Shade 10 LWO Converter

The LWO Converter converts between LightWave 3D object files (to be referred to as LWO files) and Shade object data files.

With the LWO Converter, direct exchange of object data with LightWave 3D is possible without first converting the object data into another file format.

LWO Exporter Options Dialog

This dialog box appears when you choose LightWave Object... from Export under the File menu.

Choose from No Subdivision / Coarse / Regular / Fine / Very Fine in the Surface Subdivision pull-down menu, specify if you want to allow more than four vertices per face, and click OK.

LWO Importer Options Dialog

Specify if you want to allow more than 4 vertices per face and click OK.

LWO Converter Messages

When you import/export Shade files using the LWO Converter, the Message window shows the import/export progress. In either case, the process is completed when the message “Finished!!!” appears at the bottom.

Message window for LWO import

Message window for LWO export

LWO Converter Specifications

Exported Objects

Surface Attributes

All other parameters, textures, and mappings are not supported.

Exporting Surface Attributes

Exporting a Shade file as an LWO file will specify surface settings for each polygon which is converted based on the Shade object (such as curved surface, closed line object, revolved object, extruded object, sphere, and disk).

In this case, two surfaces are created for each object in Shade. (However, only one surface is created for spheres and curved surfaces.) In LightWave 3D, each surface is assigned a surface number (SN0001, SN0002, and so on). The original part names and object names assigned in the surface attributes of Shade are ignored.

Master Surface settings in Shade are applied as surface settings for each converted polygon.

Importing Surface attributes

Importing LWO files into Shade will display the file names and surface names from LightWave 3D as object names in the Shade browser. Surface attributes are imported with each of the corresponding parameters described in the table shown earlier.

Texture Mapping

Texture mapping is not supported.

Lights

The LWO converter does not support lights. Light settings in Shade are ignored when exported.

Joints

Other joints are not supported.

All joints are treated as parts, and although surface attributes applied to joints are also converted, motion settings have no effect.

As the Skin settings are also supported, models posed by adjusting joint values in Shade can be exported as they are.

Exporting Browser Settings

Boolean Operations

All of the Boolean characters in Shade: “*,” “-,” “=,” “\,” “$,” “&,” “+,” “!,” and “^” are supported.

Objects marked with the “#” character are not exported.

When exporting objects marked with the “*” character, the object which is hollowed needs to be solid (that is, it needs to be closed).

Subdividing Surfaces

Besides the setting in the Surface Subdivision pulldown in the LWO Exporter Options dialog box, it is also possible to control the subdivision level for the export by adding the “<,” “>,” or “@” characters at the beginning of the names of parts or objects in Shade.

When multiple subdivision characters are used for one object, the “@” character has the highest priority. Also, if a character which subdivides an object beyond the upper limit (16 subdivisions between control points) or below the lower limit (2 subdivisions between control points) is used on an object, the resulting object will not be subdivided more than the upper limit or less than the lower limit. The same restrictions on the number of subdivisions are also applied for cases where subdivision characters and the Surface Subdivision pull-down menu are used together.

Note: The Surface Subdivisions setting in Shade’s Rendering Options dialog box does not affect LWO-exported files.

Object files using MetaNURBS

The LWO Converter cannot import object files using MetaNURBS. |