Autodesk FBX (.fbx)

The FBX Import dialogue box in Modeler allows you to do the following:

• Load each layer into a separate layer.

• Scale Scene - Typically, you will need to set this to 100.00 if imported from 3DSMax.

FBX Export Options

The exporter for FBX in Modeler supports the following options:

Type - Binary or ASCII

FBX Version - Allows the selection of the FBX Version for export. Currently, LightWave supports up to and including version 2018.

Unity 3D Mode - See Below.

Smoothing Groups - Converts LightWave's normals into smoothing groups.

Scale Scene - Scales the scene/mesh for export.

note

FBX Import in Layout can import FBX assets as a new scene or as an object.

To import an FBX asset into Layout as a scene, go to Load > Import > FBX Import. Select the FBX assets to import

The FBX Importer dialogue will open, and you can choose several options about how to import your FBX scene.

Parameters

Scale Scene - Allows you to scale the scene on import. Typically, a scene from Max will need a scaling factor of 100.0. The default is 100.0 and can be set by the user.

Rotation input - Rotations can be either baked or passed to the motion plugin within Layout.

Import Joints as - An option to import joints as LightWave Bones, LightWave Joints or Maya-style Joints.

FBX Export Options

The exporter for FBX has different options, such as Binary or ASCII types, and allows you to save as different FBX versions.

FBX Filename - This where you set the name of the FBX file and the location where it will be stored.

Export - Choose whether you want to export the Models and Morphs (Blend Shapes) in the scene.

Mesh Type - Cage (Subdivision Off) will export the object without any subdivision applied to it. Subdivision will apply subdivision to the mesh when it is exported.

Re-parent bone hierarchy - when exporting a rig from Layout with the bone hierarchy parented to the mesh, the actual movement of the deformed mesh is double of what it should be. Checking Re-parent bone hierarchy creates a null which acts as the new parent of the bone hierarchy, keeping the mesh in place.

Materials - LightWave's standard Surface channels and image maps can be translated through FBX to appear correctly in a different application. Procedural textures and nodes cannot be translated.

Embedded Textures - Embedded Textures are image maps included in the FBX file directly, rather than as a separate image directory. Embedding will create much larger FBX files, but self-contained.

Smoothing Groups - Converts LightWave's normals into smoothing groups.

Collapse Materials - This switch will collapse surfaces with identical names, but there are some rules: Material names match, and all surface parameters match - the two materials always get merged, independent of the export settings Only Material names match - materials are exported separately, except when the collapse material setting is switched on

Merge UVs - Collapses multiple UV maps into a single map per object.

Unity 3D Mode - See below.

Cameras - Export a scene's cameras in the FBX file.

Lights - Export a scene's lights in the FBX file.

Animations - Simple animations based on movement, rotation or scaling can be exported without baking. Character animation or other animation using IK or dynamics should still be baked, using the next item.

Bake Motion Envelopes - This will only be available if Animations is checked and allows you to set an arbitrary start and end point for baking, in case there are setup frames you do not wish to capture.

Scale Scene - This setting will scale the scene based on the input entered.

note

FBX support is to version 2018 to support the most recent version of Autodesk's MotionBuilder™ at time of writing.

note

Please note that Camera Export from Maya to LightWave is only pixel-perfect when baking the envelopes in Maya since curves are interpreted slightly differently between applications. A command has also been added so that you can script FBX export. The command Generic_ExportFBXCommand has the following arguments:

<SceneFile>
<Version>
<ExportCameras>
<ExportLights>
<ExportMorphs>
<ExportModels>
<ExportAnimations>
<ExportMaterials>
<EmbedMedia>

Re-parent Bone Hierarchy - This option, off by default, lets LightWave deal with Maya scenes where a deformed mesh is not in the same hierarchy as the bones. In LightWave, we usually have bones parented to the mesh directly (that's how LightWave understands what it has to deform using the bones). For a Motion Capture workflow to work properly, this option needs to be off.

warning

The FBX and Collada exporters do not export information associated with plug-ins, including plug-ins shipped with LightWave. In addition, image maps will get passed into the FBX only for Standard or Principled BSDF materials with images in a UV-mapped Color T slot or Image node. The Image Sampler node does not work for export.

note

Unity 3D Mode switch

Both LightWave and Unity use "left-handed" coordinate systems but FBX is right-handed, which means LightWave has to convert to the right-handed coordinate system, and Unity has to convert from the FBX right-handed coordinate system back to its left-handed system. The way to convert from left to right-handed coordinate systems is to invert one axis and change the sign of the rotations on the other axes. That means you have three choices: X, Y or Z. The typical choice is to do it along the Z axis, which LightWave does. Unity uses the X axis, which results in an apparent 180 degree rotation of the scene.

Another oddity on FBX import is the wrong rotation of Lights and Cameras, caused by Unity ignoring any pre-rotation setting stored in the FBX file, so these need to be compensated as well, again only for Unity.

Using this switch means that when you go into Unity and look down the Z axis the imported FBX looks exactly the same as it does inside LightWave.