VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Wed May 07 2003 - 11:09:12 CDT

Dear Chuan,
  Adding support for Wavefront .obj output is on our work plan, but
we don't have an exporter for that format written yet. If you are in
a hurry, then perhaps the best thing would be to use a commercial
geometry translator package like PolyTrans:
  http://www.okino.com/conv/conv.htm

I've never used PolyTrans personally, but I know its popular among
3-D artists etc for converting model file formats, and it supports
several of the formats VMD generates:
  http://www.okino.com/conv/filefrmt.htm

If you're willing to wait a bit, we might be able to give you a
test version of VMD with a new Wavefront OBJ exporter feature in
a few weeks. Let me know if this interests you. In any case,
there are undoubtably other ways to convert VRML 1/2 files to OBJ,
but I don't have any other great suggestions off the top of my head.

Thanks,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Mon, May 05, 2003 at 02:45:33PM -0500, Chuan Xiao wrote:
> Dear VMD developers,
>
> I have been a user of VMD for six years.
> I really like this software and beauty
> of the images it generates.
>
> Now, I am trying to make some interactive
> movie by using the Macromedia Director MX.
> However, I need to import the 3D object
> into the Director. It uses its own
> Shockwave 3D (.w3d) format which is
> a binary format. However, it provides
> a conversion plugin that can import
> Wavefront 3D format (.obj).
> I searched on-line for several days
> and can not found any good conversion
> program that can convert VRML-1,
> VRML-2 or POVray 3.0 to wavefront .obj
> format.
>
> I have read a VMD newsgroup message
> on Mar 12, 1997 ( quite early )
> when somebody asked whether VMD
> can render a wavefront file.
>
> http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/mailing_list/vmd-l/1479.html
> and
> http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/mailing_list/vmd-l/1480.html
>
> In the thread, the AutoCAD (.dxf)
> format was also mentioned. I have
> found some program can convert
> .dxf to .obj. I am now wondering
> whether anyone have done something
> to make VMD render .obj file.
> I have found the detailed
> wavefront description on-line.
> It is also a ASCII format.
>
> http://netghost.narod.ru/gff/graphics/summary/waveobj.htm
>
> I would be appreciated if anyone
> can give me some help.
>
> River
>
> Purdue University 

-- 
NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu                 Phone: 217-244-3349              
  WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/      Fax: 217-244-6078