How do I make a 3D-Object of this Xara-Shape?

**Wolfgang** · 31 December 2009, 04:29 PM

Hi everybody,

after an hour of trying, I totally failed in what I thought to be very easy ...

I am trying to do a 3D-rendering of the enclosed shape in Bryce 6 (it will get a texture too in the end)

First I tried it by creating a symetrical lattice in Bryce using this a a height map.
And while it principally worked, the quality is very poor and it also slows Bryce down quite a bit.

So I thought, I "quickly" extrude the shape to a coin-like 3D-Object and use this in Bryce.
Only that I could not manage to do it ... ;-(

I tried importing it into Sketchup to extrude it, but it did not work at all.
I also can't import it into Bryce and extrude it there.

Does anybody know of an easy way ... an Online-Service or a Freeware program perhaps ... to convert such simple shapes (or maybe even text) into 3D-Objects by simply extruding them along the y-axis and saving them in a common format like .obj or .3ds ??

I am totally inexperienced in the 3D-world, I really can do only simple things and I don't have any other programs than Bryce and Sketchup. Well, I have Blender installed, but no idea how it works ...

My first choice would be a helpful hint how/where to do it.
If that's not possible with what I have, maybe somebody could fix me a .obj of it and post it ??

Thanks a lot and Happy New Year !!!

Wolfgang

**masque** · 31 December 2009, 04:55 PM

I know nothing about bryce and I'm not sure what you are trying to do but I've attached .xar file of the object extruded to a flat 3d shape.
If this is not what you are after I apologise. I assumed you wanted the tick on the surface of the object, again if not then I'm sorry.
Derek

**Wolfgang** · 31 December 2009, 05:13 PM

Hi Derek!

thanks for your effort, but what I need is a "real" 3D-object.

Meaning an exported mesh-file (I believe this is the term?) in a format that Bryce can read, like .obj or .3ds

Such things can not be produced inside any Xara-program.

I would need a program that can export one of Xara's vector-formats, then extrude it (give it height) and export it as a 3D-mesh.

I also enclose a newer version of the shape, I checked your example and it seems by adding shaped I had missed some stuff in the background.
This version should be a clean simple shape ...

Wolfgang

**Soquili** · 31 December 2009, 05:18 PM

Hi Wolfgang,

To get a clean path I edited your .xar and removed the purple shapes behind the black shape.

I exported from Xtreme as Adobe Illustrator .ai which I opened in Cinema4D.

The .ai path was rotated to lie in the x-z plane.

An Extrude Nurb was put in the work space and configured to extrude the path 20 meters in the y direction and to put caps on both beginning and end.

The .zip file contains a wavefront object of the result.

**Wolfgang** · 31 December 2009, 05:40 PM

As usual ... Bill to the rescue ;-)

For some strange reason, I can't download the file at the moment.
But by your description I believe it is just what I need, so the immediate crisis is solved ...

Sadly, I don't have Cinema4D or any other of those fancy programs.
I need such things very rarely, I have no idea how to use them and also they are much too expensive for my little fiddling around. I bought Bryce a while back and for my simple tasks it works well enough.

But I really would appreciate a small program or something, sort of a One-Trick-Pony, import shape, extrude, export, presto!

Xara 3D with the ability to export in "real" 3D would be more than perfect!
Anybody knows such a tool ??

Bill, I'll have a glass og champagne real soon and it will be in your honor !

Wolfgang

Edit: I tried downloading in IE and it worked like a charm. For some reason, in Firefox it doesn't ...

**Soquili** · 31 December 2009, 06:13 PM

Glad you were able to download the file Wolfgang.

There was a very inexpensive 3D program that you could have used, but it seems to be no longer available.

**Soquili** · 31 December 2009, 06:24 PM

Truespace 7.6 could be a good alternative, now that it is free.

http://www.caligari.com/downloads.html

The learning curve is steeper than for Cool 3D but Truespace does much more.

You can download the Truespace manual from http://cdn.caligari.com/download/tS76PDF.exe

**Jerr** · 31 December 2009, 06:50 PM

Wolfgang
I beleive you can create what you want in Bryce itself using its primatives
(cylinder, cube) and "boolean" operations. There should be a "Bolean Operations" chapter in your Help Files.

**Burpee** · 31 December 2009, 06:58 PM

What Wolfgang wanted to do in Bryce should have worked, though there would be a slight angle on the sides (as though the part were cast in a die). I too had problems with symmetrical lattices not being 'clean' while other people used them effortlessly. My understanding is that it is a setting within the terrain editor that causes the 'jaggies' and an 'unclean' lattice terrain.

Good that someone helped you Wolfgang but you might still look into asking at Renderosity's Bryce forum about why your lattice is coming out with jaggies (I assume that's the problem).

I'm going to try your figure in my Bryce6 and see what happens.

**Wolfgang** · 31 December 2009, 07:17 PM

Thanks to everybody !!!

Bill, I had a very early version of Truespace a long long time ago (on 3.5" disc actually ;-)) and I remember quite liking it.
So I might very well check out the link you gave me, thanks again !!!

Jerr, while I can actually do a lot with primitives in Bryce, sometimes it's just plain faster to import a ready object.

Burpee, that sounds very interesting and you are right that the jaggies are the main problem. If you figure out which setting is responsible for it, please tell me. I will get into it myself tomorrow and see if I can find it. I already used the "planetary" resolution of 4096 pixels and still could not get it clean ...
If there is such an option, SymLat would be really doable ..

Wolfgang