topic Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR in Inventor Forum

Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

djadisan — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 11:19:42 GMT

Hellow world , i'm fairly new to inventor, i'm new in 3d printing , and i have several question for more advanced users...

1. I add different textures/colors from inventor's library, i save the model with textures, i know how to export to .stl ...

how do i export the colors/textures?? i need some kind of png...of file to upload after on www.p3d.in ...cause that's where i have my object publish

2. Does anyone know's a plugin to export direct .OBJ ??

Thank you all

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

mcgyvr — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 12:10:13 GMT

@djadisan wrote:

Hellow world , i'm fairly new to inventor, i'm new in 3d printing , and i have several question for more advanced users...

1. I add different textures/colors from inventor's library, i save the model with textures, i know how to export to .stl ...

how do i export the colors/textures?? i need some kind of png...of file to upload after on www.p3d.in ...cause that's where i have my object publish

2. Does anyone know's a plugin to export direct .OBJ ??

Thank you all

1) When saving to stl hit the options button before you save and check the "export colors" box..

2)File..Save Copy as... select OBJ from the available file types and save.. (You can also use File..Export.. Cad format and again select obj from the file types dropdown then save)

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

djadisan — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 12:20:51 GMT

I managed to find obj and option BUT I HAVE NO OPTION FOR SAVE COLOR :-s

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

johnsonshiue — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 16:30:54 GMT

Hi! We have a coloring issue in the exported mesh file. Inventor can paint to correct colors. But, non-Autodesk tools do not seem to recognize the colors from the mesh exported by Inventor. We are looking into that and see how we can change the behavior.

Many thanks!

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

mcgyvr — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 17:01:29 GMT

@johnsonshiue Is that with STL files too or just OBJ?

Hasn't that option been there for a long time now? Has it always been broken?

If its just with OBJ then they can export to STL which is what any 3d printer will accept anyways..

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

djadisan — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 17:06:51 GMT

Hellow...can you stick to MY problem ? please ... thank you guys ... i'm frustrated as is

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

mcgyvr — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 17:14:40 GMT

@djadisan wrote:

Hellow...can you stick to MY problem ? please ... thank you guys ... i'm frustrated as is

Calm down there...

We are helping you..

There is no "export colors" button for the OBJ format..

Use STL instead for your 3d printer..

STL has the option..

I suspect OBJ should do it automatically but there seems to be a software bug where its not exporting colors automatically now..

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

mcgyvr — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 17:17:44 GMT

@djadisan wrote:

how do i export the colors/textures?? i need some kind of png...of file to upload after on www.p3d.in ...cause that's where i have my object publish

If you need an image (png,etc..) then use Windows snipping tool to take a screen capture or just do a "file...save copy as" and select PNG format from the dropdown.

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

djadisan — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 17:18:13 GMT

I'm not getting frustrated by you ....i'm sorry ...i meant by the situacion... ihave a project...and can't get it ...so ... BTW thank you very much

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

mcgyvr — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 18:05:03 GMT

@djadisan wrote:

I'm not getting frustrated by you ....i'm sorry ...i meant by the situacion... ihave a project...and can't get it ...so ... BTW thank you very much

So where are we at now..

What is it you really need still?

Did you really need a PNG file? If so did windows snipping tool get that taken care of?

Did you export the STL with the colors box checked? did that work?

Still waiting on Johnson to confirm if "export colors" is just broken in Inventor across the board with mesh files (stl and OBJ) or if its just OBJ..

Some formats just don't transfer colors and NONE of them support the export of textures as far as I know..

So colors you can but textures won't export to neutral 3d/mesh files..

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

johnsonshiue — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 19:36:11 GMT

Hi Guys,

The mesh coloring issue applies to both STL and OBJ files.

Many thanks!

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

djadisan — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 23:09:58 GMT

i think i need .MTL for p3d.in i've checked the box on "save colors" but how do i generate .mtl ? .... p3d.in only accepts obj , so i found a site that converts STL to OBJ ..

Thank you guys

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

djadisan — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 23:10:46 GMT

i think i need .MTL for p3d.in i've checked the box on "save colors" but how do i generate .mtl ? p3d.in only accepts obj , so i found a site that converts STL to OBJ ..

Thank you guys

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

mcgyvr — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 12:34:43 GMT

Seems like you are SOL as far as Inventor goes.....

Per Johnson Inventor is broken with regards to exporting colors properly directly to STL or OBJ..

Maybe find a program that can export an STL or OBJ file properly from a STEP file or other neutral cad format..

Maybe this will work..

https://www.makexyz.com/convert/step-to-stl

or this..

http://www.3dtransform.com/

Or this..

http://www.meshconvert.com/

Or use Fusion..

Or use 3dsmax

,etc...

etc,...

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

djadisan — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 12:44:12 GMT

So , what can i do ...or where can i go to export my textures from inventor ....as i said i applied material to object..i exported in STL from inventor... all good ( colors ticked ) but where i the file mtl ..or whatever file is generated ? :-s Thank you

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

mcgyvr — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 13:03:09 GMT

@djadisan wrote:

So , what can i do ...or where can i go to export my textures from inventor ....as i said i applied material to object..i exported in STL from inventor... all good ( colors ticked ) but where i the file mtl ..or whatever file is generated ? :-s Thank you

When you save copy as to OBJ in Inventor it creates both an OBJ and a MTL file in the same folder..

An MTL file is only generated with OBJ files and not STL files..

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

djadisan — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 13:10:51 GMT

my inventor does not have option ---> save colors for OBJ only for STL and when i save as .STL it does not create the mtl 😞

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 13:27:51 GMT

If you want a png, go to File -> Export -> image.

You can save the current screen into png, jpeg etc.

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

mcgyvr — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 13:40:26 GMT

@djadisan wrote:

my inventor does not have option ---> save colors for OBJ only for STL and when i save as .STL it does not create the mtl 😞

Please read carefully....

There is no option in OBJ to save colors like their is for STL..(but that is irrelevant..)

What version of Inventor do you have?

When I save an obj file (NOT STL) an obj file and MTL file are created in the same folder..

Again file.. save copy as.. select OBJ from the filetype dropdown and save it.. Go to that folder and you should see both an OBJ file and a MTL file

Forget STL for now.. Forget the check box to "export colors"... Just save an OBJ file and go look in that folder and you should find the MTL file also..

But per Johnson above Inventor seems to be broken with regards to that so it might not work to properly export the colors or texture information..

Re: Help with textures/colors INVENTOR

djadisan — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 13:59:17 GMT

Is there another way to expot if it's broken?