[The Dagger]

Hi there,
I've been using PCS2 mostly to convert dae to pof and visceversa, and to set subsystem positions and such.

I'm quite happy with it, but I'm having a little problem:
When going from pof to dae and opening the file in blender, smooth groups get lost somewhere in translation.
I know that PCS2 uses an internal pmf format. I think the problem is there, I've imported dae files to PCS2 (hence converting dae to pmf) and then back to dae (pmf to dae) and smooth groups go bye bye. I guess the problem is somewhere in the pmf to dae conversion (cause pmf to pof works fine).

The result is that if I want to take a pof file, change one vertex in blender and then go back to pof I have to redefine each and every sharp edge manually. That can be quite frustrating...

Am I doing something wrong here ? 

[Droid803]

Well, I use max, and when I import a DAE created by PCS2 in max, it does have smoothing, but if I do anything to it (ie. convert to editable poly), then it loses all smoothing data, and its completely faceted until I apply smoothing again. I don't think it's an issue with PMF->DAE, as if I go PMF->DAE->PMF/POF the smoothing is fine for me, so as long as I don't edit the file with my modelling program.

[BlasterNT]

iirc, blender doesn't have smoothgroups as such, but uses a system of unwelded edges to define sharp edges (same as the POF format, incidentally).  So it might not be importing the smoothgroups from .DAE. 

[The Dagger]

Yes, I know that blender uses the same system as pofs.
But the conversion blender to dae back to blender works fine. So I don't think it's blender's dae importer.
Finally, I've noticed that a cube exported with blender takes 5.05KB and the same cube imported to PCS2 and then exported has only 2.80KB.

[headdie]

Dae probably supports data that POF dosnt, so when you save the model as POF it is discarded.  When you open that POF and save to DAE in PCS2, the data is not there to save so you end up with a smaller file.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

This has been around since forever... Easiest way to work around it: set your model entirely smooth, then add an edgesplit modifier and play with the default angle until it looks good. Takes no more than a minute.

[BlasterNT]

It does seem like something of an issue if you have custom smoothgroups though.  I'm curious as to why it works in max but not blender..

[Droid803]

Well in max, I can see the result of the smoothgroups, but I can't extract the smoothing information or preserve it if I do anything to the meshl except export it back right away...
Wouldn't call that "working".

[BlasterNT]

That's really weird though, that they manage to import... but then don't preserve.