FBXEXPORT materials not embedding / referencing / copying

[Anonymous]

I've been using AutoCAD for a lot of years, but finally I've come up against a problem I couldn't find an existing solution to, it makes me wonder if it's something unique / silly I've done.

I am trying to export a 3D model from AutoCAD with materials into an FBX file.  However the file always ends up without the materials, I've broken things down to the simplest test model I can, two boxes, they are each on a separate layer, assigned with different colors and different materials, but when I open them in the FBX converter they have no materials / colors etc, likewise when I bring them into the ASSIMP bases webapp I'm trying to get the model into successfully.

So far I have tried exporting fbx files every set of options for FBXEXPORT, as well as saving as dxf to convert to FBX in the converter, but the FBX converter doesn't seem to cooperate with the dxf files. 

I'm open to other universal file types, but unless I can get AutoCAD to put materials into the FBX file correctly, I don't see any of the other available save / export options as being viable for me, so it's probably going to require another program to do the conversion.  I know I can achieve what I'm after using 3DS Max, but I don't have a license for that and it's something I would need to do on a semi regular basis, so finding someone to do the conversion for me isn't a viable long term solution when I'll only have AutoCAD available to me on an ongoing basis.

I've attached a dxf and fbx of my test file incase that provides some clues to someone who can help.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, I'm feel like I'm in well over my head with this one. 

Daniel

[Anonymous]

I've been using AutoCAD for a lot of years, but finally I've come up against a problem I couldn't find an existing solution to, it makes me wonder if it's something unique / silly I've done.

I am trying to export a 3D model from AutoCAD with materials into an FBX file.  However the file always ends up without the materials, I've broken things down to the simplest test model I can, two boxes, they are each on a separate layer, assigned with different colors and different materials, but when I open them in the FBX converter they have no materials / colors etc, likewise when I bring them into the ASSIMP bases webapp I'm trying to get the model into successfully.

So far I have tried exporting fbx files every set of options for FBXEXPORT, as well as saving as dxf to convert to FBX in the converter, but the FBX converter doesn't seem to cooperate with the dxf files. 

I'm open to other universal file types, but unless I can get AutoCAD to put materials into the FBX file correctly, I don't see any of the other available save / export options as being viable for me, so it's probably going to require another program to do the conversion.  I know I can achieve what I'm after using 3DS Max, but I don't have a license for that and it's something I would need to do on a semi regular basis, so finding someone to do the conversion for me isn't a viable long term solution when I'll only have AutoCAD available to me on an ongoing basis.

I've attached a dxf and fbx of my test file incase that provides some clues to someone who can help.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, I'm feel like I'm in well over my head with this one. 

Daniel

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> but unless I can get AutoCAD to put materials into the FBX file correctly,

Please find a screenshot how 3DS-Max renders the fbx-file:

So you can see, not all is lost when creating an FBX from AutoCAD. I used AutoCAD 2018 for your dxf and set these options:

So on the left side in 3DS we see the texture, on the right side we don't. The difference is the left object has a material with an image as texture mapping, the right object uses bump-mapping based on a procedural texture, not an image texture ... and that's the main difference. Procedural textures are not easy to be converted to other render systems. If material is important then I would recommend not to use procedural textures (same for shaders in other applications as they are in most cases very application specific).

Well, and then there is the FBX converter .. release 2013, so quite old and not really up-to-date. While in 2013 FBX had a good chance to become a standard exchange format for geometry, material, lights, cameras, scenes and animation I guess the time is over and the chance is lost.

I would look for other exchange formats, depending on the other systems you use. But AutoCAD itself, with simple image texture mapping, do export materials.

But I also agree (and be a bit sad about that): every version of AutoCAD handles textures differently, so while this sample works at least for one material well in 2018 it might fail or behave differently in 2013, 2014, 2015, ...

- alfred -

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> but unless I can get AutoCAD to put materials into the FBX file correctly,

Please find a screenshot how 3DS-Max renders the fbx-file:

So you can see, not all is lost when creating an FBX from AutoCAD. I used AutoCAD 2018 for your dxf and set these options:

So on the left side in 3DS we see the texture, on the right side we don't. The difference is the left object has a material with an image as texture mapping, the right object uses bump-mapping based on a procedural texture, not an image texture ... and that's the main difference. Procedural textures are not easy to be converted to other render systems. If material is important then I would recommend not to use procedural textures (same for shaders in other applications as they are in most cases very application specific).

Well, and then there is the FBX converter .. release 2013, so quite old and not really up-to-date. While in 2013 FBX had a good chance to become a standard exchange format for geometry, material, lights, cameras, scenes and animation I guess the time is over and the chance is lost.

I would look for other exchange formats, depending on the other systems you use. But AutoCAD itself, with simple image texture mapping, do export materials.

But I also agree (and be a bit sad about that): every version of AutoCAD handles textures differently, so while this sample works at least for one material well in 2018 it might fail or behave differently in 2013, 2014, 2015, ...

- alfred -