Who in here some time ago posted tips & tutorials about Blender --> 3DXchange --> iClone?
Trying to find as much tutorials, tips and best practices I can about this "workflow".
I have been doing tests with various results and I'd like for others to chime in with their suggestions or experience.

I am a beginner at Blender but my goal is to create meshes in Blender, both single objects or multiple objects (in same export file)
and then via 3DXchange bring them into iClone for texturing or adding PBR, substance or Iray materials.

Points of interest:
- UV mapping and scale in Blender
- Best format (obj, fbx etc.) for exporting mesh/obejct
- Best format  (obj, fbx etc.) for exporting multibody meshes/objects (by multibody mesh I mean that iClone will see them as separate objects that can be individually textured
  in iClone)
- 3DXchange tips, scale, flipping normals, UV settings

Anything you guys can share regarding any of this would be much appreciated! 
Thanks in advance  :-)

/Mike

I have done quite a few in my time, but they're mostly dry material.

- Best format (obj, fbxfbx etc.) for exporting mesh/obejctobejct 

- Best format  (obj, etc.) for exporting multibody meshes/objects (by multibody mesh I mean that iClone will see them as separate objects that can be individually textured

- Best format  (obj, fbxfbx etc.) for exporting multibody meshes/objects (by multibody mesh I mean that iClone will see them as separate objects that can be individually textured

  in iClone)

  in iClone)

Easy one, it is FBX. One suggestion I may add for you is that you should learn how to model in metric. It will make things a lot easier. FBX allows a 1:1 scale from Blender to iClone, obj has to scale down quite a bit. UV 

1 Blender Unit = 1 Meter = 100 CM, which iClone sets as a default. Once you get that going, you do not need to worry about scaling and you can focus on making accurate sized models instead.
I built this building almost scale replica due to this method by finding blueprints and floor plans. You can apply to it to almost anything really. 
 

I'll cover UV mapping when I get back and suggest several tips like naming conventions and saving materials. 





iClone Certified Director and makes miserable Westerns.

Thank you very much Benjamin!
This is great information and I am sure others will find it usefull too.
Looking forward to hearing from you again  :-)

/Mike

My universal advice is to start with very simple geometry and textures to practice the workflow (pipeline).

Before you start creating an epic prop or city, start with a cube and a sphere, maybe an L-shaped object.

GEOMETRY:
- Can you get the geometry into iClone at all?
- Does it come in the correct size and orientation (In addition to what Benjamin said about scale, coordinate axis might be different)
- An individual item (just the cube) and multiple items (cube and sphere)... do you get prop/sub-prop, or one inseparable object?
- Blender tip...  When exporting the OBJ/FBX... pick "Export Selected Items" to avoid extra stuff... that seems to work well for me

TEXTURES (a huge topic):
- Just scribble on it.  Draw an "X" on the top and an "F" on the front... did it show up where you thought once you got to iClone?
- Do you apply the textures before iclone, or "import" texture maps from within iClone?
- Do you want to texture in Blender, or Substance Painter, or 3DCoat, or Photoshop?
- What about Substances?

NOW GET FANCY:
Once you know you can get your data from Point A to Point B, now you can more safely invest time into "real" geometry and "real" textures, with much less risk of throwing away hours or days of effort because you hit a dead end.

Good luck, and remember to have fun.

---

iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

This is something Ive been struggling with recently.  In Sketchup you could group parts of the model together and they would import into 3DX as subprops.  I have not found this ability in Blender and so far am forced to export all the pieces separately.  Am I missing something? 

Im also curious about how the subserf function in Blender and Iclone subdivides a mesh to roundness but 3DX's auto smooth function does not result in an increase of faces.  Why/How does that work?

Thank you Viking! Great checklist for testing the workflow.

I intend to do all texturing or adding of materials in iClone, either via textures,or applying materials.
Therefore it is important the the file i import can consist of several objects (main prop and subprops) and not just one big lump.

Thanks again and I will try to remember to have fun : -)

/Mike

Ok here iis what I tried just now:

1. In blender, delete first cube, create new cube and check the box generate UV's, scale box in Y a bit
2. Select cube, export fbx, selected objects checked
3. Open fbx file in 3DXchange
4. Export selected as iProp
5. Import to iClone
6. Apply brick PBR material (Substance PBR 200 Library)

Below is what the flow above results in:




After that I did step 1-3 and created a subprop, same result.
After that I did step 1-3 and in 3DXchange showed normals and used flip face mode, same result.

Standard stock  iClone materials work I just now noticed, and even materials from the Iray Material 600+ seems to work!
Hmm.

/Mike

Always UV map in Blender for best results. 

The reason why it is doing that is the displacement map, set multipler to 0. 

iClone Certified Director and makes miserable Westerns.

Ah ok thanks. Benjamin, as I am very new at Blender could you you explain a bit further how to do that in this
case with the simple cube?
Btw I did not UV map in 3DXchange during this test. I just created a cube and checked the generate UV while creating the cube in Blender.


/Mike

The auto smooth is really a shader. 

https://www.scratchapixel.com/lessons/3d-basic-rendering/introduction-to-shading/shading-normals

Let me experiment with the Blender and its meshes for subprops tonight. 



iClone Certified Director and makes miserable Westerns.