Add to Meshmix Library

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I have some models that I want to add to meshmix library (which consists primitive shape,number,miscellaneous). I copied my model in .obj format to MyParts folder but I don't have .prt file of that Model. It's not updating in the meshmix library. @Anonymous Can you help me ?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

To add parts to a library you can't just copy the .obj to a directory as you need a .prt and a thumbnail image (.png) along with the geometry joined to a bundle with a unique number within all a the three filenames.

Also it's doable to hack such a bundle you should go the proper way:

- Move (or delete if you have copies elsewhere) the obj files you added to the library out of the part directories (these are just garbage).

- Import the obj files in MM.

- Make one object active and hit Ctrl+A (Cmd+A on Mac) to select all faces of its surface.

- This selected run ConvertTo/ConvertToSolidPart or ConvertTo/ConvertToOpenPart

- MM will add the new part to a directory in the /Users/YourAccount/Documents/meshmixer/libraries/parts/user level. If there's only the default MyParts folder it will add the three files to that directory. If you already created custom directories on that level, MM will add the new part to the last used directory.

Now you may move all of the three files manually to a different directory (even on the  /Users/YourAccount/Documents/meshmixer/libraries/parts/default level) via your file browser.

Hint: Parts support face groups too. So (especially for primitives) it might be useful to GenerateFaceGroups before converting it to a part.

[Anonymous]

I'm going through these steps, but the part continues to come in without a preview in the MyParts section.  I've made the part in Fusion, saved it as an STL, imported that STL into MM, selected all faces, and saved as solid part.  The part then shows up in MyParts, as it should, just without the preview version.  What am I missing?

Thanks,

Andrew

[Anonymous]

If there's no preview image in MESHMIX: Is there's a red square instead?

If yes: Please check if there are non latin characters (chars not being used in English language) in the path to .../Documents/meshmixer (maybe in your user account name?).

If no: Check if the bundle of

"someNumber_someNumber_someName.obj" (a part is always converted to obj format)

plus 

"someNumber_someNumber_someName.obj.prt"

plus 

"someNumber_someNumber_someName.obj.png"

exists in ...Documents/meshmixer/libraries/parts/user/MyParts.

Can you open "someNumber_someNumber_someName.obj.png"  in some image viewer?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for helping with this. The parts have a blue box in the preview panes, but no visible preview. When I go the the Library I can see the set of three files for each part, but the png files are very small (a few hundred bytes) and when opened with another application show blank.

[Anonymous]

Hmm, that's a new issue.

When you selected all faces of an object and run ConvertTo/ConvertToOpenPart MM should switch the scene to a light grey background like this:

This is where MM grabs the preview PNG image. Is your object visible in that very state?

---

You might do what MM should do manually:

1. Grab a screenshot of that scene and crop it to show the object only in some image processing application.

2. Resize that cropped image so its bigger dimension is 128 pixels.

(optional: mask and delete the background) 

3. Save as .png and replace "someNumber_someNumber_someName.obj.png" with that result (keeping the filename)

>> Shut down MM and relaunch 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the help. The first route didn’t work, but taking a the screen shot and manually dumping it into the directory did.

Have a great day,
Andrew

[Anonymous]

Worked perfect