Importing files into LW from PC

[JJF]

Hey there!

-bit of a preface here:
I bought LW 7.5 about a month ago & am going through the manuals and software slowly but surely. I also bought a 1.42 Dual mac for LW & graphics work and am loving it. :D
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I've used PCs primarily for my graphics work until now, and I'm very comfortable with modeling in Carrara & in Caligari trueSpace 6. After using these apps for so long (started with Ray Dream 4 & trueSpace 2), I'm hitting a bit of a learning curve with the Modeler in LW. I'm digging through the manual & also digging through the Inside LW 7 book, but a funny thought hit me tonight & I thought I'd ask all you brilliant geniuses about it!

I purchase LightWave because it has better bones & animation capabilities than either of the 3D progs I just mentioned. It also has a wonderful renderer.

That said, I can model about anything in these other programs extremely quickly --- is it rational to bring in a model I made in these programs into LightWave? If I make a low-poly character and bring it into LW, will the normals be all messed up & will it be sub-division compatible?

Are there any issues with importing .lwo & .obj models into LightWave?

Thanks so much!
-JJ

[jasonwestmas]

I've successfully exported lightwave files into 3DS max using the 3DS file format and then even back into lightwave for texturing. unfourtunately 3DS doesn't preserve the UV files when exporting to Max unless you have a OBJ importer for max. Oh well. I've been told that OBJ model files are even more reliable than 3DS so If you can export your models from cararra as OBJ, lightwave shouldn't have any problems importing them. If the normals aren't right I think UNIFY POLYGONS would fix the problem. Look it up.
JP Westmas:)