I have created a simple cylindrical mesh (12 segments per ring with 10 segments in length). In Blender I added a (custom) armature which basically allows the cylinder to be bent. I used Blender's automatic weight mapping to generate the initial weight maps for the bones and then did some touch ups manually.
I then tested the result in Blender using the pose functionality and it all seems to work nicely.

When I exported the results to a Binary FBX and imported into 3DXChange 7.2 PRO, 3DXChange generated a "This program is not responding" situation followed by a crash (no error dialog...just the application closes).
When I exported the results to a ASCII FBX and imported into 3DXChange 7.2 PRO, 3DXChange accepts the import but seems to mess up the mesh at the end of the cylinder slightly. 



I repeated creating the cylinder mesh creation process a second time to ensure that it was not a problem with the mesh or UV mapping but I believe it is not. In both cases the issues seem to become evident only after I imported into 3DXChange. If I import the OBJ mesh directly (skipping the addition of the armature and FBX export) then the mesh loads correctly without any mesh or UV distortion.

I have also tested in iClone and the distortion is not related to a light source (i.e. when I moved the object in iClone with respect to the light source it retained the distortion in the same place).

Has anyone come across similar problems importing FBX into 3DXChange? I know there are issues with DAZ generated FBX files but I was not aware of issues with Blender generated FBX files.

"We often compare ourselves to the U.S. and often they come out the best, but they only have the right to bear arms while we have the right to bare breasts"
Bowser and Blue, Busting The Breast

Have you looked at it from the end?

You can also "un-smooth" it. That would make it easier to see. Type zero (0) into the smoothing box and apply. It'll become faceted.

But it should be importing fine as binary. Do you mind sharing the file?

I was thinking of removing the end caps (since I don't need them for my content anyway) and that would also let me see the issue better. Look at the end of it (in 3DXChange) it seems like one of the mesh points is either dislocated or possibly even just the UV mapping is dislocated but it is a little hard to tell. I have no problems sharing the files since anyone else can re-create the same content in a few minutes from my OP description but the forum post keeps telling me that I am exceeding my quota (even though the RAR file is only 30KB).

I have posted the RAR file (containing both the binary and ASCII FBX) on a free file hosting site. It can be downloaded via:  http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=91757709516161171042


"We often compare ourselves to the U.S. and often they come out the best, but they only have the right to bear arms while we have the right to bare breasts"
Bowser and Blue, Busting The Breast

BTW, the binary version of the FBX imports fine back into Blender. I cannot test the ASCII version since Blender does not support importing ASCII FBX files.

"We often compare ourselves to the U.S. and often they come out the best, but they only have the right to bear arms while we have the right to bare breasts"
Bowser and Blue, Busting The Breast

Simply unselect a Camera while exporting from Blender and you'd be fine with Binary in 3DX7.

The bone names are what's causing the crash. 3DX does not like special characters, like ".", in the names. I took out the dots (bone.001 to bone001) and it then it imported fine.

Hmm, I am not sure...

I only had a go at the binary. Maybe it was re-saving it from Blender then.

The other issue is just a normal not quite right. Just hit the auto-smooth, it'll fix it.

Silly me! It's the camera(s)! 

I always set the export to only mesh and armature. It's so habitual, I didn't even think about it.

Thanks for the info. It is odd that the Binary version does not like the dots but the ASCII version seems to accept them (i.e. 3DXChange does not crash).

Not sure why one of the normal would be not right but the results do support that conclusion. I completely forgot about trying the Smooth function. I use it frequently when I bring an un-smoothed object mesh (i.e. OBJ file) into 3DXChange but I didn't think to use it on the FBX because the object was already smoothed. Much appreciated for your observations and suggestions. Thanks.




"We often compare ourselves to the U.S. and often they come out the best, but they only have the right to bear arms while we have the right to bare breasts"
Bowser and Blue, Busting The Breast