As a practitioner of the automotive design industry, it should not be difficult to find that in recent years, Blender is used by more and more automotive styling creative designers, and after completing the first version of CAS, most creative designers always hope that we will convert Alias data into the data format supported by Blender software to give them confirmation and feedback on the volume of the three-dimensional model. However, in the past, every time we data transmission, we are accustomed to using FBX, OBJ and other common data formats for transit, the operation steps are cumbersome, not to mention, the use of intermediate formats for data transmission, the software is always prone to errors. In order to help you optimize your data transfer workflow, Seven specially brings you a tool for data transfer between Alias and Blender in this article, as well as its detailed use methods and precautions, please see below!
As you should know, in the Alias software, if you need to implement additional functions, you need to implement it through a plug-in, and the name of the Alias plug-in that we use today is directly: "Export Blender", which is a free plug-in that exports surfaces, shells, curves, layers and shaders in Arias to one-click Blender model file (more blender models can be found on this website https://www.blendermx.com/). Next, let's install and use this plugin together
Open the Alias software, "Open Utilities > Plugin Manager" to open the Plugin Manager and select ExportBlender to enable the plugin. The plug-in will be listed under Autodesk Exchange Apps. If you are using Alias 2021.3 or later, select ExportBlender_2021_3.
When checked, pay attention to selecting the Auto Load option to automatically load the plugin the next time Alias starts. The plugin will be installed under the File > Export menu, rendered with the "Export Blender" option.
3. How to use it?
1. Select the data that needs to be exported to blender software in ALias, note that the types of data supported for export include surfaces, shells, curves, layers and shaders in Alias; Here's a demonstration of a simple basic form;
2. File > under the Export menu, click ExportBlender to save as a .blend file.
Note to confirm that the geometric normals of the surface and shell point to the camera;
You can also choose to open its properties dialog box before exporting; The tolerance can be set in the dialog box, and the default chord height deviation is 0.01 cm;
Alias data can also be merged in the dialog box; The merge option connects objects in a layer into a single mesh. It also combines the double vertices into a single vertex. When using it, be careful to enable this option on models with full rounded corners. If there are sharp edges in the model, deselect to prevent errors.
After the export is completed, you will get a .blend file directly in the directory, which can be opened directly with Blender;
Please note: If the data size exported by the partners according to the above steps is displayed as 0Kb, and the exported data is opened using blender software, if the internal is empty, the next operation is required.
IV. Precautions:
When you follow the above steps to use the plug-in, please try to install the latest version of Blender, Blender download methods are mainly to download the official website and download from the Microsoft Store, you can Baidu.
Among them, for Blender downloaded from non-Microsoft Store channels, when using the Alias export plugin, you also need to add the Blender executable directory to the environment variable PATH (Blender in the Microsoft Store, which will be set by default), the following is the specific setting method steps:
1. Open the Windows interface and search for "environment variables"
Select "Path", click Edit, enter, "New", and then specify the installation path of Blender on each computer, everyone's installation path is different, please find the installation path by yourself;
After the setting is completed, restart alias and Blender software, and then press the previous text for data interaction, Alias one-click export blender data format of the pleasure who knows, there is a need for small partners to quickly go to download and use it ~