Figure Setup help please - vertex groups not imported

andya_b341b7c5f5

I am trying without success to rig a prop following the tutorial here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNFHv8K8qKg by Sickleyield.

I have modelled the prop in Blender, created a number of vertex groups and UV mapped them all.  I have exported the prop to .obj, but when I come to adding the geometry in the Figure Setup pane, the .obj is imported but the vertex groups are not.  I have one entry only below the prop name, and it's 'default' whereas I do not have a vertex group named 'default'.

The one thing I am not clear on is that my prop is one object in Blender made of several separate meshes.  I cannot tell whether the object Sickleyield is using is one single mesh or not, but it would seem logical that it isn't - at least the door and walls as separate meshes would be my approach - so not convinced this is the issue

Any help/suggestions/explanations of what I am doing wrong appreciated.

Richard Haseltine

I'm not familiar with Blender, but vertex groups sounds like the wrong kind of division - what you want are polygon groups, assuming Blender has them.

andya_b341b7c5f5

Richard, as far as I know, vertex groups in Blender are the equivalent of DS face groups.  They are simply a group of vertices with a name you specify, which of course you could think of as a gropu of faces.  Sickleyield says in the video that she has defined vertex groups prior to exporting the .obj from Blender, and that this is necessary.  Obviously, I am ready to be corrected on this.

 

Syrus_Dante

I can help with that had the same issue as I started with Blender and found the reason. It is a bit complicated.

Blender Vertex Groups as the name implies are not the same as DazStudios Face Groups and the exchange format WaveFront OBJ call them PolyGroups.

In Blender you can assign vertecis to more than one vertex group and thats the problem if you try to export these vertex groups with the obj file. You only get those vertex groups imported to Daz Studio that don't share vertices with other groups in Blender. You can also define Materials in Blender, check Write Materials in the OBJ export settings and you get Surface Groups in DazStudio once imported.

Import the OBJ once into the DazStudio scene and have a look at the Tools Settings pane with the Geometry Editor tool selected, to see if DazStudio gets the Face Groups imported correctly you may still have to fix some polys on the Face Group seams caused by the complicated vertex assignment of Blender.

See the post about this issue here: Blender imports - missing vertex groups (randomly)

Syrus_Dante

Here I have some screenshots of the important export-import settings with the WaveFront OBJ exchange format.

Daz Studio: File > Export > WaveFront OBJ

 

Blender: File > Import > OBJ

Blender: File > Export > OBJ (by default use the settings on the left - checkmark Polygroups & Write Materials - you can save a preset)

DazStudio: File > Import > WaveFront OBJ

andya_b341b7c5f5

Syrus_Dante, thanks very much for all that useful information.  I don't think I had overlapping vertex groups, and the materials I defined in Blender do appear as Surfaces in DS.  I have a preset for importing into Blender from DS that looks just like the one you showed, but the preset I use for exporting from Blender to DS does not have the Polygroups and Keep Vertex Order checked.  That hasn't caused a problem with creating morphs, but looks like it can be an issue here when rigging in DS is the purpose, so I will update it and try again.

Meanwhile, I worked around the issue by defining Face Groups in DS.  However, I would much prefer creating vertex groups in Blender and having the turned into DS Face Groups as part of the import process, because I would do the vertex groups anyhow as a matter of habit.

Syrus_Dante

For the thing with separate meshes (objects) in Blender you see the Blender Export OBJ settings offers Selection Only uncheck it and you would export all even the invisible (don't know if all layers will get exported). Check it and select one or more objects in the Blender Outliner with Shift+click to export them in the same OBJ. Be careful with Apply Modifiers in the Blender Export OBJ settings you may have to uncheck this or disable a few Subsurface Modifiers, DazStudio got the SubD Modifier to do the same.