[carnaby]

Hi I new here, I've been working on some japanese characters drawn in illustrator 10 as vector. I've imported into Lw9, using plugin epsn the result is O.K. but I would like a more rounded result, sub-patch doesn't work, and bevel doesn't, more points have come in than origination in Ilustrator and the objects seam to behave differently than the samples I've seen of text that has been outlined in Illustrator. I've tried reducing the points manually in Lw, and merging poly's, neither improve the bevelling. Some kind of post-editing is needed but don't know route to take. I've attached one screen shots for reference, any suggestions out there..............

[Mark]

It looks as though you could be suffering from one of two possible issues.


(1) The points on the original object are too close together ... therefore, when you bevel the faces along the edge, the points cross over each other and lead to degenerate polys.

The only real solution here is to manually clean up the shape - I'd advise reducing the point count as much as possible before performing the bevel.


(2) The other possibility is that you're beveling the faces and they're not going as a group. I think it depends on the version of LW that you're using (I've not used it in a few versions, so could be a little out of date in my advice) but I seem to recall that the Bevel tool would treat each individual polygon as a separate entity and therefore apply the shift and inset on a per-poly basis. If you're trying to bevel multiple polygons as a group then you might be better off using the extend or smooth shift tools to extend the group, and then using the stretch/scale tools to reduce them in the respective axes if needed.

[carnaby]

Thanks for prompt reply........I'll get back too you with your second option..........the origination in illustrator had only minimal points.
I couldn't include more jpegs in original post due to upload limit of one, although I've just come up with a solution to that.......something along the lines of a contact sheet approach.............again thanks for prompt reply.
Forward and Sideways

[carnaby]

Mark carried option 2 you mentioned.........(multi-shift) the result is in the right direction but the result is still not right.
Working on it, the origination is fine with minimal points in Illustrator, imported into Lw9 a vast increase which I can't as yet reduce resulting in the additional planes/surfaces. Reducing what points I can manually alters the object from its original shape, and with no bezier curves can't restore. The points obviously result in more polys, merging polys works on straight planes but not on the curves..........any ideas as to how you can re-draw in Lw9 with bezier curves using existing artwork as template, a possible down load maybe.

[Mark]

You should be able to freeze the curves to polygons once the object is imported into LW.

With this done, you could then start modeling in a new layer using the original imported object as a template in a background layer.

This should give you much more control over what curves are laid down and, ultimately over how many points are created once those curves are frozen.

Unfortunately I'm not that familiar with the illustrator import plugin to know if there's any way that the number of curve divisions can be adjusted directly at import...

[Mark]

The other thing to try would be to convert the object into a single polygon (assuming it's going to be just flat-faced) and then extrude it along the Z axis thereby giving depth. You could then bevel the front and rear face which might give slightly better results. (I'm assuming from your previous images that you're doing the extrude and then trying to bevel around the edges instead here, so ignore this if I've got the wrong end of the stick)...

[Mark]

Also, try doing a merge points before beveling.

[carnaby]

Thanks again Mark, I'll take in what you've suggested and apply it to the object..........the illustrator end of things is O.K......and the import is O.K........ if you where looking for a hard edge.......but somehow outlining text/fonts and drawing over a template result in different results when imported into Lw9 as regards the point count...........so I'll go back to the drawing board armed with the options you've suggested and see if I can get that rounded look which is pretty close(ish) with the example jpeg last sent..................
May the force be with you........and I don't mean the Metropolitan................................

[rwhunt99]

just passing through and noticed this post and I thought I might throw my two cents in:

Have you tried importing it as an eps file? I'm not familiar with the plug in you used; but you can try the ESPF loader plugin. It has settings where you can adjust the number of points that will come in with along with some other settings that come in handy. I just checked and in 9.6 the plugin is version 2.1 By using the curve division level you can control how many points are include and it does a pretty good job for the problem you might be having, can't remember if you have to save the file in illustrator in an older file format, been awhile since I used it, I think it has to be in version 9 format or earlier

[carnaby]

Thanks rwhunt99, not so sure about the version of epsn that I'm using but as regards Lightwave its version 9.The screen shot looks similiar to the version I've got, I'll check if there is a newer version which would improve things, the request is pretty simply but as you can see from screen shots the result is way off, tried reducing points to 'rough' in epsn andy even importing each element one by one still no go, I've now moved onto other areas of modeler whilst I await a solution, which already is resulting in a new posting, 'aligning objects to either points or surfaces'
Mark has given some directions which I'm looking into, its a long road this but here for the long haul.

[rwhunt99]

Generally, when I have similar problems, I will take and put it in the background layer and then spline draw over it and go from there, I know it is a hassle, but I get better control and results in the end.

[carnaby]

Funny I was thinking sort of along those lines, haven't got the control over splines yet, that would make it close to working in illustrator at least, I've left the problem with Lightwave technical, its been week and no reply I'll be interested in their reply, could be a long wait though.

[rwhunt99]

I'm not putting those guys down or anything; but, I've been working with Lightwave since version 7.5 and I got to admit my experience with tech support has been disappointing to say the least. I guess because I'm not some big company, I'm low on their priority list. I've really only had success one time with someone and with his help, I figured it out myself.
Most of the time they ask for more information and when I give it to them, I never here from them again. And of course they always say upgrade to the latest version and somehow like magic all your problems will go away. That's usually the last time you here from them. What they don't understand is the latest and great update usually causes the problem you have to start with.
I have a problem right now, I switched over to 64 bit version and it won't recognize my 64bit license, so I have to use my 32 bit license and it is only temporary, so I get this pop up telling me to see Newtek to get the permanent license, it has been a week now and I got one message asking what version am I using (which I told them in the first place)so while it isn't the end of the world, it just irritates me.

The good news is, v9.6 has been for me; the best so far, even all the things that weren't working before are working now with one exception, FiberFX crashes all the time.

Oh well, :beer:

[carnaby]

Your reply is exactly my own sentiments, I don't hold out much of a reply and it will be along the reply you've given.
I'm pretty new to Lightwave although I did start off with 7.5, but had a few false starts along the way, I'm more a writer/scripts, although happy to tackle the problems of 3D having some art background. You will find a few posts in the very near future, I've just modelled a robot head, now looking to assemble the body, the question is as the model progresses from the centre, can you centre new objects to surfaces, tried a few approaches which will be posted.