Hi Andy, the data created from a scan is very different than the data created by someone modeling a mesh made for sub-d smoothing.
Scan data is made up of dense triangle meshes, that type of data is not suitable for use directly as a sub-d control cage. That also means it is not suitable for import directly into Moi using a sub-d conversion method.
There is a process called "retopology" which involves tracing out a simplified sub-d control cage over top of a dense mesh. That's something that can be done in a polygon mesh editing program, MoI does not have any tools for that type of process.
It's a fairly complex process which will take some time to learn about.
If you do a search on that term "retopology" you can find more information about it like here:
https://conceptartempire.com/retopology/
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/meshes/retopology.html
In general scanned mesh data like you have is not directly nor easily brought into a CAD program like MoI. CAD programs are meant to work with larger structured surfaces like with a sphere for example being a single sphere surface, not several thousand little triangles like how the scan data is formed.
There is another type of process called "Reverse engineering" which is similar to retopology but meant to generate CAD surfaces as the output instead of sub-d meshes. It's also a difficult process with a high learning curve as well. There are some links to some programs in previous discussions here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=10284.18
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4013.4
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=2469.3
MoI itself is not designed to be used itself for doing retopology or reverse engineering type work, it does not have the toolset for those areas of work. That's why you're having difficulty trying to use that scan data directly with MoI.
One kind of crude method that you could try though would be to use the OBJ to 3DM wireframe converter which is available at:
https://moi3d.com/wiki/Resources#Obj23dmWireframe_converter
That converter can take an .obj file and convert the polygons in it into wireframe line segments in a 3DM file which can then be loaded into MoI. Then you can use the wireframe line structure as a guide.
- Michael |
