vertex color mesh information not able to read (*obj file)

[raineiroandres_coboscastro_qs]

A little bit of introduction before ask the question.

introduction
I'm in the middle of a research trying to find a way to "bake" a meshed point cloud file into a clean mesh, my input source file is either an obj and a stl mesh (between 3ds max and DesignX are the only two options available).
As far as I tested, when I open the obj file in Meshlabs I can see the the colors in the mesh in the vertex color channel (stl doesn't do it so I just focus on obj testing) then after check the vertex color information is imbedded in the mesh, import that obj in 3dsMax, but despite trying to reveal that information trough "Map Channel Info", "Vertex paint" modifier and also Materials/maps nothing seems to have effect.

I know you can create meshes with vertex color information in 3dsmax and exported, but I wasn't able to retrieve that information even with meshes created in the same 3dsMax.

question 1

Am I looking in wrong place and 3dsMax is lack of that feature and become unable to read vertex color from external sources?

question 2

Is this a obj import/export settings issue? what is the right setting for this type of job?

*I already spend a significant amount of time in research and test, so I'm worried to spend time more time in something futile and better focus in another approach.

Thank you for the time and help.

[mbreidt · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I doubt vertex colors are officially supported in OBJ. 

Try to save as PLY in Meshlab instead, then import that into 3ds Max (using one of the free ply import plug-ins/scripts), e.g. https://www.guruware.at/main/plyImp/index.html

Note that you can batch process with meshlab, too.

[raineiroandres_coboscastro_qs]

Hello @mbreidt Thank you for the reply and interest.
I can finally be able to bake the colors from the point cloud mesh to the low poly model, Thanks to the *.ply plugin the *.obj and MeshLab step was unnecessary since Design X can export also *.ply.
I wasn't considering the format due wasn't supported by 3dsMax thanks to you I can get rid of the MeshLab process (which is not the best tool in handling scales and orientations and the alignment tool is cumbersome)
Also the marvel of the *.ply model is that in the baking process you can use both vector or color with the same results.
Ironically the post objective to take advantage of the *.obj file vertex colors data and vertex color tools still to be unresolved, but at least I can progress in my research.
Thank you.

[mbreidt]

Thanks for the update, glad to hear you found a solution.

(I still think vertex colors are not part of the original (Wavefront) OBJ file format definition)