how do I move or save a scene imported as a .vrscene

[BVA]

I like saving all my individual models in the preset lib. When saving a model I imported using the .vrcscene method I lose all the materials.
Also, moving the objects from one scene to another will also lose the materials.

My usual workflow would be to import the file (usually a single model of a chair, TV what ever is needed) So lights and cameras are not important for me.
I will change all static meshes and instances to a normal mesh and merge them together. I like to move all the texture locators to a "texture group" so it is all together and hidden.

till here it works well. thereafter, if I move the item to another scene or save it to preset I lose all my materials. Please let me know where I am going wrong.

[vladimir.nedev]

I will call Item presets the ones that are saved by right clicking on an item in the Item List and selecting Presets -> Save. These have the .lxl extension.
I will cal Material presets the ones that are saved by right clicking on a group mask in the Shader Tree and selecting Save Preset.... These have the .lxp extension.

I like saving all my individual models in the preset lib. When saving a model I imported using the .vrcscene method I lose all the materials.

It seems that the MODO code that saves Item and Material presets doesn't save any Schematic nodes that are not part of a workspace.
The .vrscene import command doesn't add any of the Schematic nodes that it creates to a worspace. That's why they don't get saved and the materials look wrong.

It seems to me this is a MODO bug that The Foundry should fix. I can, as a workaround, create a single Schematic workspace and add all the Schematic nodes in there.

Another thing that I noticed is that Item presets don't save the transformation of the item, and the transformation is where I import the scene scale and orientation.
So you might need to Freeze the item transformation as well.

Also, moving the objects from one scene to another will also lose the materials.

I tried this as well, and in this case, even adding the Schematic nodes to a workspace won't be enough to make MODO move them to the new scene.
So no workaround is possible in this case.
Again this should be fixed by The Foundry.

I will change all static meshes and instances to a normal mesh and merge them together.

This shouldn't be a problem, as long as all meshes that you merge come from one .vrscene.
In theory, it is possible to have 2 .vrscene files that contain the same material tags, but have different materials under these tags.
For this reason, each imported .vrscene creates its own Group Mask in the Shader Tree and sets its item filter to the parent Group Locator of the imported geometry.
This way the materials from different .vrscene files can't interfere with one another.
This is actually what MODO does when you Import one lxo scene into another.

Another workaround for your problem would be to Import the asset from a .lxo scene, instead of using the Preset Library.
So, basically you import the .vrscene, clean-up everything that you don't want (camera, lights, default mesh item, etc...) and save this as an .lxo file.
When you import this .lxo file using File -> Import into your new scene, MODO will correctly load all the Schematic nodes, that are lost when using Item or Material presets.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[vladimir.nedev]

For tomorrow's nightly build ( the one from 2015.12.11 ) I've added the Schematic work-space workaround mentioned. It is done during the .vrscene import process.
I tried to layout the nodes a bit when adding them to the work-space, so they are not stacked on top of each other. Might not be perfect for all node graphs though.
Here is how it looks for the test scene you sent me :



This fixes item and material presets, but doesn't fix moving the geometry from one scene to another. This needs to be reported to and fixed by The Foundry.
You will of course need to re-import the .vrscene to have it fixed.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

Edit : fixed the date of the nightly build.

[BVA]

Thanks Vladimir, I will try this tomorrow. if I can create presets it will work...then I can add it to any scene.

[BVA]

Thanks for fixing this... I tested the presets and it works well

If one day you can make it import quads the scenes will be cleaner, that will be the cherry on top for me. but, as is...this is a huge time saver. importing obj's or other formats always have issues or missing uv channels or something. this is excellent, importing materials and all. Thanks!

[BVA]

unfortunately it does not work with all scenes. I have had a few working now and a few not. I will mail you the scenes I am having issues with.

[vladimir.nedev]

importing obj's or other formats always have issues or missing uv channels or something.

Well the obj format supports only one UV channel, as far as I know. So if you had 2 UV channels in 3ds Max, the second will be lost when converting to obj I guess.

unfortunately it does not work with all scenes. I have had a few working now and a few not. I will mail you the scenes I am having issues with.

I will check what's wrong with the scene you sent me.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[vladimir.nedev]

unfortunately it does not work with all scenes. I have had a few working now and a few not. I will mail you the scenes I am having issues with.

The scene you sent me uses a Composite texture, which is not supported by the import command. Actually I need to first add this texture in V-Ray for MODO.
The Composite texture and resolving missing files are the next two features that I planned to add to the .vrscene import command anyway. I will update the dedicated .vrscene import thread when it is done, but might be after the holidays, sorry.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[BVA]

That make sense... I didn't look in max what texture channels are used, I just exported.
I know obj's only support one uv channel, that is why I like the .vrscene import command. We can get it next year, no rush. this is a nice to have, not a deal breaker.

[vladimir.nedev]

unfortunately it does not work with all scenes. I have had a few working now and a few not. I will mail you the scenes I am having issues with.

The scene you sent me ( divan.max ) should import much better with tomorrow's build (the one from 2016.01.08 ).
The composite textures that it uses, will get imported as the new "V-Ray Layered" texture.
Note that there are still differences in the imported material, as the original uses a Mix Curve for a Falloff texture, and the Mix Curve is not supported yet. Still, the results are much closer.

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev