How do I get matlab to render the texture of a loaded stl object or loaded ase object?

[Root_Canal]

When displaying a 3D object, how do I get matlab to render the texture of a loaded stl object or loaded ase object, just as a stand alone 3D model viewer would? thanks, puzzled.

[Nitin_T]

Hi Root Canal,

Is this a LabVIEW issue. Which version of LabVIEW are you using? I am not completely sure if this is the right forum to post this issue. I would try this forum for more information (if this is not a code you are writing in LabVIEW). Hope this helps.

[Root_Canal]

I'm using labview 8.5 developer suite. When I look on the programming palette, under graphics and sound, there is a 3D picture control palette that contains, among other delights, nifty functions for creating displaying and loading 3D objects from .stl, .ase and vrml files.

3D mesh objects can possess an associated texture, so that when they are rendered each little facet in the mesh gets painted by its unique color, thus producing a 'textured' object that has the 'texture' picture painted onto its surface as prescribed by the texture coordinate property of the object.

I somewhat naively assumed that stl files contained texture coordinate instructions in them as part of the stl file format. I now embarrisingly conclude that stl files have no provision for encoding texture information. 😞

this means that when I was converting 3d object files to .stl format (using seperate software), I was losing all the texture info.

Howver, it would appear likely that ASE files, on the other hand may possibly contain texture information because they are supposedly just the ASCII version of the ever popular binary 3DS format. The difficulty I am having now is that I am not able to find a good description of the ASE file format, and I have no means with which to convert 3D objects files of any type into the ASE format, which no one seems to use.

I could write a custom function to fully interpret a 3D object file and translate that information into labview, but that kind of defeats the purpose of using labview, you know? Also, it seems really, really crazy to think that NI would bother writing this great open gl 3d textured object stuff into labview and not provide any way to read a textured object in using a common format!

I'm still hoping that there is some way to take a popular 3d file format and read a textured object into labview without having to write an interpreter myself. If you could help in any way, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Root

[Nitin_T]

Hi Root,

There are softwares available which convert 3DS formats to ASE. However, there is no specific object in LabVIEW to do the conversion or import a 3DS file. If 3DS Max has ActiveX interface, you can use those objects in the LabVIEW ActiveX containers. Another method is to use OpenGL. Look at the following post on the topic OpenGL and Labview. Hope this helps.

[Root_Canal]

Thanks Nitin T,

I've attempted to translate 3DS to ASE using two separate software packages without success; that is to say, I was unable to read the generated ASE files into labview. What conversion software is recommended?

Thanks again,

Root

[stanthetiger]

Hi Root,

Where you able to generate the ASE file with those software packages? Is LabVIEW returning an error when you try to read the ASE files?

Thanks,
Stanley Hu
National Instruments
Applications Engineering
http://www.ni.com/support