topic Re: Importing 3D model with material and texture information. in Fusion Support Forum

Importing 3D model with material and texture information.

patrick.c.obrien — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 07:46:42 GMT

Hi All,

I hope someone can me resolve an issue I have with material and texture information transfer between CAD systems.
If I import/open a 3D model from another CAD package which is the best file format to use to ensure it brings in the material and texture information into Fusion 360.
Is it
.obj
.dwg
.fbx
Or is there another I could consider.

Look forward to hearing from you
Regards Pat

Re: Importing 3D model with material and texture information.

HughesTooling — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 08:41:02 GMT

None of those as Fusion is not a mesh based program, you will not be able to import texture info into Fusion. If you want to work with meshes Fusion's not the right program.

Mark

Re: Importing 3D model with material and texture information.

patrick.c.obrien — Thu, 04 Jul 2019 11:02:50 GMT

Thanks for your feedback, sorry it doesn't answer my question which is around that fat that I'm trying to import a 3D model into Fusion 360 so that it includes the texture and material mappings when I render the model.

I'm trying to find out which is the best file format to do this. I hope that makes my question a little clearer.

Re: Importing 3D model with material and texture information.

TrippyLighting — Thu, 04 Jul 2019 13:51:17 GMT

@patrick.c.obrien wrote:

Thanks for your feedback, sorry it doesn't answer my question...

It does answer your question!

CAD software works with mathematically precise descriptions of 3D geometry in the form of BRep, NURBS and analytical surfaces. Usual neutral formats are STEP, IGES, SAT etc.

Sub-D mesh modeling software as the name implies represents geometry with quad meshes (usually) and the .obj (originating from Alias Wavefront) and .dae format (Collada) for example allows to store UV maps and image based textures etc. along with the mesh based geometry.

The two worlds are mostly incompatible. As such when importing a .obj or .dae (Collada) file into Fusion 360 the texture and UV mapping info is not used.

Technologies such as T-Splines allow to convert a Sub-D quad meshes into T-Splines and then into NURBs surfacse or BRep (solids), but that conversion does not include textures, colors or any other non-geometry data part of these mesh based formats.

Re: Importing 3D model with material and texture information.

nodnarb93 — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 22:20:21 GMT

Is there really no way to accomplish this? I need to import a posed human model "using" the part I designed (sitting in a chair at a desk). I don't need to do any editing on the model, it just needs to be visible for context.

Re: Importing 3D model with material and texture information.

patrick.c.obrien — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 22:43:31 GMT

Hi ,

My question was more about importing materials from other CAD packages that have already been assign to the model I wish to import so that I do not have to recreate the materials in Fusion 360

I belief your requirement in different, you can import different 3D models into Fusion 360. So if you have a a 3D human you want to include in you design for context this is possible.

I hope that helps. Let me know if you need any more help with this

Re: Importing 3D model with material and texture information.

TheCADWhisperer — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 23:17:13 GMT

Materials (physical properties) and textures (appearances) are two entirely different things.

Example: I will sell you a yellow pine block (material) painted to look like gold texture (appearance) for the price of gold (material). Get the difference?

STEP (*.stp), *.ipt *.sldprt *.prt *.x_b file formats support materials.

In some cases a *.stl or *.obj can be made to support textures (appearances) at least in Autodesk Inventor Professional ( not sure about Fusion - I will have to run a test in Fusion tomorrow).

Can you Attach some example files here?