first export, or 3DSMax will not know the correct path for file location and materials when you try to export, and an error message may result.
When exporting, have no part of the model selected, so you can be sure of what is exported. If you want to export only a part of the model, select those parts and use the Export Selected option. Alternatively, hide all parts that are not to be included in the export.
See the section on Animation Requirements below for additional issues with exporting animated models.
Under Tools, use the Resource Collector option to automatically find all the textures for the model and export them to the model directory.
The exporter creates an additional file, for example model.gmw. Files with the gmw extension are not used or supported by Trainz and should be deleted.
When you have finished developing a model, before you package it using the Content Manager, a good practice is to clean out the export directories and export the model and gather all the texture files a final time. This clears out any unused texture files and texture.txt files that were generated during development and are not used in the final model. Leaving unreferenced files in a model can give errors. In clearing the directory make sure you do not delete the config.txt file or any readme file you have created.
If you develop a large number of models you may find that keeping the 3DSMax file in a suitably named directory along with the texture files for that model, makes it easy to find the exact files used for the model later. Commonly a sub directory under 3DSMax, such as "Scenes" might be used for the purpose. Use simple names for directories and files, to minimise typing errors in the config.txt file.
3ds is a widely used graphical file standard, and 3DSMax can export this type of file, which can then be imported and used in GMax for example. You may find that some things like attachment points may not be exported. It also truncates the material file names to 8 characters. When imported into gmax you need to rename the materials to include the original longer file name characters, for the materials to be loaded correctly.
GMax does not export 3ds format, so it is difficult to transfer a GMax file into 3DSMax.
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