Suggestions for retopologising a complex, messy mesh

[tricky]

I have a nasty, complex 3d mesh of a chunk of mountain. It was supplied as a DWG file and looks truly awful in AutoCAD. I'm guessing it came from some sort of 3d scan data. In 3dsmax, nothing is playing ball with it (smoothing/turbosmooth etc). An STL check reveals lots of flipped and duplicate faces.

Anyone know of a good tool/script to retopologise a complex mesh? Sadly we don't have z-brush which may be able to do it.

[Oleg_Budeanu]

I have a nasty, complex 3d mesh of a chunk of mountain. It was supplied as a DWG file and looks truly awful in AutoCAD. I'm guessing it came from some sort of 3d scan data. In 3dsmax, nothing is playing ball with it (smoothing/turbosmooth etc). An STL check reveals lots of flipped and duplicate faces.

Anyone know of a good tool/script to retopologise a complex mesh? Sadly we don't have z-brush which may be able to do it.

Can you show a screenshot of what you have ?
What i've done with such type of things is that i've created a plane on top with enough segments and used conform brush to match the relief. After that some more manual work, relax and etc. But that depends on what you have.

[tricky]

Can you show a screenshot of what you have ?
What i've done with such type of things is that i've created a plane on top with enough segments and used conform brush to match the relief. After that some more manual work, relax and etc. But that depends on what you have.

Sadly, I can't share any info at this stage. There is quite a bit of undercutting and things like that. I may just 'bodge' it in Photoshop.

[ior=0]

Try Autodesk meshmixer - meant for cleaning up 3D scans for 3D printing but has some really amazing mesh and topology tools. Oh and it fast and free.
http://www.meshmixer.com/

[tricky]

Try Autodesk meshmixer - meant for cleaning up 3D scans for 3D printing but has some really amazing mesh and topology tools. Oh and it fast and free.
http://www.meshmixer.com/

I'lltakealook-thanksSimon.

[william.morris]

I find this very useful for imported terrain models. may be of some use:

http://populate3d.com/products/terrain/

[tricky]

I find this very useful for imported terrain models. may be of some use:

http://populate3d.com/products/terrain/

ThanksWilliam-yes - my colleagues have made quite a bit of use of that. A very handy tool though didn't work in this case.

[YoyoBoy]

Try the free program Instant Meshes
https://github.com/wjakob/instant-meshes
I've used it on a couple projects.

[YoyoBoy]

Here's a demonstration video: https://github.com/wjakob/instant-meshes

[YoyoBoy]

Actually, Instant Meshes probably won't work for your situation, now that I've bothered to read your full post :P . But from the sound of it, you'll probably need to dive into Max's re-topology tools.

[Morbid Angel]

zbrush does nice retopo

[Morne]

Try the ProOptomize modifier on it 1st to get the polys down to a more managble level, then take it from there. After optomise, convert to poly then the Popolate terrain Plugin (or conform a plane with plenty segments)

[wxyz]

Try using a cloth simulator?

[Franx]

Never mind, already posted...