Exporting as FBX not working properly when modifiers present

[Anonymous]

So I am a little perplexed. Im pretty familiar with 3ds max at this point and am using 3dsMax 2017. I have recently begun having an issue where when I export an Editable Poly with a Chamfer modifier and a Turbosmooth modifier as an FBX it doesnt import back in properly. What happens is the resulting file imports with all the normals correct and everything however the object is now an editable mesh not an editable poly, the chamfer modifier is collapsed into the object and the turbosmooth modifier is nowhere to be seen (neither collapsed nor in the stack). I have tried starting a new file and the same thing occurs, I have tried making new objects and the same thing occurs, resetting Xform doesnt help either. I tried exporting with no modifiers at all and when I did that it did correctly import as editable poly rather than mesh. I then tried with only the chamfer modifier and I got the same original result of collapsed chamfer on an editable mesh. When I tried only a turbosmooth modifier it imported as an editable poly however the turbosmooth was still absent (neither collapsed nor in the stack) and this occured regardless of whether I had checked the turbosmooth checkbox on export (I am aware that to keep it in stack it must be checked and if unchecked it should tesselate, which it also did not do). I am totally confused and was unable to find any other post of a similar issue and its extremely troublesome. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[loganfoster · Accepted solution]

There is some confusion here, and that is understandable as the labels that the FBX export dialog has in Max aren't abundantly clear. What the "Turbosmooth" option in the dialog means is that the exporter will store the crease values (that have been set with a modifier/tool like CreaseSet) will be exported and stored in the FBX (and is quite useful if you are going to be sub dividing your model in a tool like Mudbox).

In regards to why it doesn't apply the Turbosmooth modifier when you reimport. The FBX exporter is essentially dumping out data into its own internal format. Unfortunately it has no idea what a modifier is (as this is a pretty Max-centric bit of logic) and as such it cannot store what modifier(s) you have/use on your stock to restore it later (except in a few cases where it needs that data to operate such as vertex weight data needing a Skin modifier to work with). The same thing happens when you export Biped data out, its loaded back in as bones, because this is a generic format that is pretty universal and cross platform. 

Now in regards to why your mesh is coming in an an EMesh. Its likely because you have the "triangulate" option turned on in your FBX export. I almost always have this option off (along with "preserve edge orientation") when I work with FBX files.  When I tested here this was the only way I could get data from Max 2017 to be exported to an FBX and be loaded in a new scene as an EMesh type object.

I hope that helps. 

[Anonymous]

Hey Logan thanks for the reply,

So I think I'm a little confused here, this is actually the first Ive heard of these crease values so I'm not entirely sure what you mean about those. I believe I have in the past exported to FBX and when I imported the file to max the turbosmooth and chamfer modifiers were present, while I was aware that modifiers are a max centric bit of logic and they don't work in say substance or any other software I was under the impression that FBX was an autodesk file format that was useful for this purpose of keeping max centric data included for use in Max scenes whereas OBJ for instance wouldn't know how to incorporate the modifiers into the export. Regardless of any of this though, which I could very well be mistaken on, I know with certainty that if you export a model with turbosmooth with the checkbox unchecked in the dialogue box it should absolutely tessellate the object to include the turbosmooth geo however that isnt occuring. The turbosmooth is simply being completely ignored altogether.

As for your solution to the Emesh import I did not have the "triangulate" option turned on, and with identical export settings an Epoly with no modifiers imports as an Epoly and an Epoly with a chamfer modifier imports as an Emesh which means its definitely not a matter of the export settings. Strangely I went to test with the "preserve edge orientation" turned on and off and now its importing and exporting as Epoly no matter what, so that part seems to have miraculously resolved itself.

I am still puzzled as to why the turbosmooth isn't prompting to tessellate on export when the box is unchecked, regardless of whether I'm wrong about the modifiers staying in stack otherwise....... I just went to do it again so I could send screens to ensure I wasnt simply miscommunicating and now its prompting me to tessellate miraculously. Not sure why suddenly everything fixed itself but I wont complain. Thanks for your help though I appreciate it. If you could point me to a resource where I could read up on those crease values to get myself better informed I'd very much appreciate it.

Thanks